MAM
Chtrbox launches Boombox, an open tool to shortlist India’s celebs & mega influencers
MUMBAI: Chtrbox, a leading Indian influencer marketing company, announces the launch of Boombox to cater to growing demand for social media influencers. Boombox is the industry’s first open discovery tool of India’s most influential voices, aimed to make the marketer’s job of shortlisting relevant celebrities & influencers easier, smarter and ROI driven.
Commenting on the launch, Pranay Swarup, Co- Founder and CEO, Chtrbox said, “Our objective in launching Boombox as a platform and end-to-end service is to empower marketers with strategic, data-powered, consolidated talent options when selecting celebs and top influencers for brand campaigns, events and endorsements. Today, when brands select talent, we’ve noticed that choices are decided largely on simple intuition such as – do I know & like this person? Do they represent the values my brand wants to represent? We are bringing data to this critical decision-making process, to ensure that when you invest & book India’s top talent for any purpose, you’re maximizing your ROI on social media. With Boombox, we want to help brands discover creative and budget-effective optimizations you may not have thought of before, paired with our expertise on creative strategy to create memorable influencer content.”
Boombox enables brands & their agencies with easy access to search, filter and shortlist famous personalities for their next big marketing initiative. The launch of Boombox comes at the right time today when brands, celebs and influencers are all increasingly looking to optimize time, speed, budgets, and most importantly grab attention spans of end consumers in this digital first world. Influencer powered content is disrupting the way brands created content traditional ads with talent; it's now a lot more cost-effective and impactful for talent to showcase authentically how they're engaging with the brand's product or idea, if it all it resonates with who they are.
Roshan Abbas, MD of Geometry Encompass, who is also an early investor in Chtrbox, adds, “Today more than ever, we’re offering brands digital extensions to their physical events and experiences. Chtrbox serves a great partner and platform through which agencies can now empower their brands with a new way to analyze and collaborate with all categories of celebs and influencers.”
"What makes Boombox awesome for planners is that it's amplified by Macro, Micro and Nano Influencer Power Packs, customized as per target categories and audience demographics, hand-picked from Chtrbox’s massive 350,000+ influencer base, giving unparalleled strength to deliver influential people powered marketing & content for brands” adds Rohit Raj, Co-Founder at the Glitch and Chtrbox.
Boombox has been launched as an open tool for a limited time period and can be accessed at Chtrbox.com/boombox.
MAM
VML India lands two finalist spots at Cairns Hatchlings 2026
The Mumbai agency is back in Australia with two teams, a UN brief and 24 hours to impress
MUMBAI: VML India is heading to Australia again. The Mumbai-based creative agency has secured two finalist spots at the Cairns Hatchlings 2026 competition, one in the Audio category and one in Design, making it the only Indian agency to have reached the finals in both editions of the contest since its launch in 2025.
Four people will make the trip. Senior copywriter Shilpi Dey and senior art director Raj Thakkar will compete in Audio. Art directors Shabbir and Shruti Negi will go head-to-head with the world’s best in Design. The finals take place at the Cairns Convention Centre from 13th May, culminating in an awards ceremony on 15th May.
The work that got them there is worth examining. For the Audio category, Dey and Thakkar tackled a brief for LIVE LIKE MMAD with a campaign called Inner Voice, Interrupted. Using spatial audio techniques, the campaign recreates the overwhelming self-doubt that descends after a long workday, physically panning negative thoughts left and right before cutting the noise entirely to reveal a confident inner voice. Strategically targeted at commuters via Spotify during evening rush hours, the campaign reframes the hours after work as an opportunity for personal growth and charitable action.
For the Design category, Shabbir and Negi worked on a brief for Canteen’s Bandanna Day, a campaign highlighting how cancer pushes teenagers out of their own defining moments. Using a pixelated design language to create stark contrast between a blurred world of isolation and a focused world of connection, the campaign, titled The Flipside of Cancer, shows teenagers fading into the background of birthdays, skateparks and school proms. As a Canteen bandanna appears, the blur flips and the teenager snaps back into sharp focus.
Kalpesh Patankar, group chief creative officer of VML India, made no attempt to disguise his satisfaction. “We are immensely proud to see our teams consistently excel on the Cairns Hatchlings platform since its inception,” he said. “They have masterfully tackled challenging briefs across diverse categories, demonstrating both layered storytelling and a unique creative approach. This exceptional teamwork is truly inspiring.”
Dey and Thakkar, returning to the finals after last year’s run, were candid about the demands of the audio medium. “It’s one of the most demanding mediums, where we only have a few seconds to capture a listener’s world with sound alone, so absolute clarity is essential,” they said. “The true measure of creative work is its ability to create positive change, and our audio submission was made to help those who need it most while encouraging people to silence the inner voices that hold them back.”
Shabbir and Negi, competing in Design for the first time, described the experience as “a completely different beast.” “We see it as an opportunity to showcase our expertise, raise the bar, and challenge ourselves in new ways, while also learning from creative minds from across the globe,” they said.
In Australia, the four finalists will face a live 24-hour brief from the United Nations before presenting in a live pitch session. Twenty-four hours, one brief, one shot. VML India has been here before. It knows exactly what is at stake.
