Brands
To bring the TG closer, we had to get our act together: Vaibhav Kumar
MUMBAI: Who loves scorching sun? If you thought the reply was none then you are highly mistaken. There are brands that wait for the summers more than the school kids. New campaigns, products are launched during the period to leverage the season.
Similarly, Mother Dairy in a hope to connect with the youth launched its Happy Food, Happy People campaign, this year. The objective behind the campaign was to give a new face to the brand. The brand which has strong relationship with parents and children, now wants to tap the young adults.
Conceptualised by Ogilvy & Mather, the campaign depicts how the taste by Mother Dairy lifts one’s mood due to guilt free indulgence and makes him/her happy.
Mother Dairy CMO Vaibhav Kumar shares the secrets behind its success and the new relationship that the brand is out to create…
With so much competition, how would you position yourself in the market? What has been your USP? What would you say is your advantage over others?
Mother Dairy’s core value remains firm at providing the customers with best quality products and fair returns to farmers. The company has been serving consumers for nearly 40 years and has created a niche for itself with its world class quality, pure, safe and innovative products. We believe our best proposition is with our quality of products and the promise we offer which reflects in our new positioning of ‘Happy Food Happy People’.
The products we offer come with a lot of insight developed through innovations, consumer preferences, health benefits and value for money. The result of this is evident through the quality of our product line available. Products such as Mishti Doi, Fruit yoghurt and Classics range of Ice Cream have set benchmarks for industry and loyalty from consumers.
What are the marketing activities that you undertake to build your brand?
We engage in various marketing activities throughout the year. Both ATL and BTL activities are planned as part of our 360 degree campaign. We engage with customers on ground, media via TVC, radio, print etc.
With the new campaign we will focus on ATL activities like TVC, radio promotion, social media engagements etc. supported by BTL activities like in-store promos, flyers, catchment promos, hoardings etc.
What are the key insights behind your marketing activities?
The key insight behind our marketing initiatives with this new campaign is to bring the young adults closer to brand and further build on our mass appeal. The company over the years has been admired as the household name with the entire family. But somewhere we felt the youth connect was also imperative to give it a mass appeal. This was also relevant from our range perspective, as the entire offering from our dairy product division is so youthful which is healthy and most importantly offers the guilt free indulgence, a must for today’s generation.
Can you elaborate on the latest campaign and the concept behind it?
For our new positioning we have drawn a lot of learning from various audiences specially Young Adults and their consumption patterns. And this is how we came out with this campaign to connect the young audience.
The Happy Food in our campaign defines Mother Dairy’s commitment to offer pure, hygienic and adulteration free great quality products which has been the strength, differentiator and heritage of the brand over years. And the Happy People defines the guilt free indulgence by consumers with our innovative & healthy products that offer great taste and hence this belief of Happy Food Happy People.
What is the thought process behind launching this campaign now?
As a brand we have been offering our consumers with quality product with great taste and value for money over the years. While the brand has created a space and strong relationship amongst the Indian Families, which will continue in times to come, there was a need to create brand relationship with young adults – the new emerging consumer of Young India.
Therefore, a new campaign with messaging of Happy Food Happy People came out to connect with the young adults bringing them closer to the brand. Today’s young adults are aware consumers and decisive on what to consume and what not. Since a brand like Mother Dairy offers pure, safe and healthy products, there was a conscious need to bring them closer and this campaign will help in getting our acts together.
How important is digital platform for your brand? How can one optimize on the medium?
Since our target and positioning is towards the young adults, digital medium will be a key area to focus and is certainly an important part of our strategy. We are targeting special campaigns specifically for social media and high visibility zones on the internet. In addition, we are engaging with customers through various online promotion programs and initiatives.
Who do you see as your biggest competitors?
Mother Dairy as a brand with close to 40 years of trust, purity and safety has built a strong connect with the masses and the same is evident from the response we get from consumers every time we launch a new product. The Company with its strong heritage enjoys loyalty amongst the consumers and has been growing steadily creating new benchmarks with our range for others to follow.
What are your biggest challenges today? One learns more from failures than successes. Can you share any such phase or incident in your brand marketing that helped you learn and reach a higher pedestal? Please share, if any.
The biggest need of the hour is to keep pace with changing consumer needs both emotional and functional. We lost track somewhere in our consumer journey and hence became less relevant to young adults (our target group) and this obviously resulted in our market performance. Having learnt from it, we have now stepped up the accelerator on innovation leading to relevant products for our target audience and a new brand positioning moving away from the not so relevant ‘Maa jaisa koi nahin’ to a more relevant ‘Happy Food. Happy People’. The first signs of a turnaround for us seem to be coming in with this change in product portfolio and proposition based on learning from our earlier mistakes.
What is the future of the dairy industry in India? How can the industry grow in the coming year?
The dairy industry is growing steadily and has good future ahead. We see huge potential in the industry as it has a lot to offer on health front, which will grow with rising consumer awareness. We see innovations as key drivers for growth going ahead, the company which can offer innovative products keeping customer preferences intact coupled with value for money will see a runaway success.
Brands
Havas reports solid Q1 2026 with 2.5 per cent organic net revenue growth
Advertising group maintains positive momentum and confirms full-year guidance.
MUMBAI: Havas has started 2026 on a strong note proving that even in uncertain times, its converged model continues to deliver. The global advertising and communications group reported net revenue of €638 million for the first quarter of 2026, representing organic growth of +2.5 per cent compared to the same period last year. This performance was driven particularly by a robust +7.4 per cent organic growth in the United States.
Total revenue for the quarter reached €667 million, with organic growth of +2.8 per cent. Recent acquisitions contributed a positive scope impact of +1.7 per cent, while foreign exchange movements had a negative impact of -5.8 per cent, mainly due to the US dollar and British pound.
Europe, which accounts for 50 per cent of net revenue, delivered +1.1 per cent organic growth, supported by a good performance in France. North America (36 per cent of net revenue) led the way with +7.4 per cent growth, thanks to strong contributions from both Havas Creative and Havas Media. APAC & Africa (8 per cent) saw a decline of -6.2 per cent, while Latin America (6 per cent) remained nearly stable at -0.6 per cent.
Havas chairman and CEO Yannick Bolloré said, “Havas has started 2026 on a solid footing, continuing its momentum and delivering organic growth in net revenue of +2.5 per cent. This performance, in line with our full-year 2026 guidance, was driven in particular by continued strength in the US.”
The group also continued its bolt-on acquisition strategy, acquiring majority stakes in four agencies during the quarter: Acento Public Affairs (Spain), Ctrl Digital (Sweden), Styleheads (Germany), and Eyesight (France).
Havas maintained its strong creative reputation, ranking as a top holding company in the WARC Creative 100 for the sixth consecutive year, with three agencies BETC, Havas Paris, and Havas India placing in the Top 50.
Looking ahead, Havas confirmed its 2026 guidance: organic net revenue growth between +2.0 per cent and +3.0 per cent, adjusted EBIT margin between 13.2 per cent and 13.5 per cent, and a dividend payout ratio of around 40 per cent. The group also reiterated its medium-term targets for 2028.
Despite ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, Havas enters the rest of the year with solid fundamentals and confidence in its ability to deliver sustainable, profitable growth.
In a challenging environment, Havas is proving that its integrated, client-centric model remains resilient delivering steady growth while continuing to invest in creativity and innovation. The first quarter results suggest the group is well-positioned to navigate the year ahead with confidence.
