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Cola wars: PepsiCo ends 30-year partnership with WPP, as Coca-Cola signs up the agency
Mumbai: The biggest rivalry in advertising history is in full view once again as the two beverage giants PepsiCo and The Coca-Cola Company engage in an indirect battle over their common global partner. PepsiCo India has brought its over three decades of association with WPP to a grinding halt after the latter inked a comprehensive deal with Coca-Cola. The beverage major is set to call India’s leading agencies for media and creative pitches. And the reason behind it is anybody’s guess.
“PepsiCo India follows a re-pitching cycle every few years for agencies and partners working on our brand mandates. This year Wunderman Thompson and Mindshare will not be participating in the process,” stated a PepsiCo India Spokesperson to IndianTelevision, while adding, “We value our partnership and thank them for what we have achieved together over the years.”
WPP Group-owned Mindshare and Wunderman Thompson were the company’s media and creative agency on record, respectively.
Last year in November, Coca-Cola named WPP as its global marketing network partner. As a part of this alliance, WPP will play a major role in Coca-Cola, executing a new marketing model that is built to drive long-term growth for the entire company’s portfolio of brands across more than 200 countries and territories.
The news of this association evidently has not gone down well with Pepsico, as WPP was handling the latter’s business in markets like India. India is among the few countries where WPP Group agencies represent PepsiCo. Rumours have been strife since then that PepsiCo might change its agency soon as no brand wants to work with agencies with contending brands.
As the two largest soft-drink brands, Coca-Cola and Pepsi have long been arc rivals. Pepsico and Coca-Cola are two major advertisers in the country and the beverage makers have jostled for consumer attention with pointed ads featuring major Bollywood stars as brand ambassadors over the last decade.
According to reports, PepsiCo has been devoting between $2.3 and $ three billion to advertising and promotion of its products annually. Over the last six years, Coca-Cola has spent an average of $ four billion a year on advertising worldwide.
MAM
Bharat Vedica launches ‘From Beehives to Bottle’ campaign
Honey brand uses honeycomb-inspired hexagon bottle and reels to celebrate nature’s craft.
MUMBAI: Bharat Vedica just bottled nature’s buzz because when bees build the perfect shape, the smartest thing a brand can do is copy the homework. Bharat Vedica, the wellness-focused organic brand under A Patel Venture, has rolled out a digital-first campaign titled ‘From Beehives to Bottle’ that traces honey’s journey from blossom to breakfast table. The storytelling series of Instagram reels follows bees collecting nectar, the transformation inside the hive, and the final bottling turning a quiet natural process into engaging short-form content.
At the centre of the narrative is the brand’s new hexagon-shaped honey bottle, directly inspired by the honeycomb’s geometry widely regarded as one of nature’s most efficient designs. The shape serves as both packaging innovation and visual metaphor for precision, balance and harmony in every drop.
Nutritionist Kiran Kukreja (Nutty Over Nutrition) appears in the campaign content, explaining raw honey’s everyday benefits and its role in modern wellness routines.
The reels have driven strong performance on Instagram, with the brand recording a high double-digit month-on-month increase in follower acquisition and impressions reaching multiples of the existing base significantly boosting top-of-funnel visibility and discovery among premium consumers.
Bharat Vedica MD Arvind Patel said, “Bees build honeycombs with remarkable precision, creating a structure that represents efficiency, balance, and harmony. The hexagon bottle draws inspiration from that natural design, translating the beauty of the hive into something people can experience in their everyday kitchens.”
The refreshed raw honey range includes Ajwain Flower Honey, Rose Petal Honey, Forest Honey and Saffron (Kesar) Honey, available in 250 g and 500 g sizes. It is currently sold on the brand’s website and Amazon, with wider retail availability planned soon.
In a wellness world full of loud promises, Bharat Vedica quietly lets the bees do the talking proving that sometimes the sweetest story isn’t invented in a boardroom, it’s already humming away in a hive.
