MAM
Shoppers Stop bids goodbye to 2020 with an epic extravaganza, ‘Goodbuy 2020’
Mumbai: India’s leading fashion and beauty destination, Shoppers Stop has launched an epic extravaganza, ‘Goodbuy 2020’ that will witness the finest activations and series of engagements from 11th December to 31st December 2020 across all Shoppers Stop stores in the country.
This year has been a challenging one on many counts, owing to the pandemic. To end the year on a positive note, the brand has curated a series of activations across Watches, Fragrance, Home, Beauty, Kids, Womenswear, Menswear, and Athleisure categories. For the first time, the brand will offer an immersive experience to its customers under each category, break the monotony of End-of-season-sale, and reinstate faith to come back to the store. To add to the experience, the brand has curated Shopping Segment Videos under each category with engaging storytelling and witty voiceovers by roping-in popular celebrities and influencers. The three weeklong event will offer unique and bespoke experiences, contests, live events with popular brands, celebrities and influencers along with fresh, new content on the Content Hub.
The brand aims to curate this as an annual property with new additions every year! Shoppers Stop’s epic extravaganza will witness the following activations.
Watch-a-thon:
Watches add an element of style and class to the entire ensemble! Watch-a-thon will witness an exclusive launch of coveted watch brands such as Guess, Titan, and Timex. Reputed label, Jaipur Watch Company has been roped-in for the “Design your Bespoke Watch” contest wherein contestants are invited to submit their watch designs. The winner gets his personalized watch design created from Jaipur Watch Company with a 3D printed Dial. The Fossil brand watches will also host an activation for personalised watches.
Scent-a-thon:
Fragrances evoke a sense of happiness and contentment. This mega-thon has attractive offers and a unique experience to be a part of. Shoppers Stop has organized a Scent-a-thon at their MGF Saket, New Delhi store. The brand has collaborated with one of the finest fragrances brands, Ajmal Perfumes to unveil 4 exclusive fragrances specially curated for Shoppers Stop customers. To take this association a notch higher, the brand has roped-in Maxime Exler, an expert French perfumer who will conduct a bespoke event with the fragrance notes. Customers will get an exclusive chance to spend time individually with the perfumer to create their signature fragrance basis their choices of ingredients. The perfume bottle will be handed over to the customer and signed-off by the expert along with the name of the customer.
Home-a-thon:
This entails the bedsheet exchange offer wherein customers will be encouraged to donate their old bed sheets. These in turn will be upcycled into by-products and/or given as is to the marginalized population. This mega-thon also includes an online gamification activity with treasure hunts. That’s not it, there will be live events with brands such as Soulflower and Rosemore on DIY fragrances and interesting cooking tips with homeware brand, Wonderchef. There will be also a Cook-off contest wherein reputed chef Sanjeev Kapoor’s team will curate 15 minutes of Home MasterChef recipes.
Glow-a-thon:
Beauty is one of the key growth pillars of Shoppers Stop! Resonating with this, the brand has specially curated Glow-a-thon. There will be live events and tutorials with beauty experts held every day. There will be also a session on Decoding the Party Looks for 2021 in association with 7 brands. Customers will also be educated on the winter skincare regime and can avail discounts on beauty products.
Fem-a-thon:
The brand is also hosting Fem-a-thon across apparel, footwear, and handbag categories. This will entail Hacks for the Party Looks, Styling tips with in-house designers, Live events, Shop-able Virtual Fashion Show, and exclusive launches. One can also shop the look from Shoppers Stop’s Stylehub page!
Play-a-thon:
For their youngest target audience, the brand has curated Play-a-thon for kids. This will witness a Shop-able Virtual Fashion Show with Winter Carnival theme showcasing festive, private label and infant wear collection. To give wings to your kid’s imagination, the brand is also organizing, the ‘I am a Designer’– Kids design contest wherein the winner designs will be translated into merchandise with credit on tags to the designer.
Him-a-thon:
In the final week, Shoppers Stop is running Him-a-thon with mix ‘n’ match party hacks, styling tips with in-house designers, brand collection videos, and discounts on every purchase across the menswear category. There will be also an activation on ‘Wardrobe Makeover’ and an ‘Ultimate Lockdown Challenge’.
Fit-a-thon:
Last but not the least for the fitness enthusiasts, the brand is hosting Fit-a-thon! Customers get a chance to record their steps taken. These steps will be further converted into an amount equivalent and donated to be utilised to help the marginalised section of the society in meeting their daily needs. Besides, there will be many attractive deals on athleisure and sneakers and a chance to take home personalised sneakers from the store!
The brand has associated with a popular OTT channel, Hotstar to get well known faces of the television world such as Divyanka Tripathi, Karan Wahi and Shivangi Joshi on-board. It has also collaborated with well-known influencers like, Siddharth Nigam and Mithila Palkar to curate shopping segment videos for every category and activation.
Additionally, the much-awaited End of Season Sale that starts from 18th December will also provide more attractive offers. So, visit your nearest Shoppers Stop or log in to the website and app for more details and offers on this epic extravaganza!
MAM
Paramount set to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in $81 billion deal
Shareholders back merger, combined entity could reshape streaming and studios.
MUMBAI: Lights, camera… consolidation, Hollywood’s latest blockbuster might be happening off-screen. Shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery have voted in favour of selling the company to Paramount in a deal valued at $81 billion rising to nearly $111 billion including debt setting the stage for one of the biggest shake-ups in modern media. The proposed merger, still subject to regulatory approvals, would bring together a vast portfolio spanning HBO Max, CNN, and franchises such as Harry Potter under the same umbrella as Paramount’s own heavyweights, including Top Gun and CBS.
At the heart of the deal is streaming scale. Executives have indicated plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single platform, potentially creating a stronger challenger to giants like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video. Current market data suggests HBO Max holds around 12 per cent of US on-demand subscriptions, compared to Paramount+’s 3 per cent, together still trailing Netflix’s 19 per cent and Disney’s combined 27 per cent via Disney+ and Hulu.
Paramount CEO David Ellison has signalled that while platforms may merge, HBO’s creative identity will remain intact, stating the brand should “stay HBO” even within a broader ecosystem.
Beyond streaming, the deal would redraw the map for film production. Combining two of Hollywood’s oldest studios Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., the new entity aims to scale output to over 30 films annually, while maintaining a 45-day theatrical window. Warner Bros. currently commands around 21 per cent of the US box office, compared to Paramount’s 6 per cent, underscoring the strategic weight of the acquisition.
But scale comes with scrutiny. Critics warn that fewer players could mean reduced consumer choice, rising subscription costs, and potential job cuts as the combined company looks to streamline overlapping operations while managing billions in debt.
The news business, too, faces a reset. CNN would join forces at least structurally with Paramount-owned CBS, raising questions about editorial independence and positioning. The merger has already drawn political attention in the United States, particularly given perceived ties between the Ellison family and Donald Trump, though the company maintains that newsroom autonomy will be preserved.
If approved, the deal would mark another milestone in Hollywood’s consolidation wave shrinking the industry’s traditional “big six” studios to a “big four”, with Paramount joining Disney, Universal, and Sony at the top table.
In an industry built on storytelling, this merger may well become its most consequential plot twist yet.
