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Star India outshines with 14 metals at the GoaFest 2014
MUMBAI: STAR India emerged as the undisputed winner at the ongoing GoaFest 2014 in the Broadcaster Abbys, a category that recognizes excellence in creative work from broadcasters. The leading media and entertainment conglomerate bagged a total of 14 metals, including three out of the five Gold metals awarded to broadcasters at the festival – the highest for any broadcaster, both in terms of the total number of metals and the number of Gold metals won.
Commenting on the win, Gayatri Yadav, Executive Vice President, Marketing and Communications, STAR India, said “This is a proud achievement for the Marketing and Communication team at STAR India. The awards are a testament to our path-breaking content and innovation in marketing that have made STAR a truly inspiring brand in the media industry.”
STAR India bagged a Gold Metal for Saath Hain Hum Uttarakhand, a seven-hour live marathon event simulcast across the Star network to foster relief for the flood-ravaged state of Uttarakhand, in the Best TV Program for Cause Related Marketing sub-category. Two more Gold Metals that the network won were for Star Sports’ ground-breaking Refresh and ICC Women’s World Cup 2013, in the Best Launch of a TV Channel and the Best TV Sports Channel Promo sub-categories, respectively. The network also won multiple Silver and Bronze metals for various other innovative marketing efforts.
The Goafest is a South Asian advertising festival for those who believe in the power of Advertising. It is a highly prestigious event for people in the fields of Marketing, Advertising, Media and allied Services, giving professionals the opportunity to connect and learn from the various seminars and contemporaries and a chance to celebrate advertising.
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How beverage brands are rethinking marketing strategies for weather-led demand
SLMG Beverages Private Limited joint managing director Paritosh Ladhani.
MUMBAI: As Sun climbs up the hemisphere, summer has clearly arrived in India. On 7th March 2026 Delhi registered a maximum temperature of 35.7 degrees Celsius which is the highest reading logged for the first week of March in the last 50 years. Climate Change has been prolonging summers by causing earlier spring warming, delayed autumn cooling, and more frequent, intense heatwaves that persist for much longer periods.
In an endeavor to stay ahead of the curve, Beverage Brands are shifting from fixed seasonal marketing tactics to weather responsive strategies backed by data-driven insights, flexible campaigns, and diversified portfolios to capitalize on unruly temperature spike. In 2025, India’s beverage market experienced a massive, heat-triggered surge with carbonated drinks and ice cream volumes spiking 20–25 per cent in the March quarter itself on the back of hottest February in 125 years.
Clearly campaign timelines are being advanced to reap the seasonal shift in line with the jumping mercury. In the Indian context where Cricket is nothing short of religion, big ticket tournaments like T20 World Cup, Indian Premier League, ICC Champions Trophy provide plethora of opportunities to calibrate marketing campaign designs and associated business strategies to associate refreshment with community viewing both outdoor and indoors. A new trend that has taken the world by storm is that of booking the theatres for bonhomie viewing. It has also opened avenues for joint marketing initiatives by the Multiplex and Beverage Brands.
Price disrupting small potions and value packs tend to drive significantly higher volumes owing to volumetric flexibility and affordability to the consumers. Ramping up of cold supply chains for transit and at point of sales (POS) are strategic business imperatives that again define success of beverage brands.
In the era of AI and Big Data it is easy to track and calibrate messaging based on daily or weekly weather changes. Geo-targeted digital advertisement campaigns are also being run during heatwaves to make the business and marketing imperative very contextual. These pre-emptive strategies fueled by real time data and technology immensely help beverage brands to adjust supplies to the areas that are likely to generate more demand.
Novelty brings premium to the FMCG Sector and Beverage Brands are no exception. Newer SKUs build up excitement in consumers besides imparting the scope of frequent revitalization of brand marketing campaigns. Ensuring continuum of supply chain across material suppliers, logistics providers, distributors/wholesalers, and retailers become a strategic business strategy imperative for beverage brands during peak season.
Carbonated drinks among other beverages including packaged mineral water sell like hotcakes in summers, a period where holiday season gives big impetus to sales volumes. Tying up with air carriers railways, amusement parks, malls, convention centers for inclusion in the onboard beverage deck also holds a big window of opportunity for brands.
Limited period diversification into special summer categories entailing juices and functional beverages to capture the broader hydration market is also a business cum marketing imperative that beverage brands eye on. This also brings to fore the responsible side of the brand placing the compass on wellness of consumers.
Seasons are cyclic, hence summers are inevitable. Further, due to anthropogenic climate change, summers surely have been staging prolonged appearance that keep bringing beverage brands on to their drawing boards frequently for strategizing business and marketing campaigns that are agile, refreshment-focused, visually dominant in retail, affordable, and optimally promoted through seasonal campaigns in above and below the line media.
