MAM
Star Plus to focus on digital, on-ground to promote MasterChef
MUMBAI: As it gears up to launch the latest season of Masterchef India, the leading Hindi GEC Star Plus has rolled out an innovative marketing campaign to promote the show.
The core audience of ‘MasterChef Kitchen Ke Superstar‘ being the younger females across the Hindi-speaking markets, Star Plus is looking to reach out to these consumers through the critical touchpoints of retail outlets.
With a focus on on-ground activations and digital, the channel has associated with 60 Big Bazaar stores across the critical markets of Mumbai, Delhi, UP and Gujarat wherein along with the cash counter branding, some of the staff will be seen wearing branded Chef Hats and Aprons saluting the spirit of all the women consumers who are the Superstars of their own kitchens and reinforcing the tune-in messaging of launch- 11th March, Monday to Friday at 8 PM.
Star Plus has also tied up with the Mumbai Dabbawala association. On the day of the on-air launch of ‘MasterChef Kitchen Ke Superstar‘, every individual dabba will carry a tag announcing that this delicious meal has been prepared for you by your own MasterChef. The channel has also branded all the dabba-delivery crates to reinforce the connect and gain greater visibility.
The channel is promoting the show across the network and also on around 30 channels outside Star‘s own network. Star Plus VP-marketing Nikhil Madhok told Indiantelevision.com that this will be the deepest and longest ever plan on television. “We are also doing lots of things on the digital medium. There are applications that have been launched plus there is an opportunity where the fans can interact with the contestants and chat with them while the show is on,” he said.
Madhok said that spend on digital is around 20 per cent of the overall marketing spend on the show.
On ground, the channel is visiting around 10 cities where it will be organising few cooking contests and will be crowning one winner from each city as a Masterchef. For example the winner from Lucknow will be titled as ‘Lucknow ka Masterchef‘. These winners will also get an opportunity to showcase their talent on a special episode of the show where their dishes will be tasted by the chefs and judges on the show.
However, the channel will be using radio just as a reminder medium.
On the occasion of International Women‘s Day on 8 March, Star Plus through MasterChef has associated with Best buses in Mumbai by acknowledging the contribution of the woman to her home with a customised messaging on the reserved seats for women.
AD Agencies
Omnicom Advertising Asia assembles new regional leadership team
The group is betting that a blend of creative talent, cultural intelligence and AI-driven data can help brands stay relevant in the world’s most complex marketing region.
Asia has long been the market that humbles the overconfident. Omnicom Advertising Asia is determined not to be among them.
The group announced on Monday the formation of a new regional leadership team of six senior executives, reporting to Sean Donovan, president of OA Asia. The structure is designed to help brands navigate a fragmented, fast-moving consumer landscape and build what Donovan calls “long-term cultural relevance” — the kind that survives a news cycle, a platform shift and an algorithm update.
The team
The six appointments span creativity, innovation, strategy, intelligence, business development and marketing, covering the full arc from brand idea to commercial outcome.
Peter Khoury takes on the role of chief creative officer for OA Asia, Melissa Daniels becomes chief innovation officer, and Emmanuel Sabbagh steps up as chief strategy officer. All three take on expanded regional responsibilities while retaining their leadership positions at TBWA\Singapore.
Andreas Krasser broadens his remit to chief client partner for OA Asia, continuing simultaneously as chief executive of OA Hong Kong. Ellie Brocklehurst joins as chief growth and marketing officer, drawing on her previous stint as chief marketing officer for Asia at TBWA. Rounding out the team is S. Subramanyeswar, known in the industry as Subbu, who was appointed chief knowledge officer for OA Asia alongside his role as chief strategy officer of OA India, a position that followed the close of Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG.The pitch
The team will work in close collaboration with leadership across TBWA, McCann and BBDO throughout the OA Asia network, with a brief to cut through the noise of today’s consumer landscape and deliver creative solutions that, in the group’s framing, prove short-term performance while building long-term brand health.
Underpinning the new structure is OMNI, Omnicom’s AI-driven marketing intelligence platform. The platform draws cultural intelligence from across the group’s agency brands, with the stated aim of ensuring that data is not merely accurate but grounded in context — reflecting how people actually think, feel and behave, rather than how a spreadsheet might prefer them to.
Donovan frames the proposition in straightforward terms. “Asia is one of the most complex regions for marketers, but the opportunity here is immense,” he says. “We’ve built a team that simplifies the landscape, combining top talent with an Asia-first, future-focused mindset, and unprecedented access to resources.” The model, he adds, is designed to be plug-and-play, responding to client needs in collaboration with agencies and markets across the region. “More than expertise, it’s about giving clients the perspective, ambition and access to think beyond the next campaign.”
The new structure also strengthens connections across the broader Omnicom family, including its media, production and PR operations — a post-acquisition suite of capabilities that the group is evidently keen to deploy as a single, coherent offering.
In a region where consumer attention is fractured across dozens of platforms, languages and cultures, the real test will not be the org chart. It will be whether six smart people with the right tools can actually make brands matter. Omnicom is putting its money on yes.
