Brands
Baahubali-2 teams up with Hike Messenger & Camlin
MUMBAI: In a bid to magnify the overall output for the sequel of one of the greatest Indian Motion Picture and SS Rajamouli’s dream Project – Baahubali 2 — The Conclusion, team Brand Street India and Why? Stay! Calm! have brought aboard two internationally viable brands Hike Messenger and Kuyuko Camlin. This partnership is to build the Franchisee Baahubali and take it to the next level where the audience will be attached with some intriguing and interactive content and not just a vanilla campaign.
With a user base of over 100 Million, Hike Messenger is an ideal preference to engage younger audiences not just on their online platform but social media as well. Team Hike has come up with a unique strategy of extending the Baahubali Franchise to the next level. The Brand has come up with various animated stickers based on the sequences from the movie. Some cute Chibi stickers that will gain popularity in the coming days as the characters from the movie Katappa, Devasena, Bhallaldeva and Baahubali become popular. All these stickers are live now on the Hike App. Along with this, one can also suit themselves to the movie’s royal looks by applying face-filters of the characters.
Further, Kuyuko Camlin, one of the renowned stationary brands with a diverse customer base across the nation, is organising a painting competition at Kidzania Mumbai. The selected 20 kids are going to get a chance to meet the star cast of the movie at an exclusive event where these kids will be showcasing their piece of art to the stars of the movie. The brand also plans to engage the kids during summer camps as an extended promotional activity. A social media campaign on the lines of creating a trailer by using one’s own creativity has already been executed on their page. Camlin is also promoted on Baahubali Social media pages every Friday as “Camlin Friday Fan Art” where Baahubali fans share their piece of artwork and paintings on Baahubali pages.
Kokuyo Camlin CMO Saumitra Prasad commented, “Kokuyo Camlin is proud to associate with Baahubali 2. Camlin has always promoted art in India as we believe that creativity is more important than knowledge. We are very confident that people will get to experience the magnificent world of art & imagination in Indian cinema with the release of Baahubali 2”
Why? Stay! Calm! managing partner Kanika Mohan Saxena said, “Baahubali is the Biggest Franchise in Indian Cinema which cuts across all age groups and both Hike Messenger and Kuyuko Camlin are the best suited brands to interact with youngsters in their own unique style and tone. It will be interesting to see how these brands with a similar yet spread out target audience comes together to promote the movie both in a traditional, as well as the online way through interactive campaigns.”
WSC head, branded content & alliances Nirav Khandhadia commented, “The task at hand were to seamlessly merge the core-values of the Baahubali franchise with the brands. We have crafted innovative campaign ideas with both our brands, which will give the Baahubali franchise reach beyond the movie release. This approach will instigate high customer engagement along with building a deeper connect and reliance with our client.”
Brand Street India national head Surendra Singh expressed, “The huge popularity of Baahubali surely helps both these brands to reach out to their target audiences in a clutter-free way. Both these brand campaigns with Baahubali are driven by fresh ideas and a wide reception from all stakeholders.”
This association has been creatively implemented by Why? Stay! Calm! Who are strategic partners to Brand Street India in the domain of Film Integration & Content Production. They have recently been instrumental in the association of Lotus Herbals’ with Jolly LLB 2, Uber’s with Phillauri and Voltas AC’s with BadrinathkiDulhaniya.
Brands
UK’s OnlyFans seeks US investor at $3bn valuation after owner’s death
The adult video platform is seeking stability after the death of its billionaire owner
LONDON: OnlyFans is looking for a new partner. The London-based adult video platform is in advanced talks to sell a minority stake of less than 20 per cent to Architect Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm, in a deal that would value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).
The move is driven by an urgent need for stability. Leonid Radvinsky, the Ukrainian-American billionaire who owned OnlyFans, died of cancer last month at the age of 43, leaving the future of one of Britain’s most profitable privately held businesses suddenly uncertain.
The choice of Architect Capital is not arbitrary. The firm has deep expertise in financial services, which aligns neatly with OnlyFans’ ambitions to offer banking products to its creators, many of whom have long struggled to access basic financial services because of the nature of their work.
The numbers behind OnlyFans are, by any measure, staggering. The platform posted revenues of $1.4bn in the year to 30th November 2024, with a pre-tax profit of $684m, up four per cent on the prior year. Payments to creators totalled $7.2bn over the same period, a rise of nearly ten per cent. Radvinsky personally collected $701m in dividends from the business in 2024 alone, on top of more than $1bn in such payments he had already received. The platform, run through its parent company Felix International, hosts 4.6m creator accounts, with performers keeping 80 per cent of subscription proceeds and the platform pocketing the remaining 20 per cent. It has 377m fan accounts in total.
The current minority stake talks represent a notable scaling back of ambitions. In January, OnlyFans was reported to be in discussions with Architect about selling a majority stake of 60 per cent. Before that, the company had explored a sale to a consortium led by Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm. Neither deal materialised.
OnlyFans has built an enormously lucrative business on content that mainstream finance has long refused to touch. Now, with its owner gone and a $3bn valuation on the table, it is looking for the kind of respectable institutional backing that might finally persuade the banks to take its calls.
