Brands
Milk, money and sixes: Amul and Nandini eye RCB during IPL 2026
BENGALURU: From breakfast tables to boundary ropes, India’s milk war is getting frothy. Fresh off their IPL 2025 triumph, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) are set to become the hottest property in town — and the prize cow in a high-stakes sponsorship tussle between Amul and Nandini ahead of the 2026 season.
According to Moneycontrol, the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), which sells dairy under the Nandini brand, is exploring a title sponsorship and partnership with RCB for IPL 2026, taking direct aim at rival Amul, which was associated with the franchise last season. Call it full-cream competition.
KMF has floated a tender to appoint an IPL-authorised agency to broker Nandini’s entry as an official RCB partner. The shopping list is lavish: use of the RCB name, logo and trademarks on packaging, advertising and public relations campaigns through the IPL window. Stadium kiosks at RCB’s home games are also on the menu, turning matchdays into milk runs.
Digital is central to the churn. Nandini plans to milk RCB’s players and logo across Instagram, X and Facebook, backed by outdoor hoardings and large-format media. KMF managing director B Shivaswamy, believes the logic is local and emotional: RCB represents Karnataka. He added that KMF is keen to rope in Virat Kohli and two other RCB players for promotional campaigns.
The bigger ambition is national. The IPL’s megaphone will be used to push Nandini deeper into Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Mumbai, markets where Amul has long enjoyed pole position. An additional tender for digital gantry advertising at Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, underlines the federation’s intent to blanket eyeballs, from arrivals halls to boundary lines.
KMF has been steadily bulking up its sports-marketing muscle. It sponsored Scotland and Ireland at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, and has tied up with teams in the Pro Kabaddi League and the Indian Super League. Cricket, though, remains the fattest cow.
The dairy duel has political undertones too. Ahead of the 2023 Karnataka elections, Amul’s entry into Bengaluru sparked a storm, with fears it would dent the local cooperative and its army of farmers. KMF, which counts 24 lakh milk producers, procures 8.4 million litres daily and reported a turnover of nearly Rs 19,800 crore in 2021–22, is not short of heft. Amul, however, remains the heavyweight, clocking a provisional Rs 55,055 crore in 2022–23.
RCB, meanwhile, can sit back and enjoy the bidding war. When milk brands start throwing elbows over a cricket team, you know the IPL has truly entered its richest innings. The cows are restless — and the stakes are rising.
Brands
Uber launches hotel bookings feature in partnership with Expedia
From hotel bookings to room service at your door, the ride-hailing giant is making its boldest push yet into everyday life
CALIFORNIA: Uber is done being just a taxi app. At its annual GO-GET product event, the world’s leading mobility and delivery platform unveiled a sweeping set of new features designed to plant itself at the centre of how people travel, eat and shop, hotel bookings included.
The headline move is a partnership with Expedia Group that lets Uber users in the United States book hotels directly within the Uber app, with access to a catalogue that will eventually grow to more than 700,000 properties worldwide. Uber One members get 10 per cent back in Uber One credits on all hotel bookings and savings of at least 20 per cent on a rolling list of more than 10,000 hotels globally. Vacation rentals from Vrbo, Expedia Group’s home-rental brand, will be added later this year. The partnership is expected to expand beyond the United States. From June, Uber rides will also be integrated directly into the Expedia app, with push notifications sent to travellers ahead of hotel check-in to book discounted Uber rides for the duration of their stay.
Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive of Uber, framed the expansion in terms of the modern condition. “Uber is becoming an app for everything, helping people go, get, and now travel all in one place,” he said. “We’re all living through a moment of real cognitive overload: too many apps, too many decisions, too much noise. At the end of the day, our job is to help people reclaim their time, spending less of it managing the logistics of life and more of it actually living.”
Ariane Gorin, chief executive of Expedia Group, struck a similarly ambitious note. “Travel should feel effortless, and this partnership gets us one step closer to offering a seamless traveller experience,” she said. “By connecting our two-sided marketplace with Uber, we’re bringing Uber rides directly into the Expedia app and Expedia Group’s lodging inventory into the Uber app through our Rapid API technology. Together, we’re helping travellers spend less time planning and more time enjoying the journey.”
Beyond hotels, the product announcements come thick and fast. Travel Mode, available within both the Uber and Uber Eats apps, offers curated recommendations on local favourites, tourist destinations, OpenTable restaurant reservations and on-demand delivery to hotel rooms. Uber One International means the membership programme now works globally, allowing members to earn credits on rides abroad that can be redeemed once back home. A new Shop for Me feature lets users request items from any store, even those not listed on the app. Eats for the Way allows riders in select cities booking an Uber Black or Uber Black SUV to have a drink or snack waiting for them in the car. Voice Bookings, powered by artificial intelligence, lets users book a ride conversationally, without touching their phone. And a redesigned One Search bar consolidates results for places, food and items across the entire Uber platform in a single query.
Uber has now logged more than 72 billion trips since it launched in 2010. The question it is now answering is what comes after the ride. The answer, apparently, is everything else. Whether users want a hotel in Paris, a coffee in the back of a car or a snake plant from the local garden centre, Uber would very much like to be the one to provide it. The app economy’s land grab has a new front-runner.
NOTE: The image used is AI generated and only for representational purposes.
