MAM
Bates CHI & Partners beefs up planning team with experts on planning
MUMBAI: Bates CHI & Partners today further strengthened its account planning team in India by bringing on board Anindya Ghosh as Senior Planning Director and Sohini Das as Group Planning Manager.
Based out of the agency’s Mumbai office, both Ghosh and Das will drive strategic planning for clients’ brands across its offices in India. Their priority will be to bring in fresh thinking to the planning process by tapping into their diverse experience from sales, marketing and advertising.
Bates CHI & Partners Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Thapar said, “We strongly believe that sound strategic thinking is the foundation for a great creative product that will work for our clients. Our investment in building a robust strategic planning team reiterates our commitment to this belief. We now a have good planning resources team across digital and activation (Bates CHI & Sercon), shopper marketing (Bates CHI & Wallstreet) and mainline or ATL under a sound planning leadership.”
Ghosh’s career spans almost a decade and he has experience across media planning, sales and marketing, and advertising account planning. He moves from Publicis India where he was planning director.
Das moves from Engrave, an online start-up, where she was the head of marketing and business development. She specialised in account planning at MICA post an engineering degree in computer science. Thereafter, she worked for three years in brand management at VIP Industries handling brands like Aristocrat and Skybag.
MAM
Lego brings Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappé, Vinicius together
Campaign clocks 314 million views ahead of FIFA World Cup 2026 buzz.
MUMBAI: Four legends, one frame and not a single tackle in sight. Lego has pulled off a crossover few thought possible, uniting Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior in a single campaign ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026 only this time, they’re building dreams brick by brick.
Titled “Everyone wants a piece”, the campaign features the quartet assembling a Lego version of the World Cup trophy, before placing miniature versions of themselves atop it, a playful nod to football’s ultimate prize. Shared widely across social media, the ad carries a pointed disclaimer: it is not AI-generated, a subtle but telling signal in an era where even reality is often questioned.
The numbers tell their own story. The campaign has already crossed 314 million views on Instagram across the players’ accounts, with fans hailing it as a rare, almost nostalgic moment particularly for the reunion of Messi and Ronaldo, whose last shared campaign ahead of the 2022 World Cup became one of the platform’s most-liked posts.
Beyond the film, Lego is extending the play with exclusive, player-themed sets tied to each of the four stars, part of a broader football-led programme designed to ride the global momentum building towards 2026. The idea, as echoed by the players themselves, leans into the parallels between football and play experimentation, creativity, failure, and triumph.
Messi described the sets as a way to bring on-pitch moments into an imaginative, hands-on world, while Ronaldo called the transformation into a Lego figure a rare honour, blending sport with storytelling. Vinícius, meanwhile, struck a more personal note, recalling childhood moments of building with Lego and framing creativity as a universal language that transcends borders.
The timing is no accident. With the 2026 World Cup set to run from June 11 to July 19 across the United States, Canada and Mexico, and featuring an expanded 48-team format, global anticipation is already building. Argentina, led by Messi, will enter as defending champions, adding another layer of intrigue.
For Lego, the campaign does more than celebrate football, it taps into its mythology. Because when icons become figurines and rivalries turn into play, the beautiful game finds a new kind of pitch. one built, quite literally, by hand.
