MAM
AESL launches ‘Kash Nahi Aakash’ campaign across India
Integrated push spans 251 cities, 28 plus states, 13 million reach, 200 million impressions.
MUMBAI: From “what if” to “why not”, Aakash is asking students to swap doubt for direction. Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL) has rolled out a nationwide integrated campaign, “Kash Nahi Aakash”, signalling an aggressive marketing push as it looks to deepen engagement with students across India. Conceptualised and executed by Red Bangle Film Collaborative, the campaign blends storytelling with scale, already clocking a digital reach of 13 million and over 200 million impressions.
At its core, the campaign flips a familiar student mindset. The lingering “kash” (what if) is recast into a more decisive narrative positioning AESL as the bridge between hesitation and informed action.
The rollout is deliberately expansive. It spans digital, print, outdoor, radio, transit media and on-ground activations, aiming to create both visibility and engagement across metros as well as Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets.
A series of six digital films is being distributed across platforms including YouTube, Meta and JioHotstar, while pan-India print insertions and metro train branding across major cities for 30 days amplify recall. Regional depth is being driven through cinema, OOH, print and radio.
But the real engine sits on the ground. AESL’s ‘Career Rath’ activation will travel across 28+ states and 251 cities over 45 days, covering 800 feeder markets. The initiative focuses on career counselling, direct interaction with students and parents, and guidance on academic pathways turning awareness into action.
Kanika Kumar Nijhawan, Senior VP Marketing at AESL, said the campaign reflects a shift towards more informed decision-making among students, while also marking a unified, full-funnel marketing approach.
The strategy signals a clear intent: not just to be seen everywhere, but to be useful everywhere meeting students at every stage, from curiosity to commitment.
AD Agencies
Fevicol releases its last ad campaign by the late Piyush Pandey
The adhesive brand’s last campaign by the late advertising legend Piyush Pandey turns an everyday Indian obsession into a quietly powerful metaphor
MUMBAI: Fevicol has never needed much of a plot. A sticky bond, a wry observation, a truth that every Indian instantly recognises — that has always been enough. “Kursi Pe Nazar,” the brand’s latest television commercial, is no different. And yet it carries a weight that no previous Fevicol film has had to bear: it is the last one its creator, the advertising legend Piyush Pandey, will ever make.
The film, released on Tuesday by Pidilite Industries, fixes its gaze on the kursi — the chair — and what it means in Indian life. Not just as a piece of furniture, but as a currency of ambition, a vessel of authority, and a source of quiet social drama that plays out in every home, office and institution across the country. Who sits in the chair, who waits for it, and who eyes it hungrily from across the room: the film transforms this sharply observed cultural truth into a narrative that is, in the best Fevicol tradition, funny, warm and instantly familiar.
The campaign was Pandey’s idea. He discussed it in detail with the team before his death, but did not live to see it shot. Prasoon Pandey, director at Corcoise Films who helmed the commercial, said the team needed five months to find its footing before they felt ready to shoot. “This was the toughest film ever for all of us,” he said. “It was Piyush’s idea, magical as always.”
The emotional weight of that responsibility was not lost on the team at Ogilvy India, which created the campaign. Kainaz Karmakar and Harshad Rajadhyaksha, group chief creative officers at Ogilvy India, described the process as “a pilgrimage of sorts, on the path that Piyush created not just for Ogilvy, but for our entire profession.”
Sudhanshu Vats, managing director of Pidilite Industries, said the film was rooted in a distinctly Indian insight. “The ‘kursi’ symbolises aspiration, transition, and ambition,” he said. “Piyush Pandey had an extraordinary ability to elevate such everyday observations into iconic storytelling for Fevicol. This film carries that legacy forward.”
That legacy is considerable. Over several decades, Pandey’s partnership with Fevicol produced some of the most beloved advertising in Indian history, building the brand into something rare: a household name that people actively enjoy watching sell to them.
“Kursi Pe Nazar” does not try to be a tribute. It simply tries to be a great Fevicol film. By most measures, it succeeds — which is, in the end, the most fitting send-off of all.
