MAM
Outbrain appoints SVG Media as sales partner
MUMBAI: Outbrain, the leading global discovery platform, has announced that it has entered into a sales partnership in India with SVG Media- India’s largest Digital Media Company, recently acquired by Dentsu Aegis Network.
SVG Media, soon to be known as SVG Columbus, has been appointed as the official Sales Partner in India for Outbrain. It will help the company to continue to grow its presence and strengthen its foundation in India, allowing Outbrain to further penetrate the market.
SVG Media will allocate a workforce of over 10 digital experts across offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore and will support Outbrain in working with brands all over the country. Since its launch in early 2014, Outbrain has experienced massive growth in India, and the partnership will further strengthen its presence in the market at a time when the company is more than ever advancing its product and services to provide something truly valuable for its clients.
“Since entering the market in 2014, India has proven to be a market with huge potential for Outbrain and we’ve observed tremendous growth over the past few years,” said Outbrain HoD – APAC Chris Mockford.
Outbrain sales director for India Neeraj Singhal commented: “Outbrain continues to be the medium of choice for brands across all industry sectors that wish to reach relevant audiences in India. Through this partnership with SVG Media we will be able to serve our clients, as well as better deploy our technology, tools, proprietary analytics and insight capabilities.”
Komli SVP Akshay Mathur said, “SVG brings unparalleled understanding of the Indian market and execution capabilities. This is the reason why majority of the world’s leading companies are choosing us for setting up their India business. We are delighted to partner with Outbrain and look forward to supporting them in building their India business.”
SVG Media CEO Anurag Gupta commented, “We’re incredibly excited about the potential for this new partnership. Outbrain’s superb reputation is entirely in-sync with the reputation that SVG Media has worked so hard to create in India.” He added: “SVG Media works with almost all the leading brands in India and we look forward to bringing them on Outbrain’s unique discovery solution”.
Over the last six years, SVG Media has been the India market entry partner for the leading Internet brands, including Facebook, Twitter, OLX, LinkedIn, Zynga and others. These companies have chosen SVG Media because of its unmatched understanding of India’s emerging digital advertising market. The company has also contributed aggregate revenues of $2 billion to its international partners.
Outbrain continues to advance Discovery in Asia and has spent the past five years on the ground educating the market and building the largest network of premium sites for discovery. The continued expansion of the company significantly increases the marketer’s ability to build audiences and drive discovery for their brands.
Outbrain’s growing reach combines local premium publications, such as the Indian Express, The Hindu, Moneycontrol, Business Standard and ESPNcricinfo, in addition to global sites like CNN, ESPN, Time Inc. and BBC. Worldwide, it serves over 250 billion recommendations per month and reaches in the region of a billion users every month across the globe.
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.
