Brands
PepsiCo India triumphs at Cannes Lions 2024 with four wins
Mumbai: PepsiCo India has once again distinguished itself in the marketing world by winning four awards at this year’s Cannes Lions, making it the brand with the highest number of awards.
Gatorade earned one gold and one bronze award for its groundbreaking Turf Finder initiative, recognised in the creative data category and entertainment for sports under live experience subcategory. Launched earlier this year, the Turf Finder Initiative is designed to ignite a passion for sports among residents of India’s bustling metropolitan areas. This initiative reflects Gatorade’s dedication towards promoting active lifestyles and fostering a love for sports in urban environments.
Speaking on the win, chief marketing officer, India beverages, Tarun Bhagat said, “We are immensely honored and thrilled by Gatorade’s success at the 71st Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Winning top honors such as the Gold in the Creative Data Lions for Data-enhanced Creativity, and a Bronze in the Entertainment Lions for the Sports category is a significant achievement that highlights our innovative approach and dedication to fostering an active-lifestyle culture in India.
Our Turf Finder initiative, leveraging Google Maps data, perfectly aligns with our mission to promote active lifestyles. In bustling metropolitan cities, there is a significant challenge in finding adequate spaces for playing sports. Despite a strong intent to engage in playing sports, individuals often find it difficult to locate suitable spaces due to a lack of adequate play areas. With Turf Finder, Gatorade seeks to solve this issue by leveraging the data from Google Maps to identify potential areas and transform them into playing areas, thereby providing sporting access for everyone. This initiative underscores Gatorade’s commitment to addressing real-world challenges and fostering community engagement in meaningful and impactful ways. We are grateful for the support and collaboration that made this possible and look forward to furthering our mission to promote sports and an active lifestyle.”
Similarly, Lay’s achieved remarkable success, winning two awards, including one silver and one bronze in categories such as Glass: The Lion for Change and Sustainable Development Goals under live experience subcategory, along with the prestigious WARC Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix. The ‘Drops of Joy’ campaign, launched to reclaim water vapour during potato frying to achieve water-positivity, and ‘Farm Equal’, a project empowering over 2,500 women farmers in India with specialized tools in collaboration with USAID, were recognized for their innovation and impact.
Commenting on the occasion, Lay’s India – PepsiCo category lead Saumya Rathor said: “We’re overjoyed to have our efforts recognized at Cannes. At our core, Lay’s is rooted in agriculture and deeply values the communities we work with and the environment we depend on. Our ‘Drops of Joy’ campaign highlights our efforts in water positivity by reclaiming water during production. Additionally, through Project Farm Equal, we’ve had the privilege of empowering over 2,500 women farmers, providing them with the tools and support they need. Winning Cannes Lions for these initiatives is a humbling reminder that our dedication to making a positive impact is resonating and making a difference.”
Publicis Groupe, South Asia chief creative officer & Leo Burnett, South Asia chairman Rajdeepak Das added “With PepsiCo we have found the right partners who are aligned to our vision of using the power of creativity to make a real difference. All the campaigns from Gatorade Turf Finder, Lays Farm Equal and Drops of Joy use modern-day technology and tools to make a difference to our communities, and we couldn’t be prouder of our partnership with PepsiCo. And we are thrilled that some of the most creative minds from around the world who are part of the prestigious Cannes Jury also resonated with our work, winning us these precious Lions.”
These achievements by Gatorade and Lay’s highlight PepsiCo India’s commitment to innovation and its ability to create impactful campaigns that engage audiences and drive positive change.
Brands
Google nears Nvidia in race for world’s most valuable company
Market cap gap narrows as Google hits $4.65 trillion, Nvidia at $4.86 trillion.
MUMBAI: In the AI gold rush, even the giants are sprinting and Google is suddenly gaining ground. Google is rapidly closing in on Nvidia in the race to become the world’s most valuable publicly listed company, with the gap between the two narrowing sharply amid diverging stock momentum. The tech giant’s market capitalisation has surged to around $4.65 trillion, following a more than 140 per cent rise in its share price over the past year.
That rally has added over $2.6 trillion in value in just 12 months, including nearly $900 billion since January alone. Its stock recently hovered at $381.80, slipping marginally by 0.04 per cent, but still reflecting strong upward momentum.
Nvidia, meanwhile, continues to hold the top spot with a valuation of approximately $4.86 trillion. The chipmaker crossed the $5 trillion milestone in October last year and peaked at $5.27 trillion on 27 April. However, its shares have largely plateaued over the past six months, rising just 0.2 per cent recently to $199.99.
The contrast in trajectories is striking. While Nvidia has seen relatively flat movement, Google has gained over 36 per cent in the same six-month period. Barron’s estimates suggest that if current trends hold, the valuation gap could shrink to as little as $190 million by the time Nvidia reports its first-quarter earnings on 20 May.
Daily momentum paints a similar picture. Nvidia recorded average daily gains of about 0.66 per cent last month, compared to Google’s stronger 1.42 per cent, an edge that could prove decisive in the short term.
Driving Google’s resurgence is its aggressive push into artificial intelligence across its ecosystem, from search and YouTube to cloud computing. The company has already invested $144 billion in capital expenditure over the past two years and plans to deploy a further $490 billion over the next two.
Its cloud division is also gathering pace. Google Cloud reported an order backlog of nearly $220 billion in the latest quarter, with total backlog touching a record $462 billion, around half of which is expected to be realised within two years. The company’s entry into chip sales is also beginning to factor into its growth narrative.
The last time Google briefly topped the S&P 500 by market value was in February 2016, when it edged past Apple for just two days. This time, the stakes and the numbers are far higher.
At the heart of the contest lies a single force: artificial intelligence. As both companies pour billions into infrastructure, chips and platforms, the leaderboard is no longer just about size, it is about who can scale the future faster.
