Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), the microfinance Industry Association and an RBI recognized self-regulatory organization (SRO), has unveiled its first TV Commercial ‘माइक्रोफाइनेंस – हर हौसले के साथ’, Microfinance – supporting confidence & courage, at every step) to reinforce the contribution of microfinance industry towards financial inclusion.
The 45-second film showcases microfinance sector’s contribution to financial inclusion, highlights importance of microfinance loans for economic upliftment of low-income women groups. The campaign tagline aims to communicate how the microfinance industry has all along been actively supportive of income-generating trade activity, by low-income financially excluded women across the country.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Alok Misra, CEO & Director, MFIN said: “The contribution of Microfinance industry in aiding fulfillment of India’s financial inclusion objectives has only grown over the years. However, not many are familiar with the role that microfinance loans play in making small-sized credit, easily and quickly accessible to the bottom of the pyramid segment throughout the country. This TV commercial captures the role of the microfinance sector in promoting small businesses and being an economic tool in creating equal opportunities and inclusive development for both rural and urban poor.”
The campaign aims at reiterating the role of the microfinance industry in unlocking the earning potential of the unserved section of the society by providing easy and quick access to collateral-free credit. The entrepreneurial aspirations of marginalised women are accomplished availing microfinance loans, thereby contributing to overall economic upliftment in the country.
Explaining the thought behind the TV Campaign, Mr Hitesh Kumar, CEO & Chief Creative Director, Splat Media Private Limited, added: “Through the tag line ‘माइक्रोफाइनेंस – हर हौसले के साथ’, we capture two aspects; one, we celebrate the confidence and resilience of women from the economically weaker sections of our society to generate income for their households, and second, we demonstrate how microfinance institutions are helping these women achieve financial freedom through collateral free, easily repayable, small loans.”
Build, a sports nutrition supplements start-up, has collaborated with actor Tiger Shroff, to launch a customised new series of health supplements.
On the association, Soumava Sengupta, CEO Build said: “Tiger is one of the most popular stars and the undisputed fitness icon in India today. His regime and dedication to fitness is of the level of an elite athlete. We at BUILD. share his philosophy on fitness and strongly believe that fitness is for everyone and not restricted only to gyms and weight training.”
5Elements, a brand focused on delivering gadgets has launched two new earbuds focusing on Environmental Noise Cancellation for clear conversation and low latency for real time sound experience. Titled Nuke+ & X-Buds, this new line of expansion focuses more on clear audio, more playtime, and faster charging. Further, 5Elements also announced its endorsement partnership with Pratik Gandhi.
Commenting on the association, Devansh Shah, Co-Founder, 5Elements said: “We are delighted to collaborate with Pratik Gandhi as the face of 5Elements as he is an icon and a role model across all age groups. His journey from TV to Bollywood while being honest and fearless about his performance and views has inspired many people and his single-minded quest for success and achievement perfectly embodies 5Elements’s personality. We are confident, ecstatic, and excited about this association and look forward to a successful partnership.”
JBL, an American audio equipment manufacturer, owned by Harman International, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, has assigned its social media mandate to Grapes, an integrated marketing agency. As per the mandate, Grapes will be responsible for the JBL’s social media strategy, planning and execution. The agency will look after content creation and ORM, respectively for the company.
Akhil Sethi
Speaking on the development, Akhil Sethi, Head of Digital Marketing for JBL, Harman India, said: “We are excited to partner with Grapes to further strengthen our social media efforts for JBL in India. The agency perfectly aligns with our vision and we are confident that the collaboration will bring about a unified end result. Our campaign objective lies in creating clear communication that will help us in connecting with customers across demography. We are looking forward towards establishing a powerful brand narrative for JBL through Grapes in the months to come.”
Shradha Agarwal
Commenting on the mandate win, Shradha Agarwal, CEO & Co-Founder, Grapes, added: “We’re ecstatic to associate with JBL India as their digital partners. The brand has a legacy of 75 years built on its unmatched sound quality and we are determined to strengthen JBL’s presence further with value-driven engagement, to make it the most preferred audio brand amongst the growing audience base. With social media at the epicentre of our lives, we are keen on taking the brand’s social presence to the next level. While we will continue to leverage the key pillars of the brand like Mute the World, Dare to Listen, the Quantum gaming series etc., we will be focusing on further enhancing the headphones vertical. We are also keen on tapping into the large sound and music loving demography in the country, to build a unique community for the brand. The agency will create innovative campaigns for the brand to establish a strong line of connection with the audience, all aimed at enhancing the recall value of the brand.”
