AME: Bates & Virgin Mobile on building a youth brand in India

SHANGHAI - India's Bates 141 and Virgin Mobile are due to present the award-winning case study tracking Virgin Mobile's path into the country's youth market at this year's Asian Marketing Effectiveness (AME) Festival held on 24 & 25 March in Shanghai.

AME: Bates & Virgin Mobile on building a youth brand in India
Dheeraj Sinha, chief strategy officer at Bates 141 India, and Prasad Narasimhan, chief marketing officer at Virgin Mobile India, are presenting the case study titled 'Building a youth brand in a youthful country' on the first day of the AME Festival.

India has one of the youngest populations in the world with over 200 million people below the age of 25. Despite the sheer size of this market, Virgin Mobile found there were no established mainstream youth brands and took advantage of the opportunity to give the Indian youth a brand to call their own.

In appealing to their ability to tweak the rules and manoeuvre the country's traditional system to their advantage, Virgin Mobile positioned itself as a ‘partner in crime’, exhorting them to cleverly bypass the firewall of sanctions. In doing so they provided the country's youth with a real choice in mobile services.

Within two years, Virgin Mobile managed to establish itself as the first true brand for the youth market in India. In the process the campaign won many awards including Silver at the AMEs last year.

Click here for a list of confirmed AME speakers and their topics.


The AMEs is now in its eighth year and hailed as the region’s premier recognition of excellence in marketing effectiveness. A highly influential list of leading industry executives, brand pioneers and globally acclaimed marketing experts will take part in an unparalleled programme of challenging keynotes, dynamic panel discussions and informative breakout sessions. The AME Festival is Asia’s premier forum to discuss, debate and celebrate results driven marketing and innovation.



Related Articles

Just Published

12 hours ago

Yannick Bolloré: ‘AI is a powerful creative partner’

Ahead of Cannes Lions, the chief executives of the 'big six' holding companies and senior leaders give their views on a range of topics relating to creativity and business. Today, it’s the turn of Havas' chief executive and chairman, Yannick Bolloré.

15 hours ago

Hilton readies ‘connected story’ in latest Asia ...

Amid Hilton's ambitious growth plans and a fresh campaign with Bollywood star Deepika Padukone, Campaign sits down with Hilton’s VP of marketing and loyalty to chat about the challenges of marketing a myriad of hotel brands to Asia's diverse audiences.

16 hours ago

2025 Cannes Contenders: Angie Tijam-Tohid's top bets

Havas Ortega Group's executive creative director handpicks work with meaningful social impact that could win a Lion next week at Cannes.