MAM
Pepsi looks at cashing in on the ICC Champions Trophy fever
MUMBAI: After IPL6, Pepsi has launched its all new social media campaign ‘Road to champions‘ for cricket fans remembering the defining moments in cricket history.
Through this campaign, fans will get an opportunity to take participation in application based in Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Users can create graphics to earn higher points and tweet their favorite movement ‘Oh yes Abhi!‘ which will help them to move ahead on the virtual road to ICC champion‘s trophy.
Inaugurating the campaign is a Pepsi tweet up led by Harsha bhogle. The tweets need to be addressed with #Road2Champions to qualify in the contest. The contest is divided into four phases. For the first four days and at the end of each day the winner will be announced. On Day six, top 20 players from the leader board will be declared, the users have to gain support from their friends and followers for points. On Day seven, Harsha Bhogle will tweet the winner‘s name.
At the end of the contest, the top scorer will get a chance to win a ticket to London and toss the coin at the Finals of the ICC Champions Trophy.
Speaking on the launch, PepsiCo India senior director marketing (Colas, Juices & Hydration) Homi Battiwalla said, “With the launch of the Pepsi ‘Road To Champions‘ we are taking our journey of fan engagement on digital platforms to the next level. We aim to create meaningful conversations around the sport with this activity, by engaging our fans with an opportunity to share their memorable moments on cricket. Pepsi as a brand strongly identifies with cricket in India and this year‘s Pepsi IPL activation cemented that association. The “Pepsi Tweet 20″ and the ‘The Great Indian Catch‘ were immensely popular campaigns that made Pepsi the most talked about brand online during the tournament. Keeping our success trajectory as a benchmark, we are hoping to multiply our engagement with consumers online with this campaign.”
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
