MAM
Mountain Dew rolls out ‘Dew or Die’ campaign
MUMBAI: Cricket has been dominating our minds thanks to the sixth season of Pepsi Indian Premiere League (IPL). And one campaign that has been catching the eye is Mountain Dew‘s with the catchy title ‘Dew or Die’.
Mountain Dew’s new campaign brings alive these moments through an innovative consumer engagement program, on-air as well as extensive on-line and in-stadia initiatives.
The brand is associated with three teams of Pepsi IPL 6- Rajasthan Royals, Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Daredevils.
The campaign has a special segment on Max’s ‘Extra Innings’ everyday. The segment will be showcasing three ‘Dew or Die’ moments from the previous day’s matches, shortlisted by an expert panel.
The ‘Dew or Die’ campaign has also been launched through the brand’s social media channels. During all matches, cricket fans can select their ‘Dew or Die’ moments in real time and tweet to the Mountain Dew handle (@MountainDewIn) with the hash-tag, #DewOrDie to win match tickets and team merchandise.
PepsiCo India category director-flavours Ruchira Jaitly said, “This IPL season, Mountain Dew is celebrating the ‘Dew or Die’ passion of the players and the fans in a refreshing manner. With a short format, the T20 tournament is all about those defining moments of performance that change the fate of the game and elevate the viewer excitement to a new level. Our campaign is all about these moments that differentiate between victory and defeat, segregate men from the boys.”
“Our campaign is all about consumer engagement including our TV integration that goes beyond traditional advertising. We are thrilled with the initial response to the ‘Dew or Die’ mantra on-line as well as in the stadiums, and look forward to extending it to other formats in equally engaging and innovative manner”, she added.
Mountain Dew had launched the first campaign of this season earlier this year that took the brand’s essence of ‘Darr ke Aage Jeet Hai’ to the level of crushing fear and taking a plunge to come out victorious. The ‘Dew or Die’ campaign takes forward the same philosophy and talks about fighting through all situations and taking the game away from the opposition.
Brands
Zscaler, Airtel launch India AI Cyber Research Centre
New hub to boost cyber resilience and trusted AI use
NEW DELHI: As India’s digital engine roars ahead, so do the risks riding shotgun. In response, Zscaler, Inc. and Bharti Airtel have joined hands to launch the AI and Cyber Threat Research Center – India, a national initiative aimed at strengthening the country’s cyber defences and accelerating responsible AI adoption.
The centre is designed as a multi stakeholder platform that brings together industry, government and academia. Its mission is clear: protect critical sectors such as telecom, banking and energy, shield everyday digital users, and future proof India’s fast expanding online ecosystem.
India has long been a major innovation hub for Zscaler, with a substantial portion of its cyber research talent based here. With this new centre, that footprint evolves into a national collaboration engine. The idea is simple but ambitious, build in India, for India, and help power the country’s journey towards a secure and digitally self reliant future.
The timing is telling. India is building digital systems at population scale, not just enterprise scale. That scale has widened the attack surface dramatically. At the same time, cyber criminals and nation state actors are deploying AI to scan, probe and exploit vulnerabilities in minutes.
Zscaler’s research arm, ThreatLabz India, reports millions of infiltration attempts every month. These include espionage campaigns linked to regional geopolitical tensions, 1.2 million intrusion attempts from 20,000 sources targeting 58 Indian digital entities, and a rise in zero day exploit attempts across multiple industries.
In such an environment, perimeter based security models are struggling to keep pace. The new centre aims to push a shift towards secure by design systems and Zero Trust architecture.
Its strategy rests on four pillars: protect through real time intelligence, remediate by working directly with government agencies, facilitate adoption of AI driven security and Zero Trust frameworks, and build a stronger cybersecurity talent pipeline through specialised certifications.
As founding members, Zscaler and Airtel will combine global threat intelligence with local network visibility. Zscaler will deploy a dedicated India focused research team and draw insights from its Zero Trust Exchange platform, which processes over 500 billion daily transactions worldwide. Airtel, meanwhile, will contribute deep visibility into IoT and mobile traffic, helping detect suspicious activity faster and coordinate response across the ecosystem.
Bharti Airtel executive vice chairman Gopal Vittal, said the partnership extends Airtel’s commitment to safeguarding customers and the nation’s digital fabric. He added that the collaboration would address challenges unique to the Indian market and encourage secure and confident digital engagement.
Zscaler chief executive, chairman and founder Jay Chaudhry, said India’s digital ambition cannot be secured with legacy firewalls and VPNs. He noted that a modern Zero Trust architecture is essential for a hyper connected world and that the new centre would harness the scale of Zscaler’s global security cloud while empowering a new generation of Indian cyber defenders.
Additional members from critical public and private sectors are expected to join the initiative in the coming months, expanding its scope and deepening collaboration.
In a world where threats travel at machine speed, India’s answer is to think faster, collaborate wider and build smarter.