Pantaloons, which is now owned by the Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd, recently celebrated its 25th anniversary at South City Mall, Kolkata. Actors Parambrata Chatterjee and Priyanka Sarkar graced the celebrations.
Said Sangeeta Pendurkar, CEO – Pantaloons, Jaypore & Style Up, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd: “Pantaloons is one of the most loved fashion retail brands of India. As we turn 25 years young, we express our gratitude to all our customers and partners who have supported us and made us a part of not only their wardrobes, but also their lives. We would continue to make shopping a playful and engaging experience for our shoppers.”
Skinn perfumes and fragrances brand from the House of Titan has launched a new campaign, #BestSaidWithSkinn. The brand releases a new digital video campaign created by Ogilvy & Mather agency to celebrate this Raksha Bandhan season with the sibling duo- fashion stylist and film producer Rhea Kapoor and actor Hashvarrdhan Kapoor.
Said Ankit Kasliwal, Head of Marketing, Fragrances Division, Titan Company Limited: “Rakshabandhan is the celebration of love, protection, and life-long companionship. Gifts play a great role in conveying love for our siblings and bringing back all the rejoicing memories of growing up side by side with one another. The splendid fragrances from SKINN thus, are a perfect gift to express your love. With this digital video, we celebrate the season with the most loved sibling duo- Rhea Kapoor and Harshavarrdhan Kapoor. Their bond is full of love, fun, and mischief, which makes the video relatable for us all reminding us of our own beautiful relationships with our siblings.”
As we celebrate ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, so is Pakistan celebrating ‘Jashn-e-Azaadi’ to commemorate 75 years of its existence. The first is the cause while the latter is the effect!
Pakistan would not have happened but for the creation of India as an independent nation state in August 1947, so technically, while India can rightly claim this as her 75th year of independence, Pakistan technically can claim this her 75th year of creation. Therefore, our neighbours in the north by northwest should be celebrating their ‘Jashn-e-Wajood’.
This paradox itself is a demonstration of brand “Pakistan”. A brand made up of contrasts, paradoxes, and conflicting paradigms. Its very creation is due to the existence of another. Therefore, it’s very lifeline is dependant on the health of another.
This is the typical image of the brand. It is a bit like a parasitic plant, living on the nutrients from another brand that is India. Maybe I sound too harsh, but that is the reality of brand Pakistan today. Almost all references to Pakistan are vis-à-vis India. Comparisons are natural to be drawn but they are of the nature of proving time and again that the brand has been one big mistake. I remember listening to a lecture by journalist M.J. Akbar in 2016 where he said that the current state of Pakistan actually proves that partition, though painful, was a correct step in India’s favour. And Pakistan has not done itself any favours over the last two decades to prove us wrong.
Can the 75th year of its existence give it the space to introspect? Is the Pakistan today the one that the elites of the Muslim League led by Syed Ahmed Khan had dreamt of in the early 1900s? Is this what Mohammad ‘Allama’ Iqbal visualised? Or for that matter even Jinnah? While the germination of the thought of a separate state for the Muslims in British India was a reactionary one, emanating out of fear of losing out rather than any positive vibes, being casually called a ‘rogue state’ and a ‘basket case’ could never have been the desired outcome.
And it is this fundamental principle of brand creation and building that decides where it finally ends up. A brand born out of negative emotions cannot last for long in a positive state of being. It is inflicted with complexes of various dimensions… neglect, inferiority, and lack of self-belief. The brand cannot stand on its own feet. And this exactly is the malaise of brand Pakistan.
Pakistan is one of the world’s richest cultural and civilisational regions. It is the one melting pot of Mehrgarh of the Neolithic Age, Indus Valley of the Bronze Age, the Greeks, the Seleucids, the Mauryans, the Kushans, the Guptas, the Umayyads, the Hindushahis, the Ghaznavids, the Sultans, the Mughals, the Durranis, the Sikhs and the British. It carries a historical legacy that would have seen it as one of the most socio-culturally thriving parts of the world. It could have created a model nation state based on plurality of cultures rather than the purity of faith it opted for. It has ended up choosing the turbulence of multiple cultures rather than their inherent richness. This is so typical of brands that somewhere neglect their roots and natural moorings and go for causes that are non-credible, transactional, and synthetic.
Pakistan is the land of the Nobel winning physicist Dr. Abdus Salam. It is the land of the pathbreaking ‘Ommaya Reservoir’ that transformed medical surgery. It is the land of Naveed Zaidi who developed the first plastic magnet. It is the land of the Farooq Alvi brothers who created the first computer virus (c)Brain! It is the land of Raza Kazim who has created the Sagar veena. It is the land of Mahbub-ul-Haq who created the ‘Human Development Index’! It is the land of Abdul Sattar Edhi who set up the world’s largest private fleet of ambulances.
