MAM
GroupM India inks a strategic partnership with ShareChat and Moj
Mumbai: Media investment company GroupM India and media aggregator ShareChat, with 400 million monthly active users (MAU) across ShareChat and Moj, has announced entering into a strategic partnership to power a new era of modern marketing.
This partnership will focus on providing clients with both effectiveness and efficiencies across the pillars of the digital marketing ecosystem—reaching an uncharted Bharat audience and giving brands access to the exploding universe of short-format videos. It will also be translated into a suite of innovative products co-created by GroupM and ShareChat.
GroupM India is looking forward to supporting the marketing solutions and allied communities to navigate through these challenges by offering privileged access to the ShareChat platforms.
The partnership will look forward to effectively supplementing and delivering deeper engagement to GroupM India’s clientele through ShareChat’s diverse ecosystem that allows seamless integration of content to commerce and insight into Bharat’s consumption, behaviour, and digital journey. Furthermore, advertisers and brands will also be able to experience the convenience of its self-serve platform.
The surge of short online videos creates a massive upside for growth. Businesses today need to be ready with a data-driven strategy to maximise engagement. Through ShareChat, GroupM India’s clients will gain access to a growing network of influencers and creators. As a result, brands benefit from unrivalled scale to create and promote content and drive brand engagement across digital platforms.
GroupM CEO-South Asia Prasanth Kumar said, “At GroupM, we have embraced the digital disruption and have instilled digital as one of the major cornerstones to drive change. The challenges thrown by digital transformation have immensely contributed to our learning and introduced us to newer consumer habits, in turn enabling us to add value to our clients by offering tailored marketing solutions. We see our partnership with ShareChat going a long way towards benefitting our clients as it effectively connects with a large population of the country.”
The prospect of co-creating unique products with the help of innovation and technology is an added advantage. This partnership will allow brands to have greater opportunities to further harness new media and technological capabilities to effectively drive performance marketing.
ShareChat and Moj chief commercial officer Ajit Varghese added, “Today, the consumer ecosystem is constantly evolving, however, the majority of the marketing spends continues to be parked for tried and tested platforms. It’s time for the marketing and advertising fraternity to realise the urgent need to adapt to this rapid change. We are glad to have partnered with GroupM in offering ShareChat’s expertise to enable brands to reach the Bharat and Gen Z consumers effectively and at scale.”
The strategic partnership comes at the back of a successful association between ShareChat and GroupM India that happened earlier this year to launch the “Bharat Report.” The report classified users that prefer the Indian language on social media as “Bharat” users and “India” users as the ones that prefer using English, across all the regions of India. Since its launch, the insights from the report have introduced multiple brands to the uniqueness of Bharat and allowed them to seamlessly integrate Bharat into their overall media strategy.
Brands
Kwality Wall’s reports standalone losses following strategic HUL demerger
Ice cream major faces Rs 64 crore Ebitda loss amid commodity inflation and muted Q3 sales
MUMBAI: Kwality Wall’s (India) Limited (KWIL) has released its first set of financial results as a standalone entity, revealing a challenging start to its independent journey. Following its successful demerger from Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) on 1st December 2025 and its subsequent listing on 16th February 2026, the company is navigating a transition period marked by structural changes and high input costs.
For the quarter ended 31st December 2025, the company reported revenue of Rs 222 crores. Despite the revenue base, the bottom line was impacted by several factors, resulting in an Ebitda loss of Rs 64.2 crores. When calculated on a Pre-IND AS 116 basis, the Ebitda loss stood at Rs 83.8 crores.
Organic Sales Growth (OSG) declined by 6.5 per cent year-on-year during the quarter. Volume growth, however, saw a marginal increase of 1.2 per cent. The company reported a gross margin of 41.5 per cent. Additionally, exceptional expenses amounting to Rs 94 crores were recorded, primarily linked to non-recurring costs during the transition phase.
Performance across portfolios and channels was mixed. Within the impulse portfolio, brands such as Magnum and Cornetto recorded mid-single digit volume growth, indicating steady demand in on-the-go consumption. However, the in-home portfolio, which includes take-home packs, experienced muted consumption. The company is planning a relaunch of this category with improved offerings ahead of the 2026 season.
Quick commerce (Q-Com) continued to emerge as a strong growth driver, delivering robust double-digit growth during the quarter. Meanwhile, the company also expanded its physical distribution network by increasing the number of company-owned cabinets across markets.
Margin pressure during the quarter was driven by a combination of one-off factors and broader cost inflation. Gross margins were impacted by around 600 basis points due to trade investments made for stock liquidation. Additionally, cocoa price inflation contributed to another 400 basis points of pressure on margins.
Deputy managing director Chitrank Goel attributed the muted performance partly to prolonged monsoons and transitional challenges linked to the GST framework. Operating expenses also increased as the company invested in establishing its standalone supply chain, operational systems and corporate infrastructure following the demerger.
Looking ahead, the management remains focused on a volume-driven growth strategy. To restore profitability, the company has initiated a cost productivity programme aimed at reducing non-consumer-facing costs. It is also working on building regional manufacturing networks to optimise logistics expenses and improve operational efficiency.
The commodity outlook for the near term remains mixed. Dairy prices are expected to remain firm due to tight supply conditions and rising fodder costs. Sugar prices may also move higher following increases in the Minimum Selling Price (MSP). While cocoa prices have moderated recently, currency depreciation has offset some of the potential cost relief for the company.
