MAM
HP partners with Bindass for ‘Bend The Rules’ campaign
MUMBAI: Bindass, over the years has understood the pulse of India’s youth and has become their friend and companion while entertaining them with content that is both purposive and engaging.
The channel in association with Hewlett Packard (HP) launched a new campaign – ‘Bend the Rules’ featuring brand ambassador, Deepika Padukone. The campaign celebrates how millennials in India ‘Bend the Rules’ by taking the unconventional road to success.
Millennials strive for success at an early age using the power of technology. HP is inviting them to share their stories by uploading a video on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube using the hash-tag #BendTheRules, of how they have bent the rules to achieve success.
A winning entry from India will get a chance to share his/her inspiring story with a larger audience through a short film which will be aired on Bindass and its YouTube channel.
Talking about this association with HP, Disney India VP revenue, media networks Nikhil Gandhi says that the channel wanted to try a different approach in order to deepen the engagement level with the youth. The campaign connects with the ideas and philosophies of Young India. It celebrates the young generation’s ability to ‘Bend the Rules’ and achieve success by taking the road less travelled.
Padukone, the brand ambassador for HP India is associated with this campaign. As someone who decided to pursue acting and leave behind a promising badminton career, she is familiar with treading the unconventional path to success.
Also featuring in the campaign is the HP Pavilion x360, a value-packed convertible PC, which easily converts from notebook, to stand, to tent, to tablet mode. With optimised touch-screen performance and beats audio, the device is ideal for the productivity and entertainment needs of consumers.
Backed by in depth research, Bindass has executed successful shows and campaigns which not only engage young India but also enable purposive action. “We are using this understanding to create the right approach to strengthen our partnership with HP and deliver Bindass ‘Bend The Rules’ to strengthen their engagement with the youth,” says Gandhi.
What made HP associate with bindass for the campaign? According to HP India head of marketing, printing and personal systems Lloyd Mathias, HP’s focus was to reach out to the Indian youth. “#BendtheRules is in the DNA of young India and we wanted to amplify the HP brand philosophy with a partner that understands youth. Brand Bindass is positioned as the enabler of purposive action and that holds really well with brand HP. We wanted to leverage Bindass’s reach on TV and digital to speak to the Indian youth and hence the association,” he says.
Mathias believes that by partnering with Bindass, it will help HP become more relevant to its audience and build a community around shared interests and passions. The bend the rules philosophy of HP will get validation and engagement through this association within its shared TG.
The initiative is spread across multiple platforms including television, print, digital, out of home, webisodes and Vine videos. Additionally, an extensive social media campaign covering Twitter and Facebook is also in place which rests on both Bindass and HP’s social media platforms.
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.
