Brands
‘Our marketing spends will stay flat at Rs 6 bn’ : LG India VP marketing LK Gupta
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A sluggish market and depressed consumer demand is not deterring consumer electronic major LG India to reduce its marketing spend this year. The drive will be to reallocate spends with print seeing a marginal dip. Television will stay flat while digital ad spends will jump 50%.
 The South Korean conglomerate will cut back its marketing spend on cricket, from Rs 1 billion in 2011. But it is still bullish on the game and believes addresses a wider consumer base compared to music or Bollywood. In an interview with Indiantelevision.com‘s Ashwin Pinto, LG India VP marketing LK Gupta talks about the company‘s thrust in pushing new technology products like 3D and the marketing strategy it is following to drive growth in sales.
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So far year 2012 has been difficult for LG and the consumer electronics sector. What are the reasons behind this slow growth?
However, even though it has been a year of challenges so far due to difficult macroeconomic environment like inflation, dollar appreciation and constant hike in input prices, the good news for us is that LG has grown by 15 per cent in its core business of Home Entertainment and Home Appliances. There has been a growth of 30 per cent in Home Appliances business and 25 per cent growth in Flat panel business. |
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By when do you see the situation turning around and what corrective measures are being taken by LG? At this point LG is launching flagship products across categories which will help in strengthening our product leadership via strong marketing campaigns. This includes LED, LCD TV, refrigerators, washing machines, Split ACs and microwave ovens.
We are looking at a 25 per cent growth in sales overall this year. |
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Could you talk about the impact of rising input costs due to the declining rupee value and how is it affecting the business? |
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On a more positive note, there is increasing adoption and acceptance of new technologies like HD and 3D by consumers. How is LG tapping into this with new products?
Technology and design are key factors behind LG Home entertainment products. With our 2012 3D Smart TV line-up, we have been able to take a significant step forward, thanks to a series of new and upgraded 3D features led by the Cinema Screen Design.
With the 2012 Olympic Games to be broadcast in 3D and more than 30 English and Hindi 3D movies to hit the Indian Cinema theatres, 3D entertainment is set to explode in India at a steady growth of 500 per cent. We are targeting business worth Rs 10 billion from 3D TVs and aim to consolidate our position in the Flat Panel TV segment with 30 per cent market share.
To ensure the numbers we have an aggressive marketing strategy with a target investment of Rs 1 billion in Flagship product communication. This will be accompanied by experiential marketing campaigns. |
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LED TVs are growing fast in sales. Is this technology superior to LCD TVs? |
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Will the slowdown affect your marketing spends?
A slowdown scenario indicates that fewer consumers are willing to buy in the current time and many consumers, due to the prevailing market mood, start postponing their discretionary purchases.
In such a situation marketing has to be focussed on converting the customers who are willing to buy. Accordingly, marketing spending will focus in the short term on in-store excellence.
Investments will be geared to give consumers a better in-store experience via display, demonstration and branding visibility for flagship products. At the same time, advertising will be more streamlined to deliver higher efficiency within the same budget. This will impact the media choices in print and TV media. Digital media, which plays a very important role in the consumer decision journey of searching and evaluating products, will be given a bigger share to have an early influence on potential customers. |
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In terms of LG’s marketing spend how does it split between TV, print, and radio? Will the slowdown force a change in the platforms that you use? |
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Which medium is more impactful in terms of reach and brand recall? |
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But isn‘t it true that when consumers are hesitant companies need to be more aggressive in marketing? Does LG agree with this? |
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A couple of years ago LG aimed to change its brand perception from a mass to an aspirational brand. Did this work? |
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Have any new campaigns been lined up and could you talk about the thrust?
