MAM
Lowe Lintas creates Fastrack’s new ad campaign
MUMBAI: Fastrack, the youth fashion brand, has launched a new ad campaign -“Blame Fastrack and Move On” that has been created by Lowe Lintas.
The objective of the campaign is to redirect the blame that the youth of today face from everyone around them. It is targeted to youth of 18-24 years of age.
Fastrack marketing head Simeran Bhasin said, “The TVC appeals to the youth of today who are aggressive and passionate and ultimately lead to a better brand connect. The Blame Fastrack campaign draws inspiration the youth of today and hopes to liberate them from the pre decided moral rules of the society.”
The company plans to roll out a total of three commercials. The subsequent two TVCs are for watches and sunglasses and will be launched in the coming months.
Talking about the brief that was given to the agency Lowe Lintas executive creative director Akash Das said, “The youth today are the most blamed lot for things that they do or don‘t. Constantly persecuted by parents, teachers, politicians, moral police, girlfriends, boyfriends, it‘s certainly a difficult age to be. Fastrack with its latest proposition offers to take the monkey of their back. Need an â€?excuse‘? Blame Fastrack. Move on.”
The TVCs use a high energy track by an American alternative rock band, Cake – Short Skirt/Long Jacket. “The track lends the TVC a high energy vibe and the lyrics help establish the image of the Fastrack girl,” Das said.
Blame Fastrack is being amplified on the digital media as well. “Social media is the best way to connect and interact with the youth. An extensive twitter and Facebook plan is being put in place to make Blame Fastrack a part of youth pop-culture,” Bhasin said.
MAM
Smytten appoints Shishir Varma as CEO of Pulseai Research
Rebranded AI platform scales with 150 plus clients and 30 million users.
MUMBAI: In a world obsessed with what consumers say, Smytten is betting on what they actually do. The company has appointed Shishir Varma as chief executive officer of Pulseai Research, signalling a sharper push into AI-led, behaviour-driven consumer insights. The move comes as Smytten rebrands its insights vertical from Smytten PulseAI to Pulseai Research, marking a shift away from traditional, project-based research towards a more continuous, intelligence-led model.
Varma brings over 30 years of global experience across APAC markets, including India, China and Japan. Most recently managing director, Insights at Kantar Japan, he has built and scaled consumer insight businesses across geographies, including playing a key role in establishing Millward Brown in India. His mandate now: turn Pulseai into a category-defining platform in a space still dominated by surveys and static reports.
The pitch is straightforward but ambitious. Instead of relying on claimed responses, Pulseai Research taps into observed behaviour leveraging Smytten’s ecosystem of 30 million users built over a decade of product discovery, trials and purchases. The idea is to close the long-standing gap between what consumers claim and how they actually behave.
The numbers suggest early traction. In under 18 months, the platform has onboarded over 150 enterprise clients across sectors, pointing to growing demand for faster, more reliable alternatives to legacy research models.
Under the hood, the platform blends behavioural data with AI and large language model-led analysis to deliver real-time sentiment tracking, scalable qualitative insights, faster quantitative studies and always-on brand intelligence. In practical terms, that means compressing research timelines from weeks to days without sacrificing depth.
The ambition extends beyond FMCG. Pulseai Research is positioning itself as a cross-category intelligence layer, spanning auto, education, gadgets and emerging consumer segments anywhere behaviour-rich data can sharpen decision-making.
For Smytten, the leadership hire is less about optics and more about direction. With Varma at the helm, the company is leaning into a simple but powerful premise: in the age of AI, insight isn’t just about asking better questions, it’s about watching more closely.