Noor Zehra, daughter of Raza Kazim, playing the ‘Sagar Veena’
Pakistan is Faiz, Manto, Iqbal and Eliya. Pakistan is Imran Khan, Hassan Sardar, Jahangir Khan and Abdul Khaliq. Pakistan is Nusrat Sahab, Abida Parveen, Nazia Hasan and Strings. Pakistan is Sadiq Khan, Riz Ahmed, Ayesha Jalal and Zayn Malik.
Pakistan is well beyond the army, ISI, JeM, Masood Azhar, HuM and the Taliban. Pakistan is well beyond bombings, ethnic hatred, corruption, and fundamental terrorism. But the brand is a victim of such a narrative. Pakistan today is a pale picture of the vibrant Pakistan of the 1960s and 1970s. It stands before India today as a stark reminder of what we could become and should stay away from.
Nooh Butt and Gurdeep Singh in Birmingham
When Nooh Dastgir Butt dedicates his weightlifting gold in the just concluded Commonwealth Games to Mirabai Chanu and celebrates with his dear friend and Indian weightlifter Gurdeep Singh dancing to Siddhu Moosewala songs, it is a Pakistan that is counter to the popular narrative. When Arshad Nadeem throws his javelin beyond 90 metres and remembers his sparring competitor Neeraj Chopra in his moment of victory, it is against the narrative.
On 31st May this year, the Institute of Policy Studies in Islamabad and the Fatima Jinnah University in Rawalpindi organised a seminar titled ‘75 years of Pakistan: Constitution, Public Representation and Governance System’ where some of the sharpest minds reiterated the crucial role the revised constitution of 1973 plays in keeping powers in check and needs to get stronger by the day. To quote from the deliberations, “Martial laws have been imposed on the country a number of times, however, all of the initiators had to seek some form of public representation after some years. Ayub Khan had to resort to local democracy, Zia-ul-Haq had to conduct a referendum to provide the impression that he was a representative of the people, even Pervez Musharraf had to turn to local bodies elections and a referendum.”
In 1956, Pandit Nehru saw Abdul Khaliq run the 100 metres and called him ‘Parinda e Asia’.
In 1960, Ayub Khan saw Milkha Singh race against Khaliq and called him ‘The Flying Sikh’!
On the 75th anniversary of its existence, Pakistan has to take a strong hard look at what defines its very existence as a brand. It has to question its core purpose and promise to itself. It has to decide whether to remain the parasitic rafflesia flower or evolve into the the symbiotic orchid. And that will be done by its people and not the government, army or ulema.
The two brands of India and Pakistan are inseparable. How I wish the two nations were to together celebrate ‘Azaadi ka Amrit Jashn’. For each brand has a part of itself living in the other.
I conclude with the final lines from Piyush Mishra’s song ‘Husna’ written a decade ago…
“Aur rota hai raaton mein
Pakistan kya vaise hi
jaise Hindustan,
O Husna?”
[And does Pakistan shed tears every night just as India does, my love?”]
Jeevey jeevey Pakistan!
Jai Hind!!
(You could watch the song being performed by Piyush Mishra and Hitesh Sonik at Coke Studio MTV Season 2 on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zTFzMPWGLs)
Avik Chattopadhyay is a senior brand and business strategist and advisor based in Gurugram. He writes on MxMIndia every other Thursday. His views here are personal.
Bengaluru-based The Organic World (TOW), organic and natural groceries retailer, has launched a marketing campaign – #TheBigSwitch – to urge consumers to make clean, chemical-free food and lifestyle choices. As part of the campaign, TOW has slashed the prices of key groceries including organic fruits and vegetables.
Commenting on #TheBigSwitch campaign, Karthik Subramaniam, COO, The Organic World, said: “At The Organic World, it has been our constant endeavour to make our range of ‘better choices’ available to the widest market possible. Organic produce has been traditionally always priced higher than conventional produce. This is primarily due to the quality of inputs required for good organic produce – right from the quality of ingredients to the manufacturing processes. However, this premium comes down as more players enter production and retailing, making the industry more organized. With #TheBig Switch, campaign, our goal is to make sure that chemical-free groceries are now available at just a few rupees more, thereby encouraging and empowering more consumers to make better choices.”
Bhutani Group real estate builders and developers has announced its association with the song Casanova featuring Lil Pump, YoYo Honey Singh and DJ Shadow Dubai. The announcement to this effect was made at the launch of the song at Dubai Festival City. Produced by filmmaker, Gaurang Doshi, along with co-producer entrepreneur Rocky Khan, Casanova is trending on all music and social media platforms.
