MAM
Grey creates Network 18’s corporate campaign
MUMBAI: Grey Worldwide Mumbai has created the new corporate campaign for Network 18 titled ‘Red Tag‘. It has been directed by filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee.
Grey India national creative director Malvika Mehra said, “The task very simply was to introduce Network 18 to the world and explain the role it plays in impacting people‘s lives. We wanted to create something for Network 18 that ‘connects‘ with the consumer. We did this in a very simple way, we took an element from the Network 18 logo itself – ‘the red tag‘ and had some fun with it.
“The brief was simple enough, but fitting all the pieces together in a script wasn‘t, believe me! We knew we wanted it to be about omnipresence, we knew we had to be fresh, but above all we were sure we didn‘t want a stiff conventional, corporate approach,” Grey Mumbai senior ECD Rohit Malkani said.
“Rather than have Network 18 do a little chest thumping exercise, it made more sense to have people discover for themselves how big they really are. And that was the genesis for the ‘red tag‘ game,” Mehra added.
The agency has used ‘BachkeRehna‘ track from Pukaar in an attempt to bring alive India and its people, whose lives Network 18 touches.
According to the company statement, the film begins in a regular looking office where a man shakes his head incredulously as he announces that the ‘rupee is 56 to the dollar‘. Suddenly he finds a female colleague rushing towards him with a red sticky tag/note, which she slaps on to his chest. He is surprised at first then realises why she did that as he checks the CNBC moneycontrol page on his phone. To his surprise he now sees her surfing some deals on Homeshop 18.com. In a ‘counter move‘ he rushes to her with glee and slaps her back with a red tag.
And so it begins…a random, fun and exciting game where people across India tag each other with Red Tags each time they are touched by Network 18. A young girl is tagged by her father because she pushes away her dinner plate after seeing a report on Anna, a boy is tagged by his friends after he lets out a volley of abuses at their neighbor, a grandmother is tagged by her granddaughter who spies her watching BalikaVadhu and dabbing her eyes etc. The film ends after a series of rapid tags with a voice over that highlights the penny drop moment. “If you were tagged for every way that we touched your life. This is what your world would look like. This is Network 18. The life in your day.”
MAM
Lego brings Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappé, Vinicius together
Campaign clocks 314 million views ahead of FIFA World Cup 2026 buzz.
MUMBAI: Four legends, one frame and not a single tackle in sight. Lego has pulled off a crossover few thought possible, uniting Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior in a single campaign ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026 only this time, they’re building dreams brick by brick.
Titled “Everyone wants a piece”, the campaign features the quartet assembling a Lego version of the World Cup trophy, before placing miniature versions of themselves atop it, a playful nod to football’s ultimate prize. Shared widely across social media, the ad carries a pointed disclaimer: it is not AI-generated, a subtle but telling signal in an era where even reality is often questioned.
The numbers tell their own story. The campaign has already crossed 314 million views on Instagram across the players’ accounts, with fans hailing it as a rare, almost nostalgic moment particularly for the reunion of Messi and Ronaldo, whose last shared campaign ahead of the 2022 World Cup became one of the platform’s most-liked posts.
Beyond the film, Lego is extending the play with exclusive, player-themed sets tied to each of the four stars, part of a broader football-led programme designed to ride the global momentum building towards 2026. The idea, as echoed by the players themselves, leans into the parallels between football and play experimentation, creativity, failure, and triumph.
Messi described the sets as a way to bring on-pitch moments into an imaginative, hands-on world, while Ronaldo called the transformation into a Lego figure a rare honour, blending sport with storytelling. Vinícius, meanwhile, struck a more personal note, recalling childhood moments of building with Lego and framing creativity as a universal language that transcends borders.
The timing is no accident. With the 2026 World Cup set to run from June 11 to July 19 across the United States, Canada and Mexico, and featuring an expanded 48-team format, global anticipation is already building. Argentina, led by Messi, will enter as defending champions, adding another layer of intrigue.
For Lego, the campaign does more than celebrate football, it taps into its mythology. Because when icons become figurines and rivalries turn into play, the beautiful game finds a new kind of pitch. one built, quite literally, by hand.
