MAM
Starcom targets 15 Oct. launch for sports agency Relay Worldwide
MUMBAI: “We are not launching a sports marketing company (a la IMG, PMG, Procam), we’re launching a sports agency,” the core team behind Starcom MediaVest Group’s pathbreaking initiative – Relay Worldwide – emphasise, clearly drawing the distinction.
Tentatively planned for a formal launch around 15 October, Relay Worldwide is envisioned as a specialised sports agency that will enable marketers to leverage the full potential of sports as a medium, according to Pranay Anthwal, who has been hired with the specific brief to develop Starcom’s sports arm as an independent revenue stream. Based in Mumbai, Anthwal will will look after the responsibility for all of India working in close coordination with Manish Porwal, Starcom’s GM – Investment and New Initiatives.
A key service that Relay will be providing is a continuous track ranking India’s most popular sports persons. HRG (Hansa Research Group) has been assigned the task of data mining and according to Porwal, “It is the first step towards bringing a formal knowledge base and accountability in the medium called sports.”
The rankings would be based on a sample size of around 20,000 people per month and would be representative of almost the entire country. Both cricketers and non-cricketers, separately, would be ranked.
Through this a relative index of each sportsperson’s popularity will be calibrated enabling the industry to be able to figure out the qualitative differences (in popularity) across demographic and geographic segments.
One of the definitive ways it will help is in choosing the endorsers for brands and ascertaining the attractiveness / popularity of the alternative choices one might have, says Porwal. “A brand which is North-India centric might decide to pick the sportsperson quite popular in the north but not really a hit in rest of India and therefore have a much focussed investment just as he would do when he chooses vehicles on television or in the press,” Porwal clarifies.
It’s taken Relay Worldwide 18 months or so from conceptualisation to where it has reached today. According to Porwal, “The partnership formation process is underway and we are talking to at least half a dozen potential organizations, in the area of PR, event implementation, programming and TV broadcast. We already have about eight distinct products under incubation and we intend approaching sponsors for these soon.”
“Our range of product offerings will include development of sports marketing strategy for clients (including tournament sponsorships, endorsements, clinics, sales promotion, trade motivation programs, creating ownable media properties, merchandising, syndication, broadcast), development of decision making frameworks, audit and evaluation systems, creation of new products and supervision of implementation,” says Porwal.
The Relay project in India is a first for Starcom outside the US and if successful, will be replicated in other profit centres in the Australasian region.
Starcom expects many agencies to join the fray in the next three-four years. If the concept catches on the way Starcom hopes it will, the total estimated marketing investment in sports, which today is Rs 3.5 billion, could double to Rs 7 billion in the next four years, says Anthwal.
MAM
Schneider Electric launches One Unit Mission for Women’s Day
Green Yodha 2.0 urges every Indian household to save one unit of electricity daily.
MUMBAI: Schneider Electric just flipped the switch on savings because this Women’s Day the brightest idea isn’t a new bulb, it’s turning one unit off. Schneider Electric launched the second phase of its Green Yodha initiative, ‘One Unit Mission’, on International Women’s Day 2026, calling on every Indian household to save at least one unit of electricity daily. The campaign was flagged off in Delhi by chief minister Rekha Gupta, actor and sustainability advocate Bhumi Pednekar, and other dignitaries.
Rekha Gupta said, “Delhi’s journey towards clean, resilient growth begins with how efficiently we use the energy we already have. Green Yodha 2.0 reminds us that every citizen is a stakeholder in India’s energy future, and saving one unit of power today is an act of nation-building for tomorrow.”
Schneider Electric India zone president, MD & CEO Deepak Sharma added, “India is entering a decade of unprecedented growth, and that growth will require enormous amounts of energy. The real challenge is not just how much power we produce, but how intelligently we use it. If every Indian household saves just one unit of electricity a day, the impact would be equivalent to planting billions of trees or taking millions of cars off the road.”
Schneider Electric India, vice president of marketing Rajat Abbi noted, “Sustainability becomes real when it is simple and measurable. The One Unit Mission is about turning awareness into everyday action.”
In FY 2023–24, India’s energy-efficiency programmes (PAT, UJALA, S&L, SLNP, CAFÉ) collectively saved 53.6 million tonnes of oil equivalent, avoided 321 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions, and reduced energy expenditure by Rs 2 lakh crore equivalent to nearly 6 per cent of national primary energy supply.
The initiative aligns with government efforts on efficient cooling, appliance standards and the Bureau of Energy Efficiency’s state-level SEEI FY 2024 framework, emphasising demand-side efficiency as a cost-effective complement to new generation capacity.
In a nation sprinting toward brighter, bigger tomorrows, Schneider isn’t selling more power, it’s quietly handing every household a daily superpower: the ability to save one unit and help light up a cleaner, more efficient future, one thoughtful switch at a time.
