Brands
Hyundai Motor signs up as ICC premier partner for 2026–27 tournaments
AHMEDABAD/SEOUL: Hyundai Motor Company has struck a global partnership with the International Cricket Council, becoming a premier partner for major men’s and women’s tournaments across the 2026–27 cycle.
The deal covers six marquee ICC events, including the Men’s Cricket World Cup 2027, giving Hyundai exclusive rights around matchday moments such as the coin toss, prominent in-stadium branding and bespoke fan engagement initiatives.
The partnership reinforces Hyundai’s push to deepen brand connections through sport, particularly in cricket-heavy markets such as India, where the game commands vast cultural and commercial influence. The carmaker said its global subsidiaries would collaborate to activate the sponsorship across digital, experiential and on-ground platforms.
Hyundai Motor Company president and chief executive José Muñoz, said the partnership would help the brand connect with more than two billion cricket fans worldwide, adding that cricket’s reach and emotional pull aligned closely with Hyundai’s values of resilience and progress.
ICC chairman Jay Shah, said the global tournaments offered a powerful platform to engage fans through innovative digital and in-stadium integrations, welcoming Hyundai as a premier partner for the upcoming cycle.
The agreement marks Hyundai’s return to ICC cricket after an earlier association between 2011 and 2015. Fans attending matches are expected to see interactive fan zones, vehicle showcases and digital engagement initiatives rolled out across host venues.
The partnership was announced at a ceremony at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Hyundai Motor India managing director and chief executive designate Tarun Garg, said the deal underlined India’s growing importance within Hyundai’s global operations and would be supported by a 360-degree communications push spanning PR, digital, experiential and dealership networks.
Brands
Godrej clarifies ‘GI’ identifier after logo similarity debate
Says GI is not a logo, will not replace Godrej signature across products.
MUMBAI: In a branding storm where shapes did the talking, Godrej is now spelling things out. Godrej Industries Group (GIG) has issued a clarification on its newly introduced ‘GI’ identifier, addressing questions around its purpose and design following a wave of online criticism. At the centre of the debate were two concerns: whether the new mark replaces the long-standing Godrej logo, and whether its geometric design mirrors other corporate identities.
The company has drawn a clear line. The Godrej signature logo, it said, remains unchanged and continues to be the sole logo across all consumer-facing products and services. The ‘GI’ mark, by contrast, is not a logo but a corporate group identifier intended for use alongside the Godrej signature or company name, and aimed at stakeholders such as investors, media and talent rather than consumers.
The need for such a distinction stems from the 2024 restructuring of the broader Godrej Group into two separate business entities. With both continuing to operate under the same Godrej name and signature, the identifier is positioned as a way to differentiate the Godrej Industries Group at a corporate level.
The rollout, however, triggered a broader conversation on design originality. Critics pointed to similarities between the GI mark’s geometric composition and logos used by companies globally, raising questions about distinctiveness.
Responding to this, GIG said its intellectual property and legal review found that such overlaps are common in minimalist, geometry-led design systems. Basic forms such as circles and rectangles appear across dozens of brand identities worldwide, the company noted.
It added that the identifier emerged from an extensive design process and was chosen for its simplicity, allowing it to sit alongside the Godrej signature without competing visually. While acknowledging that elemental shapes may appear less distinctive in isolation, the group emphasised that the mark is part of a broader identity system that includes a custom typeface, sonic branding and other proprietary elements.
Following legal and ethical assessments, the company said it found no impediment to using the identifier, reiterating that the GI mark is a corporate tool not a consumer-facing symbol.
In short, the logo isn’t changing but the conversation around it certainly has.
