MAM
Only Vimal
Vimal – the name stands out in the annals of Indian advertising as a brand well developed and projected. The credit naturally goes to Mudra, which developed and nurtured the brand when branding as a concept was still in its infancy in India.
Vimal today features amongst its peers in The Economic Times Brand Equity 100 Survey of India’s most trusted brands published on 14 August 2002. In fact, the brand ranked first in the ‘Clothes Call’ – Apparel Ranking section.
Each Vimal ad exemplified the brand’s core promise and ensured that the creative ideation and execution gave it an ‘out-of-the-ordinary’ and ‘icon-ish’ look. One must remember that Reliance decided to adopt different marketing and creative strategies in a time plagued by difficult market conditions. The entire burst of creative excellence was continued over a 15-year period by a team of young creative brains headed by AG Krishnamurthy.
Krishnamurthy attributes the stunning output of work to a ‘nothing-is-impossible’ attitude as defined by Dhirubhai Ambani and an intrinsic motivation to justify the faith and trust that Ambani had reposed in the team.
Vimal sarees :
Vimal began its existence as a saree brand nearly 25 years ago with its memorable tag-line: ‘A woman expresses herself in many languages, Vimal is one of them’. Since then, Vimal has gloriously celebrated the multi-faceted beauty of Indian women. The concept of ‘multi-facetedness’ was the bridge between the product and the consumers. The creative team aspired to improve the earlier benchmarks and pushed the brand further up the creative ladder. Needless to say, Vimal sarees grew to become India’s largest selling fashion fabric.
In the early 1980s, the ad campaign also spawned a series of parallel visual identities that were aimed at addressing the fragmented Indian consumer markets. Filmstars like Sridevi and Jaya Prada figured amongst the early brand endorsers. In the mid 1980s, the ‘Sweet Memories Dress Material’ campaign, celebrated as the ‘Eyes’ campaign, ensured that fabric photography acquired magical quality with its ‘touch-n-feel’ sensuousness.
A distinct element was the fact that uncommon sizes were used like a ‘breath of fresh air’ in those ‘prim-n-propah’ days. Towards the late 1980s, Vimal stepped out of the ‘tight mid and close-up product shots’ which were so characteristic of advertising in those days. India’s culture and heritage provided idyllic settings and backdrops for the shoots.
A first for newspaper advertising was the 16-column Vimal ad featuring several ‘colourfully draped’ women released in 1991. The early 1990s also witnessed an attempt to remain at the cutting edge of advertising by exploring the genre of experimental photography. After a long break, Gautami, a South Indian film star, made her presence felt in the Starlite Collection. Post 1993, Vimal sarees and dress materials were slowly phased out as the company focused on exports of suit fabric. Saree advertising gently and gracefully made its exit. The last few campaigns echo the beauty of its glorious past!
Vimal Suitings :
In 1980, Vimal Suitings made its mark in an intensely competitive scenario marked by venerable longstanding brands. The only advantage Vimal Suitings had was its product superiority premise. The first campaigns carried inserts of the machinery and this path breaking, highly unusual feature. The fact that a textile brand was pioneering the trend of being sold as a consumer durable drew flak from the advertising bigwigs. However, the sincerity of the brand’s courage of conviction won the say.
There were six phases in the campaign;
# the first established the superiority backed by technology endorsements (Deepak Parasher, Kanwaljit and inserts of the Reliance plants);
# the second had achievers endorsing the brand’s caliber (Param Vishisht Seva medal recipient Lt. General JS Arora, world amateur and world open billiards champion Michael Ferreira and editor-publisher RK Karanjia endorsing the premium wool range); the third ensured that the brand achieved enough momentum to dictate fashion (Kabir Bedi campaign where Vimal donned the mantle of dispensing tips on personality grooming);
# the fourth firmly established the brand as the ‘style guru’ (Deepak Malhotra ushering in the slow movement towards heightened aesthetics rather than harping on the calibre);
# the fifth used celebrity cricketers (Ravi Shastri and Allan Border) for the first time ever;
# the brand continued its passion for fashion in the sixth phase (fashion gurus such as Rohit Bal). The partnership of fashion designers, fashion shows and Vimal played its part in paving the way for the current haute couture and pr?t wave.
In the mid 1990s, the brand continued to keep style in the foreground, even through all its product launches in speciality fabrics like angora, mohair and cashmere; innovative products ahead of their times. The late 1990s had models like Milind Soman advocating the ‘looks of a winner’.
Certainly not surprising to know that Vimal moved into the top slot as the fashion leader in just six years.
Harmony:
In 1986, Harmony furnishing fabrics was born when Reliance installed their first home textiles manufacturing unit. The advertising for the premium and upmarket Harmony collection was sporadic; not as profuse as that of the sarees and suitings. From its initial positioning as ‘premium furnishing fabric’, the ad campaign moved into the ‘interior fashion textiles’ and later as ‘textile art for interiors’! The vintage flair and exuberance was clearly visible in the 1988 creative that shows a rather unusual and dramatic visual of a furnishing fabric flowing out of a champagne bottle. The brand was relaunched in 1994 with a whole new identity and spectacular photographs. The Heritage series campaign was the first for the country to depict the traditional Indian textile art (Bandhani, Jamavar) forms.
