Brands
TheSmallBigIdea to drive regional engagement with TSBI Bharat
MUMBAI: After having successfully led numerous multi-category brands, TheSmallBigIdea now announces its initiative to help brands reach the next 100 million digital users with TSBI Bharat. With the focus pivoting on content localisation across the digital landscape, ‘TSBI Bharat’ will enable brands to engage with audiences more effectively. With brands with linguistic & cultural focus in the heartland and south already on board, TSBI Bharat aims to address the exponentially growing regional audience through the language and platform they are most comfortable in.
With only 20% of the digital audience stating English as their language of comfort and with early adopters contributing to only 42% of the Indian population, the next wave of digital adoption will see languages and platforms that go local displaying radioactive growth.
Speaking on the development, Harikrishnan Pillai, CEO and co-founder, TheSmallBigIdea, said, “TSBI Bharat is a focused attempt at helping brands reach out to the next wave of digital audience. The next 100 million digital incumbents will find ease in consuming content in regional language, using neo-social apps that allow them to create and consume local content. We have hired creative strategist with great regional understanding, have trained planners to understand new platforms and we are working closely with clients to craft their regional strategy. It’s great to see brands looking at a ‘Bharat-first’ digital approach to establish stronger audience connect and drive better outcome. We have already on-boarded 4 clients in the entertainment and BFSI space. We believe more brands will open up to this in the immediate future.”
With banks and e-commerce portals going regional, films with strong regional undertones succeeding well at the BO, the stupendous growth of regional language video content, growth of digital content consumption from non-metros, the growth of neo-social apps; there are enough indices available to safely predict the mosaic of the Indian digital landscape of the future. TSBI calls this move being future ready, as they believe the digital audiences in India will demand to be spoken and seen at places they find comfort in.
The services of TSBI Bharat will remain similar to TSBI. TSBI Bharat will operate as a full service digital-first agency with a service roster that includes Social Media Management, Video Content Production, Digital Media Planning & Buying, Social Listening & ORM services, Augmented & Virtual Reality amongst other ancillary marketing services.
Brands
Lululemon picks former Nike executive to be its next chief
Heidi O’Neill, who helped grow Nike into a $45 billion giant, will take the top job in September
CANADA: Lululemon has found its next chief executive, and she comes with serious credentials. The athleisure giant named Heidi O’Neill as its new CEO on Wednesday, ending a search that has left the company running on interim leadership since earlier this year. O’Neill will take charge on September 8, 2026, based out of Vancouver, and will join the board on the same day.
O’Neill brings more than three decades of experience across performance apparel, footwear and sport. The bulk of that time was spent at Nike, where she was a central figure in one of corporate sport’s great growth stories, helping take the company from a $9 billion business to a $45 billion global powerhouse. She oversaw product pipelines, brand strategy and consumer connections, and played a significant role in shaping how Nike spoke to athletes around the world. Earlier in her career, she worked in marketing for the Dockers brand at Levi Strauss. She also brings boardroom experience from Spotify Technology, Hyatt Hotels and Lithia and Driveway.
The board was unequivocal in its enthusiasm. “We selected Heidi because of the breadth of her experience, her demonstrated success delivering breakthrough ideas and initiatives at scale, and her ability to be a knowledgeable change and growth agent,” said Marti Morfitt, executive chair of Lululemon’s board.
O’Neill, for her part, was bullish. “Lululemon is an iconic brand with something rare: genuine guest love, a product ethos rooted in innovation, and a global platform still in the early stages of its potential,” she said. “My job will be to accelerate product breakthroughs, deepen the brand’s cultural relevance, and unlock growth in markets around the world.”
Until she arrives, Meghan Frank and André Maestrini will continue as interim co-CEOs, before returning to their previous senior leadership roles once O’Neill steps in.
Lululemon is betting that a Nike veteran who helped build one of the world’s most powerful sports brands can do something similar for an athleisure label that has genuine love from its customers but is still chasing its full global potential. O’Neill has done it before at scale. The question now is whether she can do it again.
