Brands
GoDaddy launches new campaign aimed at giving ‘visibility’ to SMEs
Mumbai: GoDaddy, the company that empowers everyday entrepreneurs, today launched a new India marketing campaign focusing on the benefits of creating an online presence to make business ‘visible’ around the globe, irrespective of the size and the location. The campaign strives to inspire and empower more women entrepreneurs to go online and make opportunities more inclusive.
In the new campaign, the female protagonist is seen exploring a busy, vibrant market street in Jaipur. Disappointed with the negligible state of the small businesses, she steps forward to educate owners towards growing their business by creating a website. Otherwise ‘invisible’ to millions while being offline only, the campaign TVC focuses on the need of taking businesses online, highlighting how GoDaddy is a one-stop solution and a leading provider of online tools and solutions for small businesses. The campaign TVC further reiterates GoDaddy’s mission to give our customers the tools, insights and the people to transform their ideas and personal initiative into success.
The vibrant, light-hearted, and quirky ad has been shot in a Tier-3 town local market set up, resonating with small & medium businesses. Developed and conceptualised by Mumbai-based creative agency Tilt Brand Solutions, the campaign has been rolled out in seven local Indian languages including Hindi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu, and will be showcased across media platforms such as TV, FOS, display, OLV, social & PR.
Speaking on the India marketing campaign, GoDaddy India VP & MD Nikhil Arora said, “At GoDaddy, we aim to bring small, micro, and medium businesses across India, online. With rapid digitization, we encourage business owners to think about new avenues to be seen by consumers as they build a website and create an online presence for their business. The campaign is our way of raising awareness with India’s SMBs and MSMEs to make the most out of having an online presence. We want to encourage women entrepreneurs to take the plunge with entrepreneurship and make an impact in their local area and around the world. At GoDaddy we aim to uplift the spirits of entrepreneurship and help them to create, grow and manage their businesses with the help of our online tools and services.”
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.
