MAM
Lionsgate Play launches first marketing campaign with Havas Creative
MUMBAI: Premium entertainment service, Lionsgate Play has made a grand entry into the Indian market, with its first marketing campaign. The renowned global brand has awarded its creative mandate to Havas Creative India, the business will be handled by the agency’s Mumbai office.
For the brand’s launch campaign Lionsgate and Havas Creative decided to go with a clutter-breaking quirky out of home campaign that has gone live across Delhi, Mumbai, and Pune.
The idea is to showcase multiple genres of movies to the same consumer emphasising the breadth of Lionsgate Play’s premium content offering hence the brand tapped into prime outdoor presence in select pockets across the city.
The campaign is also tapping digital platforms where the call to action will be stronger and lead the user directly to the streaming partner’s app.
Lionsgate Play India MD Rohit Jain said, “We are excited to get Havas Creative on board as our creative partner. Their thought process on the brand and the category is interesting and we look forward to building a strong brand here in India. We have always taken a bold stand, be it content where our super heroes are un-conventional like Hunger Games or while establishing a brand image, we like to be fearlessly bold in our approach. While OTT is an exciting category with many brands focusing on key titles to market themselves, we are looking at a consumer connect early in our journey so we can be relevant to our core audiences.”
Commenting on the win and the campaign, Havas Mumbai managing partner – west & south Arindam Sengupta said, “We are delighted to partner with a renowned as well as innovative content player like Lionsgate Play, for its foray in the Indian market. In a content- first era, Lionsgate Play brings a great mix of premium quality content to the Indian audiences, given our Havas Vivendi offering in India, which has content at its core, our partnership seems perfect. We look forward to building a differentiated and unique positioning for brand Lionsgate Play in dynamic Indian market.”
Talking about the creative idea behind the campaign Havas Mumbai executive creative director Gururaj Rao said. “The idea emerged from the insight that one could watch blockbusters anywhere with LionsGate Play. And that too blockbusters from every genre. This led to a clutter-breaking campaign that attracts eyeballs with its witty innuendos and its quirky approach.”
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.