Simultaneously we announced a digital interactive campaign on Facebook called My Eco Home which will allow Facebook fans around the world to create and share their own personalised, virtual dream homes. An industry first, LG’s My Eco Home Facebook app reflects the company’s effort to interact with today’s customers in new, innovative ways. We also rolled our new TVC for the latest range of Cinema 3D Smart TV. LG Electronics India is betting big on Flat panel category and you will see a 360 degree campaign across to strengthen this portfolio. |
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When LG partnered the ICC and then renewed the deal what were the objectives? To what extent have these objectives been met? |
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What role has the ICC relationship played in giving you leg up on competition? |
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How much of your marketing spend goes towards cricket and has this been rising year on year? |
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Why did you stay away from the IPL? |
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| As a platform how does cricket compare to other avenues like music and Bollywood? Certainly cricket is a far bigger platform and it addresses a far bigger consumer base as compared to music or Bollywood. |
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| Will the monies that cricket gets this year from advertising be affected as it requires high expenditure by companies who are fighting a slowdown? Not really! In India cricket fortunes swing with Indian team’s fortune. If the team does well, advertisers will continue to invest behind cricket. |
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| Apart from cricket, which other sports is LG involved with? At present LG is associated with cricket and at the global level with Formula 1. In cricket, we like to develop innovative consumer engagement programmes. |
Brands
Amazon Q1 revenue jumps 17 per cent to $181.5bn, profit soars to $30.3bn
AWS surges 28 per cent while AI bets reshape cash flow and drive future growth
SEATTLE: Amazon kicked off 2026 with a strong first quarter, reporting a 17 per cent year-on-year jump in net sales to $181.5 billion, up from $155.7 billion in the same period last year, as growth across cloud, advertising, and retail continued to gather pace.
Excluding a $2.9 billion favourable impact from foreign exchange, sales still rose a solid 15 per cent, underlining broad-based demand across its businesses.
The company’s cloud arm, Amazon Web Services, remained the star performer, with revenue climbing 28 per cent to $37.6 billion. Operating income for AWS reached $14.2 billion, up from $11.5 billion a year ago, reinforcing its role as Amazon’s profit engine.
Meanwhile, North America sales rose 12 per cent to $104.1 billion, while international revenue increased 19 per cent to $39.8 billion, or 11 per cent excluding currency effects.
Profit growth outpaced revenue. Operating income climbed to $23.9 billion from $18.4 billion last year, while net income surged to $30.3 billion, or $2.78 per share, compared with $17.1 billion, or $1.59 per share, in the first quarter of 2025. A significant boost came from $16.8 billion in pre-tax gains linked to Amazon’s investment in Anthropic.
Cash generation also strengthened, with operating cash flow rising 30 per cent to $148.5 billion over the trailing twelve months. However, free cash flow dropped sharply to $1.2 billion from $25.9 billion, largely due to a $59.3 billion increase in capital expenditure, primarily tied to artificial intelligence investments.
Commenting on the results, Amazon president and CEO Andy Jassy said, “We’re making customers’ lives easier and better every day across all our businesses, and their response is driving significant growth.”
He added that AWS growth of 28 per cent marked its fastest pace in 15 quarters, while Amazon’s chips business crossed a $20 billion annual revenue run rate, growing at triple-digit rates. Advertising revenue also crossed $70 billion on a trailing twelve-month basis, and store unit growth hit 15 per cent, its highest since the tail end of pandemic lockdowns.
Artificial intelligence remained front and centre of Amazon’s strategy. The company deepened partnerships with OpenAI, Meta, NVIDIA and Uber, while expanding its proprietary chip ecosystem including Trainium and Graviton.
Amazon revealed that it has already deployed over 2.1 million AI chips in the past year and plans to roll out more than one million NVIDIA GPUs starting in 2026. OpenAI alone is expected to consume around two gigawatts of Trainium capacity for advanced AI workloads beginning in 2027.
The company also highlighted rapid adoption of its AI services, with Amazon Bedrock processing more tokens in the first quarter than in all previous years combined, and customer spending on the platform rising 170 per cent quarter-on-quarter.
Beyond cloud and AI, Amazon continued to scale its consumer and logistics ecosystem. It delivered more than one billion items via same-day or overnight delivery so far in 2026 and expanded ultra-fast delivery services across multiple global markets. Prime Video also saw strong engagement, including sports streaming growth and box office success for original content like Project Hail Mary, which has grossed nearly $615 million globally.
Looking ahead, Amazon expects second-quarter net sales to reach between $194 billion and $199 billion, representing growth of 16 per cent to 19 per cent year-on-year. Operating income is projected between $20 billion and $24 billion.
Despite macro uncertainties ranging from foreign exchange fluctuations to global economic conditions, Amazon appears to be leaning into its biggest bets yet. With AI investments accelerating and cloud demand holding firm, the company is positioning itself not just for growth, but for what it calls the next big inflection in technology and commerce.
