Brands
Adidas reveals official match ball for UEFA Champions League knockout stages
MUMBAI: Global sportswear giant Adidas reveals Finale Istanbul, the Official Match Ball for the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League knockout stages in India.
Drawing its inspiration from the host city, where East and West merge, the intricate design features a hand-drawn artistic interpretation of a map of Istanbul, which uniquely bridges the two continents of Europe and Asia.
The 2019/20 UEFA Champions League Final takes place in Istanbul on 30 May 2020. The Adidas Finale Istanbul Pro will be available to purchase online, in Adidas retail stores and selected retailers from today.
The Official Match Ball of the final has been designed to highlight the famous stars of the UEFA Champions League. Nodding to Istanbul’s deep culture of art, the carefully placed white stars contrast to a hand-printed artwork of a map of the city which can be followed and adorns the rest of the ball.
Fusing art and football, Adidas designers looked to more traditional methods to bring the map pattern to life. The ball features the latest Adidas performance technology to help ensure Europe’s top can perform at their best during the UEFA Champions League Final.
Offering the same high-performance structure and panels as recent iterations of the iconic star ball, an outer texture coating gives a secure grip and complete control while the panels are thermally bonded, with more sustainable glue, to provide a seamless surface for an improved first touch.
Equally distributed colour and the star formation are arranged across the ball to ensure peak performance and enhance aerobatic stability.
Celebrating the thrill and action of football, Adidas also announced an interesting initiative for fans across the country. The buyer of the Adidas Finale Istanbul Pro ball gets a chance to enter an exciting raffle draw. The lucky winner of the draw will stand a chance to win an all-expense-paid trip to watch the UEFA Champions League final in Istanbul along with his/her partner.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
