MAM
Xaxis, M’Six and Lemma join hands to drive sales growth for brands through programmatic DOOH campaign
MUMBAI: Xaxis, the outcome media company and GroupM’s advanced programmatic arm, in partnership with m/SIX and Lemma recently announced the results of their pioneering digital out-of-home (DOOH) campaign for Veeba Sauces. The campaign showcased a new real-time audience targeting and measurement capabilities for out-of-home advertising and helped increase in-store sales by more than 15 per cent.
Identifying buying patterns among consumers for Veeba Sauces, Xaxis designed the campaign to target the upper-middle-class population in Delhi. With a host of competing brands, standing out in stores was also a challenge. To reach out to their target audience, customers were targeted at three key touchpoints at the supermarket: before they entered the store, at the store and at the billing counter. Using Xaxis’ proprietary platform intelligence the campaign gained richer insights and analysis of all audience dynamics, enabling attribution of the effects of the contextualized content strategy as well as its impact on brand engagement and in-store behaviour.
As consumer attention becomes increasingly elusive, Xaxis’ DOOH capabilities, allowed Veeba Sauces to build connections with target audiences in real-time and understand the direct impact of DOOH on the customer journey. By leveraging DOOH, brands can enjoy the benefits of digital display advertising, including data-driven targeting, measurement, and live creative updates, in localized, high-impact media sites. By 2021, digital is expected to account for 45 per cent of all outdoor media spend (WARC Global Ad Trends report, November 2018).
Veeba Food Services brand manager Ankit Sharma commented: “Xaxis presented us an opportunity to deliver programmatically digital out of home. With our fantastic product line-up, being able to display our message in target stores supported by mobile activity, remarketing to users who were within 20 meters of a DOOH location, was a smart approach. The campaign helped increase sales by 15% across the target 24/7 stores in Delhi. Moving forward, it is a channel we will be considering within our media mix.”
m/SIX India senior vice president Saket Sinha said: "M/SIX has always believed in outcome-based advertising and that connecting with walk-in consumers at a store is a critical part of the marketing funnel. By enabling brands to tap into the benefits of programmatic advertising, we were able to provide Veeba Sauces with a unique medium to reach consumers with eye-level messaging and cover an area far greater than what was possible through traditional OOH.”
Xaxis India country lead Bharat Khatri added: “Out-of-home advertising has always been an effective media channel to drive awareness for brands and now combined with programmatic technology this medium is more automated and measurable than ever before. We saw all the benefits of programmatic DOOH come to light, the ability to communicate in real-time through networked digital screens, Wi-Fi and mobile broadband to deliver contextually relevant messaging, and drive more immediate consideration, trial, and purchase. This is a compelling reason for brands to invest in DOOH.”
Lemma founder and CEO Gulab Patil said: “Mapping audience parameters and behavioural tendencies to locations has taken DOOH advertising to new heights. Furthermore, programmatic technology has enhanced DOOH outputs with dynamic creative rendering abilities that empower advertisers to leverage the essence of the surrounding. In this case, contextualized creatives for Veeba in sync with audience profile, placement & density influenced consumers in the last mile of the purchase journey, subsequently resulting in higher sales. Not only this, technology like ours provide data-mining opportunities that help brands garner information beyond mere exposures.
Brands
Kwality Wall’s reports standalone losses following strategic HUL demerger
Ice cream major faces Rs 64 crore Ebitda loss amid commodity inflation and muted Q3 sales
MUMBAI: Kwality Wall’s (India) Limited (KWIL) has released its first set of financial results as a standalone entity, revealing a challenging start to its independent journey. Following its successful demerger from Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) on 1st December 2025 and its subsequent listing on 16th February 2026, the company is navigating a transition period marked by structural changes and high input costs.
For the quarter ended 31st December 2025, the company reported revenue of Rs 222 crores. Despite the revenue base, the bottom line was impacted by several factors, resulting in an Ebitda loss of Rs 64.2 crores. When calculated on a Pre-IND AS 116 basis, the Ebitda loss stood at Rs 83.8 crores.
Organic Sales Growth (OSG) declined by 6.5 per cent year-on-year during the quarter. Volume growth, however, saw a marginal increase of 1.2 per cent. The company reported a gross margin of 41.5 per cent. Additionally, exceptional expenses amounting to Rs 94 crores were recorded, primarily linked to non-recurring costs during the transition phase.
Performance across portfolios and channels was mixed. Within the impulse portfolio, brands such as Magnum and Cornetto recorded mid-single digit volume growth, indicating steady demand in on-the-go consumption. However, the in-home portfolio, which includes take-home packs, experienced muted consumption. The company is planning a relaunch of this category with improved offerings ahead of the 2026 season.
Quick commerce (Q-Com) continued to emerge as a strong growth driver, delivering robust double-digit growth during the quarter. Meanwhile, the company also expanded its physical distribution network by increasing the number of company-owned cabinets across markets.
Margin pressure during the quarter was driven by a combination of one-off factors and broader cost inflation. Gross margins were impacted by around 600 basis points due to trade investments made for stock liquidation. Additionally, cocoa price inflation contributed to another 400 basis points of pressure on margins.
Deputy managing director Chitrank Goel attributed the muted performance partly to prolonged monsoons and transitional challenges linked to the GST framework. Operating expenses also increased as the company invested in establishing its standalone supply chain, operational systems and corporate infrastructure following the demerger.
Looking ahead, the management remains focused on a volume-driven growth strategy. To restore profitability, the company has initiated a cost productivity programme aimed at reducing non-consumer-facing costs. It is also working on building regional manufacturing networks to optimise logistics expenses and improve operational efficiency.
The commodity outlook for the near term remains mixed. Dairy prices are expected to remain firm due to tight supply conditions and rising fodder costs. Sugar prices may also move higher following increases in the Minimum Selling Price (MSP). While cocoa prices have moderated recently, currency depreciation has offset some of the potential cost relief for the company.
