MAM
Puma’s Abhishek Ganguly and 2 senior Puma employees set to exit, to set up entrepreneurial venture
Mumbai: Puma India & Southeast Asia managing director Abhishek Ganguly is all ready to step foot out of the company. As per media reports, he has plans to start his own venture in the larger sportswear space. Ganguly, who will continue to be part of the sports ecosystem, has raised capital for his next venture.
Ganguly, 45, makes this move after a nearly two-decade-long stint with the sportswear retailer. He is set to leave the retailer by the end of August. Karthik Balagopalan is set to take over from Ganguly; Balagopalan is currently the global head of e-commerce and retail for Puma globally.
Ganguly would be exiting along with two other senior Puma employees —Atul Bajaj, who is currently head of sales and operations at Puma India, and Puma India executive director and chief financial officer Amit Prabhu who are joining him in his entrepreneurial venture. Ganguly will be founder and CEO of the new venture, say reports.
Ganguly joined Puma’s India business in 2005 as director, sales and marketing. In 2014, Ganguly was named the company’s India MD. In 2020—the German sportswear maker Puma SE announced the elevation of Ganguly, then the company’s India managing director to general manager of Puma Southeast Asia expanding Ganguly’s role to key growth markets of Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore.
The 2020 announcement made Ganguly—an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow—the first India-based manager to get a larger global portfolio.
Under Ganguly, Puma rolled out the retailer’s India-specific shopping app and clinched several large sports and lifestyle endorsement deals including those with cricketer Virat Kohli, boxer Mary Kom, and actors Kareena Kapoor and Anushka Sharma.
MAM
Kerala election ads surged in 2026, with print nearly tripling and TV up 52 per cent
Political parties spent bigger and smarter this cycle, concentrating their firepower in the final weeks before polling day
KERALA: Kerala’s politicians discovered something in 2026 that seasoned marketers have known for years: timing is everything, and when in doubt, spend more. Political advertising during the Kerala Assembly Elections 2026 surged sharply across traditional media compared to the 2021 cycle, with print and television leading the charge, according to the latest analysis by TAM AdEx.
Print was the standout performer, expanding nearly 2.7 times compared to 2021, a striking jump that underlines its continued grip on targeted political communication in a state with some of India’s highest newspaper readership. Television was not far behind, with ad insertions rising 52 per cent, reflecting the enduring appeal of mass-reach platforms for shaping voter sentiment at scale. Radio held steady, mirroring television trends and reinforcing its role as a reliable supporting medium.
The pattern of spending was as revealing as the volumes. More than 85 per cent of all political ad insertions were recorded in the weeks immediately before polling, a concentration that points to a deliberate, last-mile strategy. Ad volumes peaked during weeks four and five in both the 2021 and 2026 cycles, suggesting that parties have settled on a consistent playbook of high-frequency messaging in the home stretch.
The contrast between media types was equally instructive. Print advertising maintained a relatively even spread across the campaign period, serving as a vehicle for sustained, detailed communication. Television and radio, by contrast, displayed sharp spikes in the closing weeks, deployed as blunt instruments for high-impact bursts at the precise moment voters are making up their minds.
What the 2026 cycle signals most clearly is a shift toward more structured, data-driven media planning. The increase in overall volumes, combined with sharper peaks in campaign intensity, suggests that political advertisers are beginning to think less like propagandists and more like performance marketers, balancing broad reach with targeted engagement and watching the returns closely.
Kerala’s election advertising has, in short, grown up. The question for the next cycle is whether digital finally gate-crashes a party that print and television have so far kept firmly to themselves.
