MAM
Will Pepsi blast leave rivals Blue?
MUMBAI: Beverage conglomerate PepsiCo has turned blue for next months cricket World Cup in South Africa and must be hoping that the move will leave the competition feeling blue in its wake. PepsiCo has launched the limited edition World Cup-Special Pepsi Blue in Mumbai. It will also launch a music video, album as well as a variety of promotions.
Pepsi is the third largest brand in the country in terms of consumer spend. A company release claims Pepsi Blue is a whole new beverage experience – an icy blue coloured cola with a refreshing taste.
Pepsi Blue is going to be backed by a multimedia communication package, which will be splashed across the telly, print media, radio, Internet, outdoor, point of sale merchandise and on-ground consumer promotions.
PepsiCo will soon launch two TV Commercials (TVCs) of 30-second duration each, which will communicate the “refreshingly cool” brand profile of Pepsi Blue. The campaign revolves around the idea that Blue is the colour of the Indian cricket team, Blue is the colour of the Indian fan’s passion and we all root for our Men in Blue!
Pepsi will also add a musical note to its World Cup campaigns with a specially composed, peppy number by pop crooner Adnan Sami. The music video of the three-minute song, titled O Ye O, is a record of sorts as it brings together a host of film stars, popular cricketers and common cricket fans.
The video, which is being premiered on Max, features Pepsi brand ambassadors including the Big B, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid .The video will also be the lead song in a music album, being released jointly by Pepsi and Sony Music. Pepsi is set to unleash an innovative consumer campaign during the World Cup, whereby fans can avail of the music album at a special discount.
Syed Usman of Pepsi’s ad agency J Walter Thompson has directed the video. The song is written by Soumitra Karnik, a senior creative director with the agency and set to tune by Adnan. The video, produced by Arjun Jadeja, has been shot on location in Delhi and Mumbai. The video will be subsequently aired on all music channels during the World Cup.
Pepsi also unveiled a promotion the Pepsi Predikta Jackpot! Pepsi will take the four finalists of the promotion for the World Cup Finals, who will then play for the Predikta Jackpot live on TV. The promotion will be telecast across the Sony network till the end of the World Cup. Cricket lovers can earn up to 500 bonus points by answering questions, which will be found only behind Pepsi labels and under Pepsi crowns. Consumers can participate through SMS or landlines. The highest scorer of Pepsi questions will get a direct entry into the final round.
In addition to all this Pepsi is set to launch the Sher Ke Mooh Mein Haath Dalo promo. Yet another consumer campaign Pepsi Piyega Toh Shikari Ban Jayega contest will also offer similar merchandise to guzzlers. Pepsi will put up outdoor and attractive shop signages and merchandising based on the World Cup theme across 2500 outlets across the country aimed at encouraging consumer participation in the promotions and contests. The roads in the cities and towns will also witness the specially designed Pepsi World Cup trucks, which will further add to the excitement.
Brands
Estée Lauder to shed 10,000 jobs as new boss bets on digital shift
The cosmetics giant raises its profit outlook but stays silent on a possible merger with Spain’s Puig, as job cuts deepen and a three-year sales slump weighs on the turnaround
NEW YORK: Stéphane de La Faverie is not done cutting. Estée Lauder announced on Friday that it plans to eliminate as many as 3,000 additional jobs, taking its total redundancy programme to as many as 10,000 roles, up from a previous target of 7,000 announced a year ago. The company, which owns La Mer, The Ordinary, Tom Ford, and Aveda, employs roughly 57,000 people worldwide. The mathematics of what is now being contemplated is stark.
The fresh round of cuts is expected to generate a further $200 million in savings, bringing the total annual savings from the programme to as much as $1.2 billion before taxes. That money, De La Faverie has made clear, will be ploughed back into the turnaround.
A CEO in a hurry
De La Faverie, who took the helm in January 2025, inherited a company that had endured three consecutive years of annual sales declines. His response has been to move fast and cut deep. A significant portion of the latest redundancies reflects his push to reduce headcount at US department stores, long a cornerstone of Estée Lauder’s distribution model but now a channel in structural decline. In their place, he is accelerating the shift toward faster-growing online platforms, including Amazon.com and TikTok Shop, a pivot that is reshaping not just where Estée Lauder sells but how it thinks about its customers.
The numbers are moving in the right direction
Despite the pain, there are signs the medicine is working. Estée Lauder raised its profit outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, guiding for adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.35 to $2.45, above analyst estimates and a notable step up from the $2.05 to $2.25 range it had guided for in February. Organic net sales growth is expected to come in at 3 per cent, the company said, at the high end of the range it set out in February.
The share price tells a mixed story. After De La Faverie took charge, the stock surged nearly 60 per cent, buoyed by investor optimism that a longtime company insider could finally arrest the decline. But 2026 has been rougher: the shares have fallen 27 per cent this year, weighed down by disappointing February results and the overhang of unresolved merger talks with Spanish beauty giant Puig Brands SA. The company gave no additional details about those discussions on Friday, leaving the market to guess.
Silence on Puig
The proposed tie-up with Puig remains the most consequential unknown hanging over Estée Lauder. A deal with the Barcelona-based group, which owns brands including Carolina Herrera and Rabanne, would reshape the global luxury beauty landscape. But with nothing new to say and a turnaround still very much in progress, De La Faverie is asking investors to trust the process.
Three years of sales declines, 10,000 job cuts, and a merger that may or may not happen. At Estée Lauder, the overhaul has barely started.