Speaking at the launch, co-producer Rocky Khan said: “We have an extensive partnership/ collaboration with Bhutani Group as they are one of the fastest growing organisations. Having Bhutani Group on board as brand partner is like a dream come true. The commitment of Bhutani Group towards its customers is truly commendable.”
Added Ashish Bhutani, Chief Executive Officer, Bhutani Group: “We are proud to be associated with Casanova that has become an overnight sensation among the youth. This association has helped us connecting better with the GenNext, a segment that’s rapidly gaining purchasing power in real estate sector. The new millennial looks for commercial and business hubs equipped with all the latest amenities and we are committed to deliver the best-in-class commercial real estate projects.”
Paying homage to 75 years of Indian Independence, MMTC-PAMP, India’s gold and silver refinery accredited as ‘Good Delivery’ by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), released a film starring Vinay Pathak titled ‘Shuddhta ki Salaami’.
Speaking on the campaign and coins, Amul Saha, Chief Digital Officer, said: “We at MMTC-PAMP honour our nation’s legacy, culture and heritage and strive to offer the most culturally relevant products to our consumers. These 75th Independence Day Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav coins are crafted to the highest standards of craftsmanship to celebrate the incredible story of India and embrace the spirit of Azadi. The film also seeks to carry the same message forward.”
Added Swati Balani, ECD, AutumnGrey, Bangalore: “India is a proud nation. When a young Indian boy wins gold for India in the Olympics, we all celebrate. When India reaches the moon, every home talks about it. These achievements are ingrained in every Indian’s mind. In this thought-provoking piece of poetry, we highlight India’s momentous occasions, past and present, and give people a chance to own a piece of history with MMTC-PAMP’s limited edition Independence Day minted coins.”
Western Digital, a hard disk drive manufacturer and data storage company, has partnered with the film ‘Darlings’ as their exclusive digital storage partner. The film stars Alia Bhatt, Shefali Shah, Vijay Varma and Roshan Matthew, and is streaming on Netflix.
Said Gaurav Verma, Producer and COO, Red Chillies Entertainment: “As content producers, we know how important it is to find a safe and convenient way to store all the content related to a film. With Western Digital’s SanDisk® and SanDisk Professional line of products on board, all our data storage needs were handled seamlessly, and we are glad to have partnered with them on Darlings.”
Added Jaganathan Chelliah, Senior Director, Marketing, India Middle East and TIA, Western Digital: “Content consumers and creators alike want innovative storage solutions that are easy to use and are the right fit for their digital lifestyles. This DVC ties in with the film, Darlings, and highlights the increasing use of smartphones for content creation and the need for a device that can transfer the content easily and conveniently between different devices. This is something that SanDisk dual drives are perfect for.”
Shopsy, a subsidiary of e-commerce platform Flipkart, has launched its latest TVC campaign, ‘Aaj Shopsy Kiya Kya?’ with Sara Ali Khan. The campaign highlights Shopsy’s unique value proposition of affordability and availability spanning a wide selection of products depicted through its catchphrase ‘Har Din Aisa Sale Jaisa’. The campaign aims to reach women consumers specifically in Tier 2 and smaller towns.
Talking about the campaign, Adarsh Menon, Senior Vice President & Head – New Businesses, Flipkart, said: “At Shopsy, we are committed to offering a value-based and convenient shopping experience to our consumers by leveraging our deep understanding of their needs. As the campaign title ‘Aaj Shopsy Kiya Kiya?’ suggests, we are looking to develop a habit among consumers to visit Shopsy every day, offering them an opportunity to avail of the exciting deals and offers we have on the platform. A large number of buyers in the country await sale seasons to fulfil their shopping needs. To address this gap, we conceptualised our new campaign that reinforces Shopsy as a one-stop destination for consumers who are looking for a reliable and budget-friendly platform to shop from.”
As we celebrate ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, so is Pakistan celebrating ‘Jashn-e-Azaadi’ to commemorate 75 years of its existence. The first is the cause while the latter is the effect!
This is the typical image of the brand. It is a bit like a parasitic plant, living on the nutrients from another brand that is India. Maybe I sound too harsh, but that is the reality of brand Pakistan today. Almost all references to Pakistan are vis-à-vis India. Comparisons are natural to be drawn but they are of the nature of proving time and again that the brand has been one big mistake. I remember listening to a lecture by journalist M.J. Akbar in 2016 where he said that the current state of Pakistan actually proves that partition, though painful, was a correct step in India’s favour. And Pakistan has not done itself any favours over the last two decades to prove us wrong.
