MAM
Isobar India appoints Pragati Rana as senior VP- strategy
MUMBAI: Isobar, the digital agency from the house of dentsu India, has named Pragati Rana as its senior vice president – strategy. As per the fresh mandate, Rana will head strategy for Isobar India and build an integrated planning team under her.
Prior to this, Rana was general manager- Strategy & Operations at dentsumcgarrybowen (dentsuMB) India. Armed with more than 10 years of experience, Rana has won over 50 industry accolades for her work, which includes Vice Media’s 8-bit Journo, Sony Pictures’ Angry Islands, MIB Agent Incognito, Thappad’s The Most Reported Trailer, Early Salary’s Month End Collection, Big FM’s Pride from Home campaigns, to name a few.
In her previous stints, Rana has worked across categories such as food, haircare, entertainment, technology, start-ups, automobile, and finance. Additionally, she has worked on brands like P&G, Complan, Heinz Ketchup, Tata Salt, Vespa, Honor mobiles, MTV, Big FM, Sony Pictures, and Early Salary. Her integrated experience comes from amalgamating learnings of brand building from mainline agencies like Leo Burnett and coupling them with learnings on new-age brand fluidity from digital agencies like Dentsu Webchutney and dentsuMB India. She has also spent some time on the client-side as part of the marketing team in GlaxoSmithKline.
Isobar chief operating officer Gopa Kumar said, “Isobar India is poised to become an innovation-first, fully integrated digital agency. We want people who not only understand the world of digital but also the world of brands and the world of the future, which is innovation, Pragati fits right in.”
Isobar chief business officer Rahul Vengalil added, “The future of advertising is bringing together brand thinking & digital thinking to create an experience economy. Pragati, with her experience and vision of creating a new age planning team, would help us to be the pioneers in this journey of creating an experience economy.”
Elaborating on her new role, Pragati Rana said, “An agency is future-ready when digital people can think of brands, and when brand people can think of digital and when both can think of the future – culture and innovations. My task is to help in creating a new species of mutant planners who can think of culture, brand as well as digital, social, and innovations. I’m super excited about this task. Isobar India has a very ‘actively progressive’ culture built by the leadership team where people aren’t just open to learning but actually look forward to it. I, too, am looking forward to partnering with Isobar India in its upwards and onwards journey.”
Brands
DeVANS sparks buzz with self-chilling beer can April Fools campaign
Godfather stunt racks up 7 million impressions, blending humour with hype
NEW DELHI: DeVANS Modern Breweries has stirred up the marketing pot with a playful yet high-impact campaign teasing a futuristic “self-chilling beer can” under its flagship Godfather label.
What began as a seemingly bold product innovation quickly turned into one of the most talked-about brand moments online, before being revealed as an April Fools’ Day prank. The reveal, however, did little to cool the buzz.
The campaign clocked over 7 million organic impressions across platforms including LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and X, with users debating whether the concept was a genuine breakthrough or clever marketing theatre. Thousands of shares and comments turned the idea into a full-blown conversation, drawing in both consumers and industry insiders.
The hook was simple but effective. A self-chilling can positioned as an on-the-go convenience product tapped into the imagination of younger, urban audiences. Add the timing around April Fools’ Day, and the campaign struck the perfect balance between curiosity and scepticism, keeping audiences guessing.
Marketing experts have pointed to the campaign as a case study in leveraging cultural moments. By leaving just enough ambiguity, the brand invited audiences to participate rather than simply observe, turning passive viewers into active contributors to the narrative.
“Godfather has always been an iconic brand, but iconicity must evolve to stay meaningful,” said DeVANS Modern Breweries chairman and managing director Prem Dewan. “The ‘Self-Chilling Can’ was our way of showing up in a cultural moment with confidence and a sense of humour.”
Beyond the numbers, the campaign signals a broader repositioning for Godfather. Long seen as a legacy beer brand, it is now leaning into youth culture, digital-first storytelling and topical engagement to stay relevant in a crowded alcobev market.
In a space where attention is fleeting, DeVANS has shown that sometimes the coolest idea is the one that keeps people guessing.