The change of positioning from a mere utilitarian furnishing fabric to an aspirational ‘art’ form led to the highly popular annual Harmony event. The Harmony show hosts the largest exhibition of Indian art and is a regular feature of the art-lover’s annual calendar!
The eventful 22 years of ‘Only Vimal’ touched many hearts and souls through its oft-repeated (but seldom practiced) belief of ‘I-have-to-be-the-best-at-any-cost’!
MAM
Lessons from global media markets on building enduring content franchises
Rose Audio Visuals COO and CFO Mitesh Patel.
MUMBAI: The global media landscape has undergone a fundamental shift. Success today is no longer defined by a single hit show. It is defined by the ability to build intellectual property (IP) that travels, evolves, and compounds over time.
At Rose Audio Visuals, this shift is central to how we think about content pitching and creation. We are no longer in the business of just making shows. We are in the business of building IP ecosystems.
From Hits to Franchises
Globally, the most successful content is designed to extend beyond its first outing. It travels across: Seasons, Platforms (TV → OTT → Digital), Formats (series → spin-offs) Shows like Stranger Things and Money Heist are not just successful series they are multi-layered franchises with global recall, fan engagement, and long-term monetisation. The key learning is simple: If content cannot scale beyond one season or one platform, it remains a project not a franchise.
Local Stories, Global Impact
One of the most powerful global trends is the rise of culturally rooted storytelling. Platforms today reward local authenticity combined with universal emotion. Stories that are deeply regional are no longer limited by geography they are amplified by it. Consider the global impact of Squid Game or India’s own Sacred Games. The takeaway is clear: The more authentic the story, the greater its potential to travel if the emotion resonates universally.
Monetisation Begins After the First Window
A critical global learning is that the true value of content is not realised at launch, it is realised over time.
Strong franchises unlock multiple revenue streams: Licensing, International remakes, Brand integrations, Digital extensions , Events and immersive experiences
Global players like The Walt Disney Company have mastered this approach, turning content into long-term ecosystems that extend far beyond the screen.
The first window is just the beginning. The real value lies in what follows.
At Rose Audio Visuals, we increasingly evaluate projects not just on commissioning value, but on their long-term franchise potential.
The Rise of Creator-Led Franchises
An important global shift is the emergence of creator-led IP ecosystems.
Creators today are not just content producers they are building full-scale franchises across platforms, formats, and businesses.
A powerful example is MrBeast. What started as YouTube videos has evolved into: Multiple content formats, Global audience scale , Brand extensions and businesses, High-impact experiential content This is a fundamentally different model digital-first, audience-owned, and infinitely scalable.
This model is still in its early stages in Indian but it represents a massive opportunity.
The next wave of Indian content franchises may not come from traditional studios alone but from creators who think like media companies.
Balancing Data with Creative Instinct
Streaming platforms today are deeply data-driven. Data helps Identify emerging genres, Predict audience behaviour , Inform commissioning decisions However, global experience shows that data alone does not create hits. Data informs scale, but storytelling creates impact.
Talent is the Foundation of Franchises
Enduring franchises are rarely accidental they are built through long-term creative partnerships. Globally, there is a clear focus on nurturing Actors, Writter, Show runner and director. Franchises are not built on scripts alone they are built on creators. This is an area where we continue to invest deeply building long-term relationships with talent rather than project-based collaborations.
Multi-Platform Thinking from Day One
Content consumption today is inherently multi-platform. A successful show must be designed not just for its primary platform, but for: Short-form extensions, Social media amplification, Digital-first engagement. Every show today needs a second life beyond its original format.
India: A Market at an Inflection Point
India today stands at a unique moment in its content journey.
We are seeing significant opportunity in Regional markets (Telugu, Tamil, Marathi and others) Emerging formats such as micro-dramas, Scalable, franchise-driven fiction IP
India does not lack stories. What we have historically lacked is structured franchise thinking something that is now beginning to evolve.
The Way Forward
The biggest lesson from global markets is this: The future belongs to companies that do not chase hits, but systematically build franchises. Because while hits may deliver immediate success, franchises create long-term value, recall, and compounding growth.
At Rose Audio Visuals, this belief shapes how we develop, greenlight, and scale content across platforms.
For content companies today, the question is no longer “Will this show work?” It is: “Can this become a franchise?”
A Personal Note
Having worked across content, business, and strategy, one thing has become increasingly clear to me, the most valuable companies in our industry will not be those that create the most content, but those that create content that endures.
Building a franchise requires patience, conviction, and a long-term lens something that the industry is only now beginning to fully embrace.As we continue this journey at Rose Audio Visuals, our focus remains simple: to move from volume-driven creation to value-driven storytelling. Because in the end, stories may start conversations but franchises build legacies.
