MAM
Lukup Media partners with Mediabrands Indonesia
MUMBAI: Bangalore-based cross-platform interactive advertising company Lukup Media has signed an agreement with Mediabrands Indonesia, the media arm of the Interpublic Group to offer media mobile advertising and consumer engagement solutions to advertisers, brands and content providers.
According to the company, Lukup Media‘s ad platform is the mobile equivalent of a fan page on a social networking site. Instead of liking a page, a customer just needs to type in the brand‘s URL on to their mobile web browser. This subscribes them to the brand and the custodian of the brand can then push media notifications to them based on their location.
Lukup Media director Kallol Borah said, “Our platform enables advertisers to deliver their ad to the right target audience at the right time; and empower the audience to directly and immediately start interacting with the brand. We are thrilled to work with Mediabrands who have proven expertise in the media industry.”
Mediabrands Indonesia CEO Ram Subramaniam said, “We discovered that TV, social media and mobile are working in combination to empower a new group of consumers. We have called this new group the “top 10%”. This new group is having a profound influence on brand choice across categories and we can target such influencers using this platform.”
The features of the Lukup Mobile platform are: advertisers can push rich media notification (not just text); campaigns can be targeted to a specific location; campaigns are fully interactive (higher brand engagement); all data on the campaign‘s delivery and usage is available to the brand/advertiser and the platform is compatible with all smartphone platforms (Android, Blackberry, iOS and Windows).
Lukup and Mediabrands will also collaborate to create a qualified database of consumers to target rich media promotions that are delivered from the Lukup Mobile system.
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.
