MAM
MTV India adopts a new ‘Raw’ look
MUMBAI: MTV, the youth brand channel, will go “raw” as it repositions for its Indian viewers from 27 November.
The new philosophy – ‘Stay Raw’ – will be supported by a new logo and packaging that will start promoting across Viacom18 network channels, print, outdoor and Internet.
Changing its earlier gameplan, MTV is also upping its music quotient as the M in MTV gets a boost to play a key role in India‘s rapidly changing marketplace..
Says MTV India channel head Aditya Swamy, “What we have started is not an ad campaign or new tagline. It’s a philosophy. It’s an idea that is based on what young people today believe, expressed in an edgy yet tongue in cheek manner which is trademark MTV. A powerful idea has a limitless canvas and way this has come together is proof of just that.”
In a strategic content shift, MTV is creating four music blocks – MTV BBM (Big Bang Mornings); MTV Music Xprs; MTV Mash Ups; and MTV International.
MTV BBM will play latest Bollywood music in the morning, while the afternoon music block (MTV Music Xprs) will have film music from across the years.
In the evenings, the global MTV phenomenon will hit India. MTV Mash Ups, the unique concept of East meets West, will see VJ Nikhil mashing up the Indian and International tracks from the same genre.
And the channel has decided to get back the global music charts with MTV International, the midnight block.
“The success of pure music channels 9XM and the newly launched Mastiii is, perhaps, forcing the older music channels to relook on their music content. MTV and Channel [V] had taken steps to reduce their music content as they repositioned themselves as youth brand channels. MTV could now be trying to play a fine balance between their reality and music content,” says a media tracker.
Swamy, however, feels that there is a need for youth channel brands to reinvent themselves from time to time to stay ahead of the curve. “Our core TG evolves very fast, and so we have to reinvent ourselves. We are just resonating,” he says.
On the reality content front, MTV is feeling the heat from UTV Bindass that has succeeded with bold homegrown reality shows like Emotional Attyachaar and Dadagiri.
Swamy denies that the move has anything to do with competition in the youth genre. “Today MTV is much bigger than a TV channel. Only 50 per cent of our revenues come from airtime sales,” he says.
For years, music channels in India have struggled to develop subscription and licensing and merchandising as strong revenue streams.
MTV has taken progressive steps to reduce its overarching dependence on advertising revenue. In an interview in mid-2009, the then MTV India head Ashish Patil had told Indiantelevision.com that ad sales accounted for 65 per cent of the overall revenues, of which 5 per cent comes from international clients. “Around 15 per cent comes from affiliates, which is also increasing. 15 per cent comes from Viacom Brand Solutions (client lead stuff, events and advertiser funded programming) like The Fast and The Gorgeorus, Stunt Mania etc. The remaining 5 per cent comes from L&M and movie previews (Ghajini).”
For promoting its new ‘raw‘ look, the channel is going ad free over the weekend for the first time, doing a “roadblock for itself.”
The new look of MTV is designed by UK-based Petrol, while the creatives are done by Bates 141.
The channel is going to promote the change heavily with graphics. It has created a series of 3D channel IDs and over 100 creatives that will communicate its ‘Stay Raw’ philosophy through mass media and digital.
MTV said Friday it is launching the second season of ‘Kurkure Desi Beats Rock On with MTV’ on 27 November at 7 pm and ‘Vodafone MTV Splitsvilla Season 4’ on 3 December at 7 pm.
“The channel has got rock band Indian Ocean and music director and composer Pritam to judge the singing reality show this season,” says Swamy.
MTV recently launched its first ever magazine globally, MTV Noise Factory. It also launched a website mtvplay.in, which captures and shares what’s going on in the minds of young people with marketers and advertisers.
“MTV plans to enter a new growth phase. All its new moves are a step in this direction. The challenge is for it to succeed on the content front as well as on the new brand position it has taken,” says a senior executive from a rival network.
MAM
How beverage brands are rethinking marketing strategies for weather-led demand
SLMG Beverages Private Limited joint managing director Paritosh Ladhani.
MUMBAI: As Sun climbs up the hemisphere, summer has clearly arrived in India. On 7th March 2026 Delhi registered a maximum temperature of 35.7 degrees Celsius which is the highest reading logged for the first week of March in the last 50 years. Climate Change has been prolonging summers by causing earlier spring warming, delayed autumn cooling, and more frequent, intense heatwaves that persist for much longer periods.
In an endeavor to stay ahead of the curve, Beverage Brands are shifting from fixed seasonal marketing tactics to weather responsive strategies backed by data-driven insights, flexible campaigns, and diversified portfolios to capitalize on unruly temperature spike. In 2025, India’s beverage market experienced a massive, heat-triggered surge with carbonated drinks and ice cream volumes spiking 20–25 per cent in the March quarter itself on the back of hottest February in 125 years.
Clearly campaign timelines are being advanced to reap the seasonal shift in line with the jumping mercury. In the Indian context where Cricket is nothing short of religion, big ticket tournaments like T20 World Cup, Indian Premier League, ICC Champions Trophy provide plethora of opportunities to calibrate marketing campaign designs and associated business strategies to associate refreshment with community viewing both outdoor and indoors. A new trend that has taken the world by storm is that of booking the theatres for bonhomie viewing. It has also opened avenues for joint marketing initiatives by the Multiplex and Beverage Brands.
Price disrupting small potions and value packs tend to drive significantly higher volumes owing to volumetric flexibility and affordability to the consumers. Ramping up of cold supply chains for transit and at point of sales (POS) are strategic business imperatives that again define success of beverage brands.
In the era of AI and Big Data it is easy to track and calibrate messaging based on daily or weekly weather changes. Geo-targeted digital advertisement campaigns are also being run during heatwaves to make the business and marketing imperative very contextual. These pre-emptive strategies fueled by real time data and technology immensely help beverage brands to adjust supplies to the areas that are likely to generate more demand.
Novelty brings premium to the FMCG Sector and Beverage Brands are no exception. Newer SKUs build up excitement in consumers besides imparting the scope of frequent revitalization of brand marketing campaigns. Ensuring continuum of supply chain across material suppliers, logistics providers, distributors/wholesalers, and retailers become a strategic business strategy imperative for beverage brands during peak season.
Carbonated drinks among other beverages including packaged mineral water sell like hotcakes in summers, a period where holiday season gives big impetus to sales volumes. Tying up with air carriers railways, amusement parks, malls, convention centers for inclusion in the onboard beverage deck also holds a big window of opportunity for brands.
Limited period diversification into special summer categories entailing juices and functional beverages to capture the broader hydration market is also a business cum marketing imperative that beverage brands eye on. This also brings to fore the responsible side of the brand placing the compass on wellness of consumers.
Seasons are cyclic, hence summers are inevitable. Further, due to anthropogenic climate change, summers surely have been staging prolonged appearance that keep bringing beverage brands on to their drawing boards frequently for strategizing business and marketing campaigns that are agile, refreshment-focused, visually dominant in retail, affordable, and optimally promoted through seasonal campaigns in above and below the line media.
