Maaza Joins Coca-Cola's Billion-Dollar Club, Shifts Focus in New Campaign

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Recognized as Coca-Cola’s third billion-dollar brand in India (after Sprite and Thums Up) and the 30th globally.
• Moves away from traditional ASMR-style visuals, celebrity endorsements, and mango-heavy storytelling.
• Post-campaign discussions led to a strategic pivot, aiming to position Maaza beyond just a mango drink.
• The latest campaign highlights small, relatable victories in life instead of grand celebrations.

Last week was a memorable occasion for Maaza, as the Coca-Cola Company officially recognized the mango drink as the third billion-dollar brand in India by annual sales in 2024 (after Sprite in 2022 and the homegrown cola Thums Up in 2021). Globally, Maaza is now the company's 30th billion-dollar brand.

Coincidence or not, Maaza also released a new 80-second ad that has no ASMR-like visuals of mangoes and their juices, no celebrities enjoying the fruit, and little to no focus on the fruit itself. Because in last year's campaign, a good part of Maaza’s ad focused on the actors pouring the drink from a bottle into glasses featuring Amitabh Bachchan and Pooja Hegde.

After the campaign, Maaza had a discussion with its creative and leading advertising agency Ogilvy. They made a collective decision to rethink the brand and push it beyond. In this year's campaign It's a series of short narratives, or "wins," that aim at being very engaging as well as relatable, moving away from the traditional celebrity faces connected via real-lived instances with consumers. Ogilvy  chief creative officer Sukesh Nayak stated “Maaza has to pivot to become the next big brand in the portfolio.”

On the focus of Maaza's new campaign Nayak added "While the central idea will always revolve around the king of fruits, the focus was on, 'We can be treats, but what kind of treat do we want to be?  "Treats are usually associated with big things. We are going to talk about everyday things because they’re the most important in today’s world."