MAM
Oven Story bets high on safety and compliance as it makes pizza consumption a fulfilling affair
As India continues to open up from the pandemic-imposed lockdown, several brands are looking at meaningful ways to make a renewed entry into the lives of consumers – one that will help them make an informed decision especially on the parameters of health and hygiene. One of the early players to alter their offerings since opening up for business again, Oven Story pizza has worked up a safe and hygienic solution to enable consumers to order their favourite meal – the pizza, without worrying about safety and consumption woes.
Ordering outside food during the pandemic has become a distant dream for many with people debating and battling within themselves to deciding on the safety of even their beloved pizza. Oven Story solves this dilemma by ensuing the highest levels of safety while also providing customers with variants of its popular cheese pizzas. Apart from providing the essential safety norms of sanitization, gloves and masks, Oven Story also aces the safety aspect by providing temperature and medical certification of their staff and chefs who are making the pizza, on the app when someone places an order. This ensures that ordering and consuming a pizza from Oven Story is safe and fulfills all safety conditions.
The ad campaign has been conceptualized and executed by Publicis India. The production house for the film is Content Factory while it has been directed by Tarannum Pasricha.
Commenting on the brand campaign thought, Shoumyan Biswas, Head of Strategic Alliances, Rebel Foods said, “Our aim was to instill faith in the minds of our consumers that how Oven Story is doing its best to bring safe and quality product to its consumers. Publicis India has done complete justice to the concept and delivered a great piece of advertisement. Ajeet’s team has been stupendous in terms of conceptualization and delivery of the product.”
Sharing his views on the creative thought process and execution, Publicis India ECD, Ajeet Shukla said, “Like many things during the pandemic, ordering food is also a huge tussle between with heart and the mind, especially when it pertains to one of our favourite foods – the pizza. Oven Story offers a unique safety experience right from showcasing the temperature of the chef preparing your pizza to that of the delivery person at your doorstep. The entire journey ensures the ultimate safety to relish an Oven Story pizza and puts our hearts and mind at peace.”
The ad campaign is being promoted heavily on digital and television platforms and will air on popular entertainment, infotainment, and sporting properties over the next few weeks.
Brands
Estée Lauder to shed 10,000 jobs as new boss bets on digital shift
The cosmetics giant raises its profit outlook but stays silent on a possible merger with Spain’s Puig, as job cuts deepen and a three-year sales slump weighs on the turnaround
NEW YORK: Stéphane de La Faverie is not done cutting. Estée Lauder announced on Friday that it plans to eliminate as many as 3,000 additional jobs, taking its total redundancy programme to as many as 10,000 roles, up from a previous target of 7,000 announced a year ago. The company, which owns La Mer, The Ordinary, Tom Ford, and Aveda, employs roughly 57,000 people worldwide. The mathematics of what is now being contemplated is stark.
The fresh round of cuts is expected to generate a further $200 million in savings, bringing the total annual savings from the programme to as much as $1.2 billion before taxes. That money, De La Faverie has made clear, will be ploughed back into the turnaround.
A CEO in a hurry
De La Faverie, who took the helm in January 2025, inherited a company that had endured three consecutive years of annual sales declines. His response has been to move fast and cut deep. A significant portion of the latest redundancies reflects his push to reduce headcount at US department stores, long a cornerstone of Estée Lauder’s distribution model but now a channel in structural decline. In their place, he is accelerating the shift toward faster-growing online platforms, including Amazon.com and TikTok Shop, a pivot that is reshaping not just where Estée Lauder sells but how it thinks about its customers.
The numbers are moving in the right direction
Despite the pain, there are signs the medicine is working. Estée Lauder raised its profit outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, guiding for adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.35 to $2.45, above analyst estimates and a notable step up from the $2.05 to $2.25 range it had guided for in February. Organic net sales growth is expected to come in at 3 per cent, the company said, at the high end of the range it set out in February.
The share price tells a mixed story. After De La Faverie took charge, the stock surged nearly 60 per cent, buoyed by investor optimism that a longtime company insider could finally arrest the decline. But 2026 has been rougher: the shares have fallen 27 per cent this year, weighed down by disappointing February results and the overhang of unresolved merger talks with Spanish beauty giant Puig Brands SA. The company gave no additional details about those discussions on Friday, leaving the market to guess.
Silence on Puig
The proposed tie-up with Puig remains the most consequential unknown hanging over Estée Lauder. A deal with the Barcelona-based group, which owns brands including Carolina Herrera and Rabanne, would reshape the global luxury beauty landscape. But with nothing new to say and a turnaround still very much in progress, De La Faverie is asking investors to trust the process.
Three years of sales declines, 10,000 job cuts, and a merger that may or may not happen. At Estée Lauder, the overhaul has barely started.
