Brands
PepsiCo spends 15- 20% of its marketing budget on digital: D. Shivakumar
MUMBAI: Emphasizing on the importance of the digital medium, PepsiCo India chairman and CEO D. Shivkumar said that 15 per cent to 20 per cent of all marketing spends of PepsiCo are on digital. He also added that RS 35 lakhs per month should be the bare minimum digital spend by a Pepsi brand while addressing a conference session at 12th Marketing Conclave, organized by the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in Mumbai.
Breaking the maths down further, Shivkumar explianed that if the marketing budget of a brand for the year is about Rs 10 crore then, the brand should spend Rs 35 lakh every month on digital which is about Rs 5 crore for the year.
He also added that if one wants reach and result, then digital will give them the same provided brands are patient for the big return and not invest meagerly for short returns.
Reiterating the importance of mobile, Shivkumar added, “In a nation of 1.2 billion people, millions of people have smart phones and a lot of them have internet. Over 50 percent of search, shopping, travel and YouTube streaming happens on mobile. Not only that, e-commerce has seen the rise of categories which never could have reached the consumers without the online platform. Luxury brands, vegetables, innovators and a lot of categories today reach the consumer through online. “
Advising marketers to understand the pulse of the consumers of both the genders Shivkumar said,“Today the consumer is King, Queen and has a voice.”
Brands
Google nears Nvidia in race for world’s most valuable company
Market cap gap narrows as Google hits $4.65 trillion, Nvidia at $4.86 trillion.
MUMBAI: In the AI gold rush, even the giants are sprinting and Google is suddenly gaining ground. Google is rapidly closing in on Nvidia in the race to become the world’s most valuable publicly listed company, with the gap between the two narrowing sharply amid diverging stock momentum. The tech giant’s market capitalisation has surged to around $4.65 trillion, following a more than 140 per cent rise in its share price over the past year.
That rally has added over $2.6 trillion in value in just 12 months, including nearly $900 billion since January alone. Its stock recently hovered at $381.80, slipping marginally by 0.04 per cent, but still reflecting strong upward momentum.
Nvidia, meanwhile, continues to hold the top spot with a valuation of approximately $4.86 trillion. The chipmaker crossed the $5 trillion milestone in October last year and peaked at $5.27 trillion on 27 April. However, its shares have largely plateaued over the past six months, rising just 0.2 per cent recently to $199.99.
The contrast in trajectories is striking. While Nvidia has seen relatively flat movement, Google has gained over 36 per cent in the same six-month period. Barron’s estimates suggest that if current trends hold, the valuation gap could shrink to as little as $190 million by the time Nvidia reports its first-quarter earnings on 20 May.
Daily momentum paints a similar picture. Nvidia recorded average daily gains of about 0.66 per cent last month, compared to Google’s stronger 1.42 per cent, an edge that could prove decisive in the short term.
Driving Google’s resurgence is its aggressive push into artificial intelligence across its ecosystem, from search and YouTube to cloud computing. The company has already invested $144 billion in capital expenditure over the past two years and plans to deploy a further $490 billion over the next two.
Its cloud division is also gathering pace. Google Cloud reported an order backlog of nearly $220 billion in the latest quarter, with total backlog touching a record $462 billion, around half of which is expected to be realised within two years. The company’s entry into chip sales is also beginning to factor into its growth narrative.
The last time Google briefly topped the S&P 500 by market value was in February 2016, when it edged past Apple for just two days. This time, the stakes and the numbers are far higher.
At the heart of the contest lies a single force: artificial intelligence. As both companies pour billions into infrastructure, chips and platforms, the leaderboard is no longer just about size, it is about who can scale the future faster.
