MAM
Sunstone Eduversity’s maiden Content Day concludes, over 20 brands participate
MumbaI: Sunstone Eduversity concluded its maiden Content Day event, which witnessed participation from over 20 brands. The event was organised to shortlist the best Content ideas from top media houses, OTT platforms, production houses and youth-oriented content creators, from all over India.
Apart from YouTube, MTV and MX Player, the event also saw Voot, Mirchi, Culture Machine, Jagran Group and Anugrah Madison competing with each other in a bid to impress the jury and bag a spot in Sunstone’s 2022 Marketing Calendar.
Content Day is Sunstone Eduversity’s first self-curated mega event since the higher education platform bagged $28 Million in a Series-B round of funding, in October this year. It also marks the brand’s first manoeuvre towards its upcoming marketing and brand-building initiative wherein it plans to venture into fictional web-series content to engage with students and parents through OTT platforms and in-person/virtual interaction with students from various colleges across cities, in the form of Business Case Studies, Hackathon Competitions, and various other tools.
Sunstone Eduversity co-founder & CEO Ashish Munjal said, “We plan to deploy a significant portion of our recent Series-B fundraise towards building cutting-edge learning & technology assets, that will help us communicate with our TGs upfront. Our Content Day event is a crucial step forward towards the creation of an adhesive communication strategy which will not only enable us to connect with our audience more effectively, but also educate them about the various exciting propositions in store.”
Sunstone Eduversity head of marketing Alekhya Chakrabarty said, “This is the ideal time for the brand to go the extra mile and have active conversations with patrons that would help them make informed decisions. Given that parents are key decision-makers in their children’s higher education journeys, they deserve to be equally informed of India’s job market requirements and the skills necessary for one to make a mark.”
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.
