MAM
Bru mounts ‘real couples’ on billboards to drive brand impact
MUMBAI: Two couples perched on a billboard overseeing the traffic snarl below… sounds absurd? Well, it is purely a demonstration of traditional media cutting through mundane communication, overpowering the hustle and bustle but forcing passers-by to turn around and take notice!
This is Hindustan Lever’s (the name is now Hindustan Unilever subject to shareholder approval) latest campaign for its beverage brand Bru. The tagline reads – “An evening to remember awaits you, buy a pack of Bru to know more.” Urging consumers to purchase a pack of Bru, the enticing message guides them to a code on the pack that could win them the luxury of a chauffer driver car to a five star hotel for quite meal with their family.
Unleashed across multiple cities but geographically restricted to the Northern and Western region, the FMCG major has used a media mix of outdoor, radio and print to promote its coffee category. However the OOH implementation has been used to create a striking “impact.” HLL general manager media services Rahul Welde explained that the rational behind unveiling the campaign was primarily to be “disruptive, gain high noticability and create impact.”
It is clear that such an activity is done to boost the coffee consumption pattern in the North-West region, which demonstrates low coffee drinking habits as compared to the South, which obviously necessitates a greater push by the brand.
Different media like OOH, radio and print has been suitably used to convey this communication across the region, but largely driven by the local effectiveness of that medium, says Mindshare Fulcum GM Himanshu Shekhar.
The campaign has been rolled out in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune and Bangalore. “The outdoor advertisements have been placed to garner high visibility and thus force people to remember the message. It is part of a strategic thrust that is being given to the coffee brand as there is a huge growth opportunity in this category,” says Shekhar.
However, Hedge says that the biggest challenge in this case (which requires actual people to be a part of the hoarding) is to execute the campaign.
When queried about the selective nature of the campaign, both in terms of distribution and media usage, Shekhar opines, “We have deliberately omitted television from the mix as it would amount to wastage and cause a huge spillover because the campaign is region specific and using TV would mean a pan Indian reach. However, the absence of TV challenged us to use the other mediums to create an impact.”
The specialist GroupM agency Fulcrum that services the portfolio of HLL brands had previously carried a pilot campaign of the same nature in Pune, which they claim gave them encouraging results to now carry it forward on a bigger scale.
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.
