Brands
MTV’s Nescafe Labs picks 12 finalists
MUMBAI: Nescafe and MTV hosted the finale of their co-branded digital talent platform called MTV presents Nescafe Labs at the Summer House Café in Mumbai.
MTV, the voice of the youth and Nescafe, India’s favorite coffee brand, had set out on a journey to provide young and raw talent with a unique online platform to help them get nurtured and recognized with MTV presents Nescafe Labs – a destination for creative youngsters looking for inspiration, mentors and a stage to showcase their talents.
The property garnered a social reach of over 90 million, over 8 million digital video views and received an overwhelming 85,000+ registrations. Out of this, 12 finalists were selected by the mentors to showcase their talent in India’s biggest talent pool party in Mumbai, aptly named the House of Labs.
This ‘Always On’ Platform for experimental, creative, raw and hidden talent, has enabled youngsters to live their dreams. The property saw enthusiastic participation of youngsters possessing unique talent like flute-boxing, beatboxing, rapping, singing, dancing and football freestyling.
Speaking on the need for such platforms, Sunayan Mitra, General Manager – Coffee and Beverages, Nestlé India Ltd. commented, “Nescafe is a brand that resonates with the aspirational youth. It aims to partner with the youth in their journey towards achieving their dreams. Youngsters have an inherent talent. This talent needs to be identified, harnessed and refined. MTV presents Nescafe Labs is one such platform which discovers creative talent and enables them to interact and learn from industry experts. Serving as a talent scouting and nurturing platform, it is an opportunity that kick starts their journey to better and bigger things in life.”
Speaking about the finale of season one of MTV presents Nescafe Labs, Ferzad Palia, Head, Youth, Music and English Entertainment, Viacom18 said, “MTV and Nescafe joined hands to empower the youngsters by providing them a platform in the form of MTV presents Nescafe Labs to give wings to their dreams. The massive number of registrations prove that a lot of youngsters have been able to be a part of this creative ecosystem. It’s amazing to see the enormous talent pool in the country, which is second to none. For us, true success of the platform lies in seeing these talented young people reaching heights of success in their chosen fields and having the best of minds from within the industry coming forward to mentor them.”
Commenting on judging the film-making competition at MTV presents Nescafe Labs, National award winning film-maker Madhur Bhandarkar said, “It feels really good to judge such fresh and raw talent at MTV presents Nescafe Labs finale. It’s amazing to see young film makers brimming with unrestrained energy and showcasing their talent. Rarely do people get such opportunities to showcase their mettle and MTV and Nescafe have done a brilliant job by providing youngsters with such a great platform.”
On being adjudged the winner of the photography challenge, Manjusha Dangeti said, “Photography has been my passion and when I got to know about MTV presents Nescafe Labs I did not give it a second thought and registered right away and to my surprise I won the contest. MTV presents Nescafe Labs has boosted my confidence and given me hope that this is a promising profession and I can surely make it big.”
In order to enable the contestants to hone their talent, industry stalwarts renowned for the skills including the likes of Papon (Cover Singer Challenge), Subi Samuel (Photography Challenge), Shakti Mohan (Dance Challenge), Satish Acharya (Cartoonist Challenge), Nikhil Chinapa and Jose Covaco (Twitterati Challenge), RJ Rishi (RJ Challenge), Vikas Bahl and Madhur Bhandarkar (Film-making Challenge) mentored the contestants.
Brands
ConfirmTkt rolls out 1 per cent cashback for summer train trips
Unlimited wallet rewards valid till 31 May boost holiday travel
GURUGRAM: ConfirmTkt has announced a limited period 1 per cent cashback offer aimed at making summer train travel a little lighter on the wallet.
The authorised B2C online train ticketing platform, part of the Ixigo Group, will credit 1 per cent cashback directly into users’ ConfirmTkt Wallet for every train ticket booked through its app. The offer runs until 31 May 2026, neatly covering the peak summer holiday rush.
There is no cap on how much cashback users can earn during the offer window. The credited amount can be redeemed on the next train booking within 90 days, making it particularly useful for families planning return journeys, students heading home for the holidays, or travellers ticking off multiple destinations in one season.
Importantly, the process is automatic. Cashback is credited after booking, with no codes to enter and no hoops to jump through, keeping the reward simple and seamless.
Ixigo Trains and ConfirmTkt CEO Dinesh Kumar Kotha, said summer remains one of the busiest travel seasons in India, as families, students and professionals take to the rails to reconnect and explore. He noted that by keeping the cashback uncapped and redemption straightforward, the company aims to help travellers extract greater value from both outbound and return trips during this high demand period.
Beyond the seasonal offer, ConfirmTkt continues to position itself as a tech driven, customer first platform. Its features include high accuracy waitlist prediction, nearby trains and alternate travel plan suggestions when seats are scarce, live train status updates, seamless PNR tracking, instant refunds, seat availability alerts and UPI enabled payments. Users can also order food on train for delivery to their seats at selected stations.
Taken together, the platform’s tools are designed to reduce uncertainty and add a layer of reassurance to rail journeys. With this summer cashback in play, ConfirmTkt is not just helping travellers book tickets, but giving them a small return ticket on their spending too.
