Brands
Super Bowl 2020: Here are some of the best ads
Football fans or to be more precise, American Football fans, like every year gathered around to watch the Super Bowl. The event can be touted as the ultimate sporting event across the country and often breaks most of the records of its sporting contemporaries.
While this year’s game was between San Fancisco49ers vs Kansas City Chiefs, not everyone might have watched the grand affair for the athlete inclination. Given the magnitude of the event, the choicest of brands pair with Hollywood stalwarts to push new ads throughout the show’s premiere and thus the commercials become somewhat of standalone attractions.
However, the slots for these ads do not come cheap. While during the first edition of the sporting extravaganza in 1967, an ad slot was reportedly sold for around $37,500 to $42,500, the prices have shot up into multi-millions now.
As per a report by Bloomberg, by November FOX had already sold out 30 seconds slots for around $5.6 million. Super Bowl XLIX (2015) which saw the Patriots go up against Seahawks, recorded a whopping 144.44 million views, pumping it to the title of the highest watched Super Bowl in history.
Super Bowl doesn’t only give a platform to ads, but also, trailers for movies, TV shows, games and much more. As the operations of this year’s Super Bowl wrap up with the Kansas City Chief taking home the title, we take a look at some of the best commercials of this season!
> Hyundai
Starring Chris Evans, Rachel Dratch, John Krasinski, the focus of the ad is Hyundai Sonata’s “Smaht Pahk”, where the car parks itself and even un-parks! As the former two for the aforementioned trio look in amazement, Krasinski shows off the functionalities as well! Oh, even David Ortiz makes a cameo!
> Microsoft
The spot of Microsoft is a rather inspiring one. The ad puts the spotlight on, Katie Sowers, who is the first woman to coach in the Super Bowl. The one minute video shares the journey of Sowers and showcases her determination to become what she is today.
> Amazon
Graced by Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, Amazon’s ad takes us to numerous scenarios in a world without its recent offering, Alexa! Fantastically comic and well-imagined scenarios perfectly sync with the ending bringing it all together in an ad which might want to make you get Alexa!
> Pringles
Love Rick and Morty and Pringles? The Super Bowl ad of Pringles transports the duo into an alternate world where they realise that they are trapped in a Pringles advertisement. Choose your flavours wisely!
> Budweiser
Budweiser’s take on this year’s Super Bowl revolves around shattering stereotypes. The brand has picked up the phrase ”Typical American” and gives a sharp twist to what the phrase means by featuring amazing events with the stereotypical phrases.
Google’s ad focuses on its Google Assistant application. Using the help of the app, a man remembers his late lady love, Loretta. Weaved beautifully with minimalistic approach, the ad definitely tugs the heartstrings!
While these are just some of many that we loved, the others definitely deserve the credit of being amazing too!
(The views belong to the author and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)
Brands
Rakesh Menon joins Paytm as avp – lending
Fintech product leader takes on new role after building digital lending, payments and credit products across fintech ecosystem
MUMBAI: Rakesh Menon has joined Paytm as assistant vice president – lending, taking on a new role focused on strengthening the company’s lending and credit products.
Prior to this, Menon worked at Profectus Capital Pvt Ltd as chief manager – payments based financing and digital lending.
At Profectus, he designed and launched digital credit products for merchants with variable cash flows, including overdraft-linked and revenue-share lending models. He led end-to-end LOS–LMS API integrations with payment partners and aggregators, enabling real-time underwriting, disbursal and repayment workflows.
He also worked on funnel optimisation initiatives using journey analytics, improving onboarding, KYC and disbursal conversion by 35 per cent. He developed ecosystem partnerships for transaction-data-based credit assessment and automated settlement systems, and collaborated with credit and data science teams to strengthen risk models and early delinquency detection.
Menon standardised partner onboarding and API frameworks, reducing go-live timelines by 40 per cent and improving digital scalability.
Before Profectus Capital, he worked at PayU as senior manager – presales lead – enterprise business from August 2022 to August 2023. He set up a national presales function for fintech and digital commerce clients, aligning solutions such as EMI, BNPL, BBPS and offer engines to merchant requirements.
He also helped improve conversion rates by around 15 per cent through merchant persona mapping, demo frameworks and structured sales playbooks, working closely with product and go-to-market teams.
From April 2019 to July 2022, Menon served as business unit head – SMB – direct acquisitions at Worldline, where he built the SMB online payments vertical from scratch. The business scaled to Rs 2,500 crore in annual transaction volume, growing at 45 per cent year-on-year.
During this period, he introduced paperless onboarding processes including eKYC and eSign, developed partner dashboards and CRM automation systems, and integrated platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce and Tally to expand merchant adoption.
Across roles, Menon has worked across digital lending, payments and merchant financing, with experience in product development, ecosystem partnerships, API integrations and fintech-led growth strategies.
At Paytm, he will focus on scaling lending products and strengthening digital credit infrastructure within the company’s financial services ecosystem.
His appointment comes as fintech firms continue to expand their lending and embedded finance offerings in a competitive market.
