MAM
Puma shifts marketing focus from lifestyle to performance; cuts spend by 30 per cent
MUMBAI: Sports lifestyle brand Puma India is shifting its marketing focus from lifestyle to performance this year. It has launched ‘The Nature of Performance’ campaign. This is to push new products that have been launched in the performance portfolio in the running, training, fitness, cricket and football categories.
One new product launched is the Mobium Elite shoe in the category of performance running. There will a bigger focus on digital marketing this year. Also marketing spends for the year will be cut by 30 per cent. But Puma India MD Rajiv Mehta says that this is not due to the economic slowdown but because the company realised that it did not need to spend so much money.
“We realised that we could make do with less. We used to partner with two IPL teams but we have now discontinued that association. We are associated with Sunrisers Hyderabad as a kit supplier. We do not pay a fee. The challenge we faced was that the IPL is just a 45 day activity. After that it becomes difficult to sell merchandise. Unsold inventory became an issue. That is because team loyalties are not yet sufficiently present. Also Puma wanted to spend more money on marketing activities in other countries. We are focussing more on digital marketing this year and outdoor.”
As far as the shift in focus to performance is concerned Mehta says that when the company came to India it focused on lifestyle to beat the traditional competitors. “We turned profitable in the third year of operating in India. Now that we have gained good lifestyle share we are focusing on performance to compete better with Nike, Adidas and Reebok. People are moving to a performance lifestyle from casual attire. That is why we decided that this is the year where we will focus on our performance umbrella. The ‘performance‘ tag cuts across all sports whether it is cricket, soccer, motorsports”
Puma‘s Nature of Performance platform is a red thread that unifies all of the company’s performance categories with a consistent voice, look and feel. Grounded in nature and the athlete‘s innate desire to perform at their best level, The Nature of Performance aims to take consumers on a journey that is at once personal and universal.
Created in collaboration with advertising partner Droga5, the Nature of Performance campaign, for above the line and below the line, features the product as a hero in each treatment, with a minimalist deconstructed “set” using a simple gray background, exposed staging and technical features, and athletes in motion showcasing the ‘epic moment‘ of athletics. Stylistically new for the company, the Nature of Performance creative is designed to evoke a visceral reaction and tap into the consumers’ nature as performance athletes.
Mehta adds that 20 per cent of the companies marketing budget is for above the line. The remaining is spent below the line. “In digital we have taken over the Youtube homepage. Tomorrow we are taking over Yahoo!s homepage. These are the kinds of innovations we will be doing this year. You will be able to see an AV. Around half of our above the line spends this year will be in digital. Serious runners spend a lot of time online. So we need to connect with them there. On our own site we have information. We also create content through blogs. We are also doing outdoor activities in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. In terms of below the line experiential marketing is crucial for us. So we have tied up with gyms and running clubs.”
An innovation that the company is doing is augmented reality. In a store if you point a smartphone at the shoe you will see click a 3D image.
In terms of pushing its lifestyle portfolio Puma will continue to be associated with Bollywood films. In the past it has tied up with films like ‘Student of the Year’ and ‘ABCD’.
“We are talking to a few productions to have our products featured in the film. Bollywood works better for us compared to cricket as it has a longer shelf life. Once a film finishes its theatrical run it will be aired on a channel like Max, Colors. The issue with cricket is that it alienates women and children for the most part. That is a key segment for our lifestyle portfolio”. He however adds that company will continue its association with Yuvraj Singh who is one of its brand ambassadors.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
