MAM
Painting the town ‘RED’
MUMBAI: They are everywhere – on the bus handles, train windows, cinema screens, city cabs and just when you think you’ve lost them, they follow you right into trial rooms at departmental stores too.
RED FM in its latest on grounding branding initiative has decided to paint the town well ….red. The branding exercise that concentrates on Mumbai has adopted transit advertising to the maximum. Given that the drive time listenership for radio is very high, the station has also used this medium to connect with its listeners.
So is the reason for this aggressive branding exercise tied up with a need for differentiation given the number of stations battling it out in Mumbai?
RED FM COO Abraham Thomas says, “Radio provides its listeners with a functional connect whether through music, entertainment, Bollywood, sports….and this is practically similar across all radio stations since we are mass players.”
The differentiation he adds can be created more effectively through emotional connect with the station. He calls it the ‘recency factor’. In plainspeak the last or most recent message engaging the viewer has a much better chance of being recalled longest.
“We have already run contests on the station asking listeners to list out the various spots where they have encountered Red FM branding and most listeners got almost 8 out 10 spots right.
The campaign creative uses the unique problems faced by commuters in their public transport. Sample this body copy in a train window display – ‘Ab faltu mein ringtone bajaanewale ki baajegi’or the cinema slide copy that reads ‘Ab kuchiku karnewaalon ki baajegi’. The campaign ties up problems like ringtone nuisance or cinema theatre etiquettes with their own brand of ‘sabki bajegi’ attitude.
Says Thomas, “The campaign is city relevant and aims to reach the consumer at all the touch points. But in addition to being a branding campaign, the idea is also to pick on issues that bug the listener and give him a platform like ours to address it. The personality, tone and character of our station is maintained throughout the campaign.”
And while the FM station looks at on ground branding it has also followed it up with some innovative on air properties. The station featured the Baajate Raho awards last month. The awards are basically a radio version of the Raspberry Awards which spoof the more popular awards by honoring the worst in the industry. It’s a tongue in cheek look at various issues that engaged people and media.
The station has some very successful hows like Morning No.1 with Malishka in Mumbai and with Nitin in Delhi where the RJs pick on a city centric issue and convert it into an interactive discussion.
The latest in line is their on air traffic updates property. “While most radio stations have listeners call in and give traffic updates, we have cab drivers across the city call in and tell us the traffic situation.”
The on ground campaign has utilized these gold cabs by painting them with their logo and they are called Taxi No.935.Around 900 BEST buses have also been used to display the Red logo on its handles. Trial room doors at Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar and Westside have also been splashed with the logo and programmes on the station. The cinema slides are on display at close to 53 screens including Cinemax, PVR,Fame Adlabs amongst others.
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.
