MAM
Red Fuse Communications wins Best Mobile Media Agency of the year
MUMBAI: Red Fuse Communications has been awarded the title of ‘Best Mobile Media Agency of the year’ at the Indian Digital Media Awards 2014. The agency was bestowed with a six award win at a platform that recognises, celebrates and encourages work in the digital field of advertising and marketing communications, especially internet, mobile, gaming, social media and the blogosphere.
Red Fuse, WPP’s global full service agency, conceptualised and executed winning campaigns for Colgate-Palmolive. The win today further strengthened its mark in the industry and reinforced the relevance of horizontality in today’s diverse communication challenges.
The agency has been awarded for the exemplary projects in the following categories: gold awards for Best Digital Direct Response Campaign designed for ‘The Great Colgate Pilgrimage’ and Best SEM Strategy for the campaign ‘The Next Door Dentist’. The campaign for ‘The Great Colgate Pilgrimage’ won silver in the category Best Campaign Use of Mobile, while bronze medals for work done in the categories of Best Innovation in Mobile Marketing and Best Use of Social Networks. The awards also recognised Red Fuse’ efforts for ‘The Great Colgate Pilgrimage’ and ‘Smile Camera Action’ campaigns respectively.
Colgate-Palmolive VP-marketing Ajith Babu said, “On behalf of the Colgate team, we would like to congratulate the Red Fuse team for this commendable win. As our partners, they have contributed immensely to innovatively communicate with our consumers. We look forward to many such successful campaigns.”
Red Fuse Communications CEO Shubha George added, “Complex challenges need the most innovative solutions. In India, location-based targeting has been used to primarily target people in the metros and has almost always used text messaging or WAP banner. This was the very first time in India a brand had used location-based voice communication and that too to a roaming rural subscriber. Being recognised and awarded on platforms only encourages us to push the limits and strive for more innovations. Red Fuse and our client Colgate-Palmolive work as true partners and the successful results of the new-age full service agency is here to stay.”
The innovative location-based voice communication campaign has drawn national as well international recognition, with the agency winning several awards at global, regional and national events.
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.
