Brands
Castrol goes all out on digital this FIFA season
MUMBAI: Castrol, one of the official sponsors for 2014 FIFA World Cup has rolled out a new digital and social media campaign.
The campaign titled ‘Castrol Activ Cling on to Football’ seeks to leverage Castrol’s global sponsorship and enhances football fan’s experience of the ongoing sports tournament. The digital campaign that kick started on 18 June with a planned football Google hangout in India, is executed by FoxyMoron.
Football fans in India got the opportunity to join the hangout and express their views by participating in a discussion with a panel comprising celebrities like Abhishek Bachchan, Bhaichung Bhutia, Paul Masefield and Gaurav Kapoor.
Castrol India vice president marketing Soma Ghosh said, “Football is fast gaining ground as one of the most popular sports amongst Indian urban youth and the 2014 FIFA World Cup is a great opportunity for us to leverage our position as one of its official sponsors. Whilst most advertisers and marketers are vying for attention of the television viewing audience, Castrol is focusing its activation around the ‘second screen.’ Castrol Activ with Actibond technology is one of our pioneering brands and will be at the center of the action in our digital and social media campaigns.”
Another initiative which Castrol brings to this tournament is ‘Castrol Activ Cling on to Kick Off’ – an interactive voice response (IVR) based activity – which will ensure football fans don’t miss any of the games by sending reminder SMS messages and giving ‘wake up’ calls.
Brands
Godrej clarifies ‘GI’ identifier after logo similarity debate
Says GI is not a logo, will not replace Godrej signature across products.
MUMBAI: In a branding storm where shapes did the talking, Godrej is now spelling things out. Godrej Industries Group (GIG) has issued a clarification on its newly introduced ‘GI’ identifier, addressing questions around its purpose and design following a wave of online criticism. At the centre of the debate were two concerns: whether the new mark replaces the long-standing Godrej logo, and whether its geometric design mirrors other corporate identities.
The company has drawn a clear line. The Godrej signature logo, it said, remains unchanged and continues to be the sole logo across all consumer-facing products and services. The ‘GI’ mark, by contrast, is not a logo but a corporate group identifier intended for use alongside the Godrej signature or company name, and aimed at stakeholders such as investors, media and talent rather than consumers.
The need for such a distinction stems from the 2024 restructuring of the broader Godrej Group into two separate business entities. With both continuing to operate under the same Godrej name and signature, the identifier is positioned as a way to differentiate the Godrej Industries Group at a corporate level.
The rollout, however, triggered a broader conversation on design originality. Critics pointed to similarities between the GI mark’s geometric composition and logos used by companies globally, raising questions about distinctiveness.
Responding to this, GIG said its intellectual property and legal review found that such overlaps are common in minimalist, geometry-led design systems. Basic forms such as circles and rectangles appear across dozens of brand identities worldwide, the company noted.
It added that the identifier emerged from an extensive design process and was chosen for its simplicity, allowing it to sit alongside the Godrej signature without competing visually. While acknowledging that elemental shapes may appear less distinctive in isolation, the group emphasised that the mark is part of a broader identity system that includes a custom typeface, sonic branding and other proprietary elements.
Following legal and ethical assessments, the company said it found no impediment to using the identifier, reiterating that the GI mark is a corporate tool not a consumer-facing symbol.
In short, the logo isn’t changing but the conversation around it certainly has.
