AD Agencies
Madame Tussauds in India; WATConsult wins media mandate
MUMBAI: WATConsult, one of India’s leading media agency, which is now a part of the Dentsu Aegis Network, has won the digital and social media mandate of the world-renowned wax museum, Madame Tussauds, which is soon to be launched in the capital city of India.
The agency will handle the entire digital marketing duties including social media presence across multiple platforms, digital media buying and planning.
WATConsult founder and CEO Rajiv Dingra said, “I am excited that they are launching in India; further for WATConsult to be associated with a global brand. We look forward to creating some truly innovative campaigns using technology.”
WATConsult AVP Operations (Delhi) Faisal Haq commented, “We are exploring new ideas for their launch in India and have planned effective campaigns for them.”
Merlin Entertainment India General Manager and Director Anshul Jain said, “Merlin Entertainments group, World’s second largest attractions operator is bringing its flagship brand Madame Tussauds, which is also the number 1 wax attraction in the world, with a rich legacy of over 250 years in Connaught place, Delhi. We are thrilled to announce that the attraction will truly encapsulate the vibrancy and colour of India, and dynamism of Delhi.”
Madame Tussauds head marketing & sales Sabia Gulati added “We are here to deliver a brand new experience, an experience beyond wax. With use of modern technology and immense focus on digital marketing, Madame Tussauds has a modern vibe. Looking forward to deliver lots of immersive experiences at every touchpoint”
Wax figures of megastar Amitabh Bachchan and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar will be amoing the first of 50 to be displayed at the Indian branch of Madame Tussauds museum of wax sculptures at the heritage building of Regal Cinema in New Delhi’s Connaught Place. The first and second floor of the heritage building will be occupied by the 23rd branch of what is one of London’s biggest tourist attractions with 22 branches across the world.
Madame Tussauds showcases local and global celebrities in a ratio of 4:6 but this will be reversed in India where there will be more local celebrities than global ones, according to Jain. The British-based company plans to showcase Indian culture via a “different form of entertainment.”
Wax figures of celebrated personalities from the worlds of sport, music, history, film and TV will be seen at the Madame Tussauds in Delhi. The layout of the exhibits follows these areas or themes. The father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi, Hollywood superstar Jackie Chan, and pop icon Lady Gaga are among the host of personalities whose wax figures will be installed. (Media reports from Mumbai had indicated that Bachchan mistook a picture of his wax figure in newspapers to be a photograph of him.)
The museum can accommodate approximately 500 visitors. Preferring to discard the tag of a ‘museum’, Jain said visitors would be allowed to interact with the life-like figures. Every wax figure on display at a Madame Tussauds takes over four months to complete and costs Rs 15 million. Almost 500 precise body measurements are worked upon by a team of 20 artists to create each wax masterpiece. The maintenance of the Delhi branch will be handed to a trained local team.
Live action, seen in some editions of Madame Tussauds, will take a while to arrive in Delhi. “We are trying to give more life to the surroundings of the figures, across all our global editions,” said Madame Tussauds director of new openings-Europe and emerging markets Marcel Kloos,
AD Agencies
Fevicol releases its last ad campaign by the late Piyush Pandey
The adhesive brand’s last campaign by the late advertising legend Piyush Pandey turns an everyday Indian obsession into a quietly powerful metaphor
MUMBAI: Fevicol has never needed much of a plot. A sticky bond, a wry observation, a truth that every Indian instantly recognises — that has always been enough. “Kursi Pe Nazar,” the brand’s latest television commercial, is no different. And yet it carries a weight that no previous Fevicol film has had to bear: it is the last one its creator, the advertising legend Piyush Pandey, will ever make.
The film, released on Tuesday by Pidilite Industries, fixes its gaze on the kursi — the chair — and what it means in Indian life. Not just as a piece of furniture, but as a currency of ambition, a vessel of authority, and a source of quiet social drama that plays out in every home, office and institution across the country. Who sits in the chair, who waits for it, and who eyes it hungrily from across the room: the film transforms this sharply observed cultural truth into a narrative that is, in the best Fevicol tradition, funny, warm and instantly familiar.
The campaign was Pandey’s idea. He discussed it in detail with the team before his death, but did not live to see it shot. Prasoon Pandey, director at Corcoise Films who helmed the commercial, said the team needed five months to find its footing before they felt ready to shoot. “This was the toughest film ever for all of us,” he said. “It was Piyush’s idea, magical as always.”
The emotional weight of that responsibility was not lost on the team at Ogilvy India, which created the campaign. Kainaz Karmakar and Harshad Rajadhyaksha, group chief creative officers at Ogilvy India, described the process as “a pilgrimage of sorts, on the path that Piyush created not just for Ogilvy, but for our entire profession.”
Sudhanshu Vats, managing director of Pidilite Industries, said the film was rooted in a distinctly Indian insight. “The ‘kursi’ symbolises aspiration, transition, and ambition,” he said. “Piyush Pandey had an extraordinary ability to elevate such everyday observations into iconic storytelling for Fevicol. This film carries that legacy forward.”
That legacy is considerable. Over several decades, Pandey’s partnership with Fevicol produced some of the most beloved advertising in Indian history, building the brand into something rare: a household name that people actively enjoy watching sell to them.
“Kursi Pe Nazar” does not try to be a tribute. It simply tries to be a great Fevicol film. By most measures, it succeeds — which is, in the end, the most fitting send-off of all.
