MAM
Lowe Lintas & Partners wins big at AMES
MUMBAI: Lowe Lintas & Partners India continues its great run on effectiveness at yet another awards show – Asian Marketing Effectiveness & Strategy Awards, held in Singapore recently. The agency’s work on ‘Lifebuoy – Help a Child Reach 5’for its client Hindustan Unilever Limited bagged the enviable Platinum award (Effectiveness category) at the prestigious award show.
Apart from the coveted award, Lowe Lintas & Partners India also won the Gold in Effectiveness – Food Products for their work on Kissan ‘100% Natural Seeded’ for HUL. The same entry also won a Bronze in Effective – Innovative Use of Media category. The agency also bagged a Silver under the Effective – Integrated Marketing Campaign category for its work on ‘Lifebuoy Help A Child Reach 5.
Commenting on the win, Lowe Lintas & Partners CEO Joseph George said, “This performance of Lowe Lintas + Partners and Unilever is our best ever at AMEs. For either of us. This reflects our shared belief in what makes for effective communication.”
The performance at AMES follows Lowe Lintas & Partners’ fine achievement in April 2014 where it was named the most Effective Indian Agency at the APAC EFFIEs Awards 2014. The agency had bagged 4 metals including 2 Golds, a Sliver and a Bronze out of total 6 metals for India. Lowe Lintas & Partners was also bestowed the ‘Agency of the Year’ title at Indian Effies 2013.
Lowe Lintas & Partners CMO Vikas Mehta said, “We had entered a small number of campaigns this year at the AMEs. Four wins including the all-important platinum is remarkable. I’m told it’s the country’s first AME platinum on effectiveness. That sure feels nice.”
The Asian Marketing Effectiveness and Strategy Awards are Asia Pacific’s foremost awards honoring clients and their agencies for marketing strategies that deliver solid results to transform businesses and brands. The annual awards are judged by a panel of top client and agency professionals who review the submissions against stringent criteria to determine the winners of the prestigious Asian Marketing Effectiveness and Strategy awards.
Apple rarely announces minor updates with much fanfare, and iOS 26.4 is no exception. No dramatic redesigns, no flashy keynote moments. What it delivers instead is a focused set of improvements that sharpen the experience you already have. If that sounds underwhelming, spend a week with it. You will change your mind.
Apple Music Learns to Listen Better
The biggest shift in this update lives inside Apple Music. Apple has brought AI-powered playlist generation to the app, and it works on mood rather than genre. Type something like “rainy evening at home” or “running late on a Monday,” and it builds a playlist that actually fits. This is not algorithmic guesswork dressed up in new clothing. It genuinely reads the intent behind vague descriptions and responds well.
Alongside this, a new concerts feature scans your listening history and surfaces live events happening near you. It is a smart bridge between your digital music habits and real-world experiences. Apple is quietly making the case that a music app should do more than just play songs.
Shazam also gets a meaningful upgrade. It can now identify songs without an internet connection. This might sound like a minor convenience, but anyone who has tried to Shazam something at a crowded venue with patchy signal will tell you it is anything but minor. The feature works locally on-device, which also means it is faster.
CarPlay Gets Smarter Controls
CarPlay has been updated with deeper integration for intelligent voice assistants. The goal is to reduce how often drivers need to look at a screen or tap anything at all. You speak, things happen. It is a clear step toward making the driving experience safer without stripping away functionality. The integration feels natural rather than bolted on, which is a harder thing to achieve than it sounds.
The Fixes You Feel Every Day
This is where iOS 26.4 earns its keep. Keyboard responsiveness has been improved, and the difference is noticeable immediately. Typing feels more accurate and less combative. Accessibility features have been refined across the board, with better contrast options and adjusted spacing that makes the interface easier to read without forcing you into larger text sizes.
The Health app has also been updated. It now surfaces more actionable insights from your daily data rather than just displaying numbers. If your sleep patterns have shifted or your activity levels have changed, the app now contextualises that clearly instead of leaving you to interpret raw figures on your own.
These are the kinds of changes that do not photograph well for a press release. They also happen to be the ones that make your phone feel genuinely better to use.
A Few Other Additions
New emojis have been added in this update. They will find their way into your conversations faster than you expect. Family Sharing has also been updated, with more granular control over shared payments and subscriptions. If you share an Apple account with family members, this puts clearer limits on who can spend what, which has been a long-requested fix.
What This Update Actually Represents
iOS 26.4 is Apple doing what it does best when it is not trying to make headlines. Every addition here serves a clear purpose. The AI music features are genuinely useful. The CarPlay improvements address a real safety concern. The small UI fixes accumulate into a noticeably smoother daily experience.
There is no bloat. Nothing feels experimental or half-finished. That discipline is harder to maintain than it looks, especially as operating systems grow more complex with each passing year.
If you have been holding off on updating, this is the one worth installing.
