MAM
Cricket to face-off with football in Pepsi’s new ad campaign
MUMBAI: Indian cricketers will face-off with international football stars in Pepsi’s new campaign film as it takes the Twenty20 Football theme forward as part of its ‘Change the Game’ campaign.
Pepsi ‘s campaign will feature Indian cricketing heroes Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh; along with the biggest global football stars, Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and Fernando Torres.
In the campaign film, cricketers throw a challenge at footballers to a game of cricket to win Pepsi, while the footballers show them how to play cricket – football style. The film captures the essence of ‘Change the Game’ with a foot tapping soundtrack, ‘Mauke Pe Chauka’.
PepsiCo India Category Director – Colas, Hydration & Mango Based Beverages Homi Battiwalla said, “We celebrated the unorthodox face of cricket last year and gave the T20 twist to football this year; now we are bringing together both these sports on one common platform. Featuring the biggest names from the world of cricket and football, the campaign reflects our commitment to both the sports in our signature, ‘Change the Game’ way.”
The campaign is supported by a 360-degree approach including on-air, outdoor & on-ground initiatives; special edition packaging featuring and digital engagement programmes. The cola major is one of the broadcast sponsors of Max for the on-going IPL season.
“With this latest Pepsi campaign, we are bringing the cricketers and footballers together for the very first time in the history of Indian advertising. It is a truly clutter breaking campaign, mounted on a mega scale. The idea is simple with the ‘Change the Game’ thought at its core,” added JWT India ECD Surjo Dutt.
Pepsi recently launched its first football campaign in the country featuring actor Ranbir Kapoor, which was followed by a grassroots initiative, Pepsi T20 Football that takes football outside the conventional domain.
Organised in a unique metallic cage, the initiative is being organised in major Indian cities including Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mumbai, Lucknow, Ludhiana and Delhi, with phenomenal response. A total of 8-teams, including one winning team from each city and one wild card entry will compete to emerge as ‘Game Changers’.
They will then get the opportunity to be coached by an international football star before they face the Indian cricket stars for a game of Pepsi T20 Football at the Grand Finale.
MUMBAI: In India’s fast-moving payments race, Visa has just swiped in a new leader. The company has named Suresh Sethi as its India country head, marking a key leadership shift as it sharpens its focus on digital payments growth in the market. Sethi steps into the role following his recent exit from Protean eGov Technologies, where he served as chief executive officer. He succeeds Sandeep Ghosh, who has moved on after more than four years at Visa to pursue an external opportunity.
The appointment comes at a time when Visa is doubling down on its expansion strategy across India and the wider region, deepening partnerships and accelerating adoption in an increasingly competitive digital payments ecosystem.
Sethi brings with him a broad, cross-market perspective shaped by decades of experience across corporate banking, retail financial services, mobile money and large-scale government technology initiatives. He began his career at Citigroup, where he spent 14 years working across India, Africa, South America and the United States, focusing on transaction banking services within the corporate bank.
His appointment signals a blend of institutional experience and market familiarity qualities that could prove critical as Visa navigates a landscape where fintech innovation, regulatory evolution and consumer adoption are all accelerating at once.
As digital payments in India continue to scale rapidly, the leadership change underscores a simple reality, in a market where every tap, scan and swipe counts, who leads the charge can matter just as much as the technology itself.
