MAM
JWT B’lore adds Knorr Annapurna in its roster
NEW DELHI: JWT India, Bangalore office, seems to have hit the purple patch.
Continuing with its winning spree, JWT has won the creative account of Hindustan Lever’s Knorr Annapurna range of cooking aids. This win follows the creative business of Levi’s Strauss India, won in the recent past.
“Knorr Annapurna range has been allotted to JWT Bangalore. There was no pitch for this account. This was in accordance with the international alignment of the Knorr brand with JWT Worldwide. We will be handling the range of Knorr Annapurna brands here which includes the brands that were earlier handled by FCB-Ulka,” said JWT senior vice president and general manager, Dhunji Wadia. The media business will be handled by Fulcrum.
In the past, Unilever, Hindustan Lever’s parent company, had acquired Best Foods. Through this acquisition, Unilever added Hellmann’s, Skippy, Mazola, Entenmanns’s and Knorr product lines in its roster.
According to Wadia, the mandate includes mass media advertising including television, press, outdoor and below the line activities like launch conferences, direct mail, collaterals, salesman contests etc. “The brief from the client was to recommend a complete strategy and refreshingly striking creative to launch a new range of cooking aids in the Indian market,” said Wadia.
“The size of the account is yet to be finalized. The first television commercial and other mass media is scheduled to break in May this year,” said Wadia.
For the record, Annapurna brand is handled by another WPP Group agency, Oglivy & Mather.
For JWT Bangalore office, Knorr account is another big win in addition to the Levi’s Strauss business, which includes work on Levi’s, Dockers and Sykes. “JWT, Bangalore was awarded the Docker’s business in addition to the Levi’s and Sykes accounts. The client has cited JWT’s superior strategic understanding and creative quality as the reasons for this business being awarded to it,” said Wadia. The media business of Levi’s Strauss was allotted to MindShare following JWT’s win.
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.
