Digital Agencies
Digital campaign: Red Chillies wins ‘CMO Asia’ awards
MUMBAI: Red Chillies Entertainment bagged two awards for Dear Zindagi’s brilliantly executed digital marketing campaign at the CMO Asia’s Social Media Marketing Awards. The marketing team won two titles for the film that included- ‘Best Viral Marketing Campaign’ & ‘Best Use Of Social Media In Entertainment Industry’.
The film released on 25 November 2016 and was very well received by the audience across the world. Starring Alia Bhatt and Shah Rukh Khan, the film tracks the story of a 20s something girl trying to figure out her life. It reflects the mind space of today’s youngsters and they formed the target audience of the film. The digital medium became a preferred marketing platform to reach out and appeal to the young, urban millennial.
Red Chillies is always known to break the paradigm of movie marketing and the makers of the film decided to do away with releasing a single trailer and launched Dear Zindagi Takes – 5 short teasers which gives unique insights about the movie. These were named very uniquely to capture the essence of each video and main protagonist’s life aspects.
Talking about the win at CMO Asia awards, Red Chillies Entertainment head of marketing Binda Dey said, “The strategy was to focus on building a more casual and relatable communication to engage the digital natives. The proposition was communicated through narratives and storytelling instead of in-your-face promotions across all innovations and integrations, that led to organic share-ability and word of mouth”
Red Chillies Entertainment, along with their digital agency, Flarepath made use of various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tinder and YouTube to generate awareness and buzz among the target audience and amplified it with a blogger outreach program.
Dear Zindagi was the first Bollywood film ever to collaborate with the popular dating platform Tinder where the main protagonist’s profile was launched and users who matched were given a chance to party with Alia Bhatt.
Since the consumption of video content on the Internet is huge amongst Indian millennials; the marketing team associated with different content creators including TVF, Culture Machine, ScoopWhoop, Tinder and Miss Malini to launch multiple promotional videos.
Overall, the campaign created 2.6 billion + impressions only across various social platforms. In the campaign period of 49 days, there were a total of 29 Twitter trends including India and Worldwide. These numbers and the awards certainly prove that content and creative experimentation can change the dynamics of any given campaign.
BENGALURU: For years, creative teams have learned to live with ambiguity. Vague comments, last-minute changes, feedback that arrives without context, clarity, or conviction. It became part of the job – something teams worked around rather than getting it solved.
But as we head into 2026, that tolerance is wearing thin.
Creative work today moves faster, scales wider, and involves more stakeholders than before. Teams are producing more content across more formats, often with distributed collaborators and tighter timelines. In this environment, guesswork is no longer a harmless inconvenience. It’s a cost – to time, to budgets, and to creative mindspace.
The real problem isn’t feedback, it’s how it’s given
Most creative professionals you see today will tell you they’re not against feedback. In fact, they rely on it. Good feedback sharpens ideas, strengthens execution, and pushes work forward. The problem is ‘unclear’ feedback. When someone says “this doesn’t feel right” without context, they aren’t just revising – they’re basically decoding. They’re guessing what the problem might be, trying different directions, and burning time in the process. Multiply that by a few stakeholders and a few rounds, and suddenly days disappear.
In 2026, when teams are expected to deliver faster without compromising quality, interpretation is a luxury most can’t afford.
Scale has changed rverything
Creative projects used to be smaller and simpler. A designer, a manager, maybe one client contact. Feedback loops were short, even if they weren’t perfect.
Today, the same project might involve internal marketing teams, agencies, freelancers, brand reviewers, and regional teams. Everyone has a say. Everyone leaves comments. And often, those comments don’t agree. More people reviewing work means alignment matters more than ever. Clear feedback isn’t just about being nice to creative teams, it’s about keeping projects moving when complexity increases.
Guesswork quietly wears teams down
One of the less talked-about impacts of unclear feedback is what it does to people.
When feedback is vague or contradictory, creatives second-guess their decisions. They hesitate. They overwork. They keep extra time buffers “just in case.” Over time, confidence drops. Ownership fades. Work becomes safer, not stronger. Creative energy gets spent on managing uncertainty instead of pushing ideas forward. And in an industry already grappling with burnout, unclear feedback adds unnecessary mental load.
Actionable feedback is a shared skill
Clear feedback doesn’t mean controlling creative decisions or dictating every detail. It means being specific enough that someone knows what to do next.
Actionable feedback answers three basic questions:
What exactly needs attention?
Why does it matter?
What outcome are we aiming for?
This applies whether you’re reviewing a video frame, a design layout, or a copy draft. The clearer the feedback, the fewer follow-ups it creates. In 2026, teams that treat feedback as a skill and not an afterthought, will move faster with less friction.
Tools shape behaviour (whether we admit it or not)
The way feedback is delivered is often dictated by the tools teams use. Comments buried in long email threads, messages split across chat apps, or notes detached from the actual work all contribute to confusion.
When feedback lives outside the work, context often gets lost. When it’s disconnected from versions and timelines, decisions get questioned. When it’s scattered, accountability disappears. More teams are starting to realise that feedback problems aren’t just communication issues, they’re workflow issues. How work moves between people matters just as much as the work itself.
From Opinions To Alignment
One of the biggest shifts happening in creative teams is a move away from purely opinion-driven feedback. Instead of “I like this” or “I don’t,” teams are asking better questions:
● Does this meet the brief?
● Does this solve the problem?
● Does this align with the goal?
This change reduces unnecessary back-and-forth and helps feedback feel less personal and more productive. It also makes decisions easier to explain and defend. As creative work becomes more strategic, feedback has to support that shift.
2026 Is About Fewer Loops, Not Faster Loops
There’s a misconception that speed means moving through feedback cycles faster. In reality, the most creative teams aren’t just accelerating loops, they’re reducing them. Clear, actionable feedback upfront leads to fewer revisions later. Clear approval stages prevent last-minute surprises. Clear decisions stop work from circling endlessly.
In 2026, efficiency won’t come from working harder or longer. It will come from designing workflows that respect creative time and attention.
Ending guesswork is a mindset change
Ultimately, ending creative guesswork isn’t just about better tools or processes. It’s about mindset. It’s about recognising that clarity is an act of respect – for the work, for the people doing it, for the time invested and for the mindspace used. It’s about moving from “figure it out” to “here’s what we’re aiming for.”
Creative teams that embrace this shift will find themselves not only delivering faster, but also enjoying the process more. And in an industry built on imagination, that might be the most valuable outcome of all.
