MAM
aha collaborates with Sprite for its new campaign featuring Keerthi Suresh
Mumbai: The leading regional OTT platform, aha has partnered with Sprite in a co-branded partnership that is the first of its kind in Telugu-speaking states. The partnership includes a campaign entitled “Friday Night is perfect with Sprite and aha-100 per cent Telugu Entertainment,” featuring national award-winning actress Keerthi Suresh.
It was launched with the idea of positioning Sprite as the preferred drink during OTT consumption on Fridays. Consumers can buy the Sprite bottles carrying the aha logo and scan the QR code to access 24 hours of free aha’s unlimited entertainment.
This offer is exclusive to consumers in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for a limited period. The ad film runs around how Keerthi is dodging her parents’ plan to attend a wedding just to chill at home watching a movie on aha with Sprite. The central insight in this campaign is how critical the Friday fix is for young consumers these days and how aha and Sprite give you that fix.
Launched with a promise to provide non-stop entertainment, this partnership will be instrumental in allowing the audience in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to access the high-quality local content offered by aha and experience the entertainment in their native language. Viewers can watch over 250 films, including blockbusters like Bheemla Nayak, the DJ Tilluseries, and original shows like Dance Ikon and Unstoppable, for free for the first 24 hours before choosing from the platform’s multiple subscriptions.
Commenting on this partnership, aha CEO Ajit K. Thakur said, “At aha, we have always tried disruptive innovations to reach our consumers and make 100 per cent local entertainment accessible. We are happy to partner with a leading brand like Sprite to bring great consumer delight. Our audience can access unlimited Telugu content for free by the mere scan of a QR code on a sprite bottle. We are confident that with partnerships like this, we can bring 100 per cent Telugu entertainment closer to Telugu-speaking audiences where they are.”
Adding to it, aha head of non-subscription revenue Nitin Burman said, “We are thrilled to be working with the prestigious beverage brand Sprite. Sprite’s presence and strong emphasis on entertainment will make it possible for local consumer markets to function by providing appropriate entertainment at affordable prices. This collaboration will allow aha subscribers in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to watch their favourite films, series, and shows on aha gold from the comfort of their own homes.”
Speaking on this engagement and co-branded campaign with aha, Keerthy Suresh said, “I am excited to be associated with aha Telugu. This aha and Sprite partnership is innovative and helps Telugu audiences consume much more entertainment than before.”
MAM
Publicis Groupe India launches data-led influencer platform ‘Influential’
A new platform, a seasoned hire and an ambitious plan to bring discipline to India’s booming but chaotic creator economy.
MUMBAI: Influencer marketing in India is big, messy and, for most brands, maddeningly hard to measure. Publicis Groupe India has decided it has had enough of that and is moving to fix it.
The advertising giant has launched Influential, its global creator marketing solution, in India, pairing the rollout with the appointment of Diwaker Chandani as managing partner for Influential India. The brief is blunt: drag influencer marketing out of the spray-and-pray era and into one defined by data, accountability and results that actually show up on a balance sheet.
A fragmented market ripe for disruption
India’s influencer ecosystem has scale in abundance. What it lacks is maturity. Measurement standards are inconsistent, creator databases are riddled with duplication, and brands remain dangerously hooked on organic reach, a strategy that flatters vanity metrics while delivering uncertain commercial returns. Chandani, who brings nearly two decades of experience across digital platforms and media, puts it plainly. “The ecosystem has scale, but not maturity,” he says. “By combining data-led audience intelligence with creator ecosystems and media amplification, we aim to build a model that delivers measurable and repeatable outcomes.”
It is a diagnosis that Publicis Groupe is staking serious infrastructure on. Influential is anchored in the group’s Connected Identity system, which maps consumer profiles to enable more precise audience targeting and creator selection. Layered on top are the Captiv8 platform and Influential’s global creator network, giving brands the tools to plan, activate and measure campaigns across the full funnel, from awareness down to commerce, rather than treating each influencer post as a standalone act of faith.
The hire
Chandani is not an unfamiliar face in the industry. He has held senior roles at Meta, Zee Entertainment and the Network18 Group, working across creator partnerships and content-led media strategies. His mandate at Influential India is to integrate data, creators, media and commerce into a unified framework and to build the team and client roster to scale it.
Anupriya Acharya, chief executive of Publicis Groupe South Asia, frames the launch as a response to a market that has grown faster than its own infrastructure. “The channel has reached scale, but lacks a unified, data-led foundation,” she says. “With Influential, we are moving from a creator-first approach to a cohort-first, identity-led model powered by Connected Identity.” The integration of creators, media and commerce, she adds, will enable more precise and scalable outcomes for brands.
Why now
The timing is deliberate. Influencer marketing in India is expanding rapidly, fuelled by cheap data, a vast and young social-media audience, and brands increasingly willing to redirect budgets away from traditional media. But growth without governance has created a market where consistent returns remain elusive and accountability is largely aspirational. Publicis Groupe is betting that the industry’s next phase belongs not to whoever has the biggest roster of creators, but to whoever can prove, with hard numbers, that those creators are actually shifting product.
The old model of picking a popular face, posting a reel and hoping for the best is running out of road. Influential is Publicis Groupe India’s wager that the future belongs to the spreadsheet as much as the selfie.
