“Impact, not frequency” drives our media spends: Asian Paints CEO Amit Syngle

New Delhi: In India’s highly competitive paint market, crowded with celebrity endorsements, sponsorships and heavy advertising, Asian Paints does all of it but leans most on collaborations with high-impact properties to hold scale and salience.

Speaking to BestMediaInfo.com on the sidelines of India Design ID, where Asian Paints was the title sponsor, CEO Amit Syngle said the company’s media strategy is built around collective attention. He said Asian Paints would rather back fewer, bigger platforms than spread spends across smaller buys. “The objective is impact, not mere frequency,” he indicated.

Syngle said Asian Paints sets aside nearly 6 to 7% of its total revenue for marketing. Within that, sports account for about 10 to 15% of the marketing budget.

The play is deliberate. The company backs high-impact properties, mass-reach platforms, and a careful mix of legacy media and digital.

A sizeable portion of the sports budget is channelled into its partnership with the Board of Control for Cricket in India, where Asian Paints is the official colour partner of Team India. Syngle stressed that this is not a short-term play. “It’s a long-term commitment from our side,” he said.

Asian Paints entered a three-year partnership with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2025 to become the Official Colour Partner of Indian cricket. The deal will cover over 110 matches across men’s, women’s, and domestic cricket played in India, marking the brand’s largest engagement with the sport to date.

For Syngle, cricket offers more than visibility. It offers an emotional scale. The brand plugs into the passion of millions and builds what he calls a surround presence across the sport and its stars.

“It gives us a surround mechanism in terms of how we can look at this entire way of really associating with cricket, associating with the stars, and at the same time appealing to everyone who is kind of so emotional and so passionate about cricket,” said Asian Paints CEO.

The association reflects Asian Paints’ strategy to connect with cricket fans across the country while extending its identity as a leader in colour and home décor into India’s most popular sport. Through this partnership, the company plans to engage fans both on the ground at stadiums and through digital initiatives.

Beyond cricket, the company invests in marquee television properties such as Kaun Banega Crorepati and Bigg Boss.

“These are very, very big impact properties for us,” Syngle noted.

The approach reflects how large advertisers are recalibrating TV. Prime time tentpoles are being used less as a frequency engine and more as a cultural stage, particularly when the conversation travels into digital through clips, creator reactions and brand integrations.

While consumer campaigns drive visibility, Syngle also pointed to the strength of the B2B business. “We have close to about 18 to 20% of our revenues, which comes from B2B. And it’s a very important area for us as it kind of grows,” he said.

On technology, Syngle framed AI as an enabler rather than a substitute for craft. “There are two aspects of the AI that I like, and sometimes some things that I don’t like. I think it’s a really essential tool, which possibly gives us wings to fly. We need to be responsible with it in terms of the way we use it. It is creating democratisation of design.”

He sees its biggest role in helping consumers visualise outcomes before they commit. “One of the big areas when it comes to paint, coatings, and decor is visualisation. How do I visualise my home? How will it look in terms of these two colour combinations? How will it look with this texture coming? I believe AI has a very, very strong role in really helping the visualisation. It makes the process so easy, but at the same time, so evocative.”

Still, he is clear that execution remains human. “We might do a conceptualisation that is based on AI. But the actual thing is how we shoot and look at the physicality of how it comes about. We believe in a lot of human stuff in terms of what we do.”

“There is an angle of being pro-human; you don’t have to be anti-tech,” he underscored.

With fresher palettes and more contemporary storytelling, Syngle said the brand wants to broaden its appeal without narrowing it to one cohort. “We want to appeal to the Gen Z’s,” he said. At the same time, “we know our core audiences who have been there for a very long time with us.”

Despite the newer aesthetic, he insisted the brand’s core positioning remains intact. “For us, the positioning remains on ‘Har Ghar’ very strongly. We are not losing on ‘Har Ghar kuch kehta hai’. No way,” he asserted. “Because I think it’s identity.”

On competition, Syngle said the company is staying anchored to its strengths.

“Competition will always be there. For the last two decades, we have seen so much competition, international and local. What we are very clear about is that we are focusing on our strengths very strongly, whether it is brand equity or innovation. We dial in technology in a very strong and forward way,” he said.

“The world gets tickled by sensationalism, and we believe in reality. The reality is very clear that we are here to stay and we are going to build on our strengths very strongly,” Syngle added.