MAM
Dineout’s onward march into contactless future of restaurants
NEW DELHI: The ongoing COVID19 crisis is paving the way for a ‘new normal’ as most industry experts are arguing. There is positivity about demand reviving sooner than later, there are going to be newer consumer engagement rules, redefined spaces, and modified demands from not just users but also stakeholders. One of the sectors to quickly get back on track, if China is an example to follow, is going to be the restaurants and related services. There is a lot of pent-up demand in the sector to be addressed; however, a lot of investments in new technologies and ways of indulging a visitor will have to be introduced as there is going to be a lot of apprehensions in a consumer’s mind.
Taking a positive step in this direction, Dineout, one of the topmost digital products companies in the space, has started a slew of initiatives, with its Contactless Dining Suite, to ensure ‘contactless engagement’ at its partner restaurants. Not just that, it has started to extend these services to other categories as well, including hospitals, grocery stores, airports, and alcohol stores.
Dineout co-founder and CEO Ankit Mehrotra told Indiantelevision.com: “Even before the Covid2019 breakout, we were one of the largest tech providers in the restaurant industry, helping them from CRM to cost-management, to billing, etc. A total of 15,000 restaurants were already a part of our network, utilising our software.”
He added: “With contactless, we will have to understand that the idea is not to eliminate contact but make it lesser, taking it out from places where it can be easily avoided.”
Mehrotra explained that with this whole suite, restaurants of tomorrow will function as cinema houses, where one will be able to book the table in advance, and also pre-order food, in theory reducing the amount of time they will be spending there.
In addition to these services, there are going to be digital parking receipts and the visitors will be able to alert the valet to bring their car to the porch while paying the bill. The whole idea is to make the whole experience seamless, reduce time spent at crowded places, and completely take away the need to touch the menu, which is probably the most infected thing at a restaurant.
The exciting part about this the visitors will not have to download the Dineout app to avail these services.
Not just this, Dineout is offering its partner restaurants a yearly package, which will include a one-time set of PPE kits, sterilisation machines for utensils and cutlery, and software suite to manage the bookings and payments.
“All these services come at a very cost-effective solution. The charges depend on a case-to-case basis. We are in touch with around 3000 restaurants where we might be offering an initial six months or so of service for free on a trial basis,” Mehrotra told us.
Dineout is partnering with companies like Equinox to develop these features. It is also in touch with Google to develop certain other features like discovery and reservation models etc.
Some of the companies that have already partnered with Dineout for the Contactless Suite are The Park (Juhu, Mumbai), Hyatt (Pune), Holiday Inn (Delhi), Radisson (Hyderabad), Mad Over Donuts, Mainland China, Giannis and SideWok.
Mehrotra also added that in the next phase, their focus is going to be on architectural changes as well. “We are already working on increasing gaps between seats at partner restaurants. Going ahead, at more crowded places like QSRs, we are planning to install physical partitions. Most of the standing spaces in bars will be turned into seating arrangements to control the crowd.”
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.
