MAM
Sony eyes ad rev of Rs 900 mn from Indian Idol
MUMBAI: Sony Entertainment Television (Set) is targeting advertising revenue of Rs 900 million from the sixth edition of its singing talent hunt reality show, Indian Idol, that airs from 1 June.
Indian Idol moves to a weekend property this time, airing at 8.30 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. In the fifth season, the show started on weekdays as there was no strong fiction property that gave the channel good ratings.
“We are looking at ad revenue of Rs 900 million. We have put Indian Idol on weekends this time as our fiction properties on weekdays are doing well. That was not the case when we aired the fifth season of Indian Idol,” said a source in the company who did not want his name to be revealed.
Sony has kept the marketing spend of the show flat at Rs 80 million while pushing for ad revenue growth as the channel has made significant progress in ratings since the last airing of the property in 2010.
“If you take the media inflation, we should have spent more. But the channel has vastly improved its performance since the fifth season ran in 2010. It has climbed to the No. 2 spot in the Hindi GEC ratings order. This is also the reason why we will use less of television for marketing the show. Besides, we are promoting it more aggressively during the IPL this time,” the source said.
Produced by Fremantle Media India, the singing reality show will air every Friday and Saturday at 8.30 pm.
“The show will be bigger in scale this time. It will penetrate deeper across the country for hunting talent,” said FremantleMedia India MD SK Barua.
Sony has roped in a clutch of sponsors. While Close Up is the presenting sponsor, MTS is powering the show. The associate sponsors on board are Flipkart.com, TVS Tyres, Vivel, Max New York Life Insurance, Amul Macho, Sunsilk and Suzuki Motorcycle.
Indian Idol will run for 26 episodes, positioning itself as ‘Idol behind an idol‘.
“The entire marketing strategy of the show was built around one insight that Indian Idol is a journey from nobody to somebody. And this can’t be an independent journey; it is a journey of emotional support, motivation and inspiration that a person gets on the way to become an idol. This is where the thought of ‘Idol behind an idol’ came,” said Set marketing head Danish Khan.
Sony is creating four TVCs to push the show. “Once we solidified the positioning, we came up with four TVCs, digital, OOH, print, different other media applications. We are setting up a mood for the content. It’s not just about singing but the journey that is also important,” said Khan.
The promotional activities will remain high across the Hindi speaking market (HSM). Apart from Set‘s own network, the channel has booked 8700 TV spots across 20 television channels. The channel has also bought 5000 radio spots on radio channels across the country to promote the show.
The marketing campaign is being launched in two phases. The first phase talks about the new positioning of the show. The second phase will come 10 days prior to the show launch when the channel will start with the ‘countdown’ campaign. The channel will highlight the show’s music and look through the campaign.
The new season will be judged by Anu Malik, Salim Merchant and Sunidhi Chauhan and will be hosted by Hussain and Mini Mathur.
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.
