Q] In 2025, what are your main marketing goals? Which brands are your top priority?
This year, our focus is on Teddyy baby diapers and Friends adult diapers. With Teddyy, after a lot of experimentation last year, we’ve found a very distinct digital voice and a tone that no other brand is using. We’re having honest conversations with mothers, and the response has been very encouraging. With Friends, the category penetration is still only around 5%, so awareness is critical — not just for the brand but for the category itself. Since it’s a personal continence-related issue, people are very sensitive about it. In our research, we met people who lived with incontinence for years without even telling their spouse. So, our communication is modular, we customise messages to each state or cohort’s cultural reality to make sure it lands strongly and cuts through the noise.
Q] What platforms are you using to build this awareness?
YouTube has been extremely effective for us, both on connected TV and mobile. From the start of our media journey, we’ve always been very excited about regional content, regional news and impact properties, and that approach has consistently worked well. We avoid national platforms when they dilute the message. Regional and impact-led platforms allow us to stay sharp and more relevant. And of course, all of this is supported by BTL and on-ground awareness work.
Q] On YouTube and digital platforms, we’ve seen user-generated content and testimonials from your brand. What was the insight behind this?
We piloted this campaign and have data to prove its success. In the state where we tested it, consideration went up by over 15%, and that too on a fractional budget. Full credit goes to my team for conceptualising and executing it. It’s not easy to find people willing to talk about incontinence publicly. My team, along with our research partners, put in a huge effort to find genuine Friends adult diaper users who were courageous enough to share their stories. Women like Manjula and Rani came forward because they understood the seriousness of the issue and truly valued the product. We amplified their voices so more people could draw courage from them.
This didn’t take years to execute, the team cracked it in six weeks. The real years were spent even before that, while understanding the nuances of the problem through research. We are strong believers in research, we invest in it and work with some of the best partners. By the time we reached consumers, our questions were sharp, we knew their ground reality, and they felt the brand genuinely understood them. It stopped being about selling and became about building awareness for the category.
Q] Speaking of ‘Azaadi’, how did the ‘Azaadi Mubarak’ campaign begin? What impact has it had, and is it still ongoing?
‘Azaadi Mubarak’ is the core tagline of the Friends diaper category. We’re proud of it because it captures both our brand promise and the consumer’s reality in just two words. ‘Azaadi’ is what we offer and what they feel. Around Independence Day, we started an internal tradition called ‘Azaadi Week’. Every Nobel employee, over 750 people across sales and head office, wears the diaper for the entire week. Our sales team, more than 650 people, wears Friends adult diapers while they are in the market. It brings them closer to the product, but more importantly, it completely changes retailer conversations. When retailers ask, ‘Is it comfortable? How much does it absorb?’ the salesperson just lifts their shirt slightly and says, ‘Sir, I’ve been wearing it all day, it’s 4 p.m., it’s very comfortable.’ That shifts the retailer’s perspective instantly. We have now completed our fourth ‘Azaadi Week’. And because my birthday is on August 11th, I’ve declared that ‘Azaadi Week’ begins on my birthday every year and runs till the 15th.
Q] The sanitary pads brand- Rio, had a strong campaign with Radhika Apte earlier, but the campaigns have subsided significantly post that. What is the reason for this pull back?
Rio has been steadily growing in revenue, but we have limited time and resources. We had to prioritise the backbone of the organisation, which is Friends adult diapers, and Teddyy baby diapers also needed significant focus. So, Rio was kept aside for this year. That said, we haven’t forgotten about it. Rio is known for bold messaging and innovation, we were the first to launch a heavy-flow pad in India. Now, we have two new product developments under the Rio portfolio, both first-time launches for the country. You will see these coming out next financial year.
Q] How is your marketing budget divided across TV, digital and other platforms?
Our budget split is straightforward: 40% goes to digital and 40% to TV. Around 15% is allocated to print, PR, radio and other mediums, and we keep a portion aside for BTL activities. Within digital, things evolve quickly. Right now, Instagram, Facebook through Meta and YouTube are performing very well for us. We align spends based on where the consumer is and where the message fits best. We will keep experimenting and will move budgets to whichever platform delivers better consumer connection and impact.
Q] Is CTV a major part of your marketing strategy?
Yes, CTV has worked very well for us. Madison, our media partners, have always been enthusiastic about it, and we’ve seen a strong lift in awareness and consideration. There’s a purity to how ads are watched on CTV. On YouTube mobile, people wait to skip ads. We don’t believe in forcing unskippable ads — the onus is on us to make content people want to watch. That is why CTV made sense. If we want real awareness around this category, the conversation has to start in the living room, and CTV allows that. So far, it has delivered great results for us.
Q] With new trends emerging regularly, what medium will you bet big on in the future?
I don’t have a definite answer yet, because there is still a lot you can do with existing channels. But one offbeat medium making a comeback is physical touchpoints, especially direct mail. There is so much digital noise now that sending a well-designed physical mailer actually stands out. It gets opened, stays on the dining table for days and creates more impact than a 10-second YouTube ad people might skip. So old-school is becoming new again: direct mail and experiential outreach bring real tangibility and let you understand consumers better. The only challenge is scale, but good marketers will figure that out.
Q] Based on your learnings over the years, how will you modify your marketing mix for 2026?
Modularity will continue to be a big focus. We want to take culturally relevant, context-specific messages to the right audiences in each state. We tested this over the past year, it worked very well, and we will continue with it. At the same time, we are working with trusted partners to bring larger voices into the category to cut through clutter and scale awareness. So the plan has two layers: a modular, local approach and a national campaign on top. When both intersect, that creates real synergy for the brand and the consumer.
PROFILE
Kartik Johari leads Marketing & Commerce at Nobel Hygiene, one of India’s fastest-growing hygiene FMCG companies. Over the past decade, he has helped grow the business 10X and build category-defining brands like Friends Adult Diapers and Teddyy Baby Diapers. He is known for bold, stigma-breaking campaigns, including legalising the use of red blood in sanitary pad advertising in India. Under his leadership, Nobel Hygiene built an in-house creative team producing 150+ content pieces weekly, leveraged AI to reduce costs, grew e-commerce by 152% and helped secure `170 crore in funding. His approach combines execution, empathy and blunt clarity.
ABOUT THE BRAND
Founded in 2000, by Mr. Kamal Johari, Nobel Hygiene has grown into the country’s undisputed leader in adult incontinence care, with its flagship brand Friends Adult Diaper holding a market share of over 48%. Alongside Friends, the company has built a stronghold in the baby diaper segment with Teddyy Baby Diapers, which now commands a market share of ~6.5%. The brand has steadily gained ground by addressing the needs of Indian caregivers across Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, offering a compelling combination of affordability, fit and reliability.
FACTS
Media agency: Madison
PR Agency: ITW Playworx
Digital Agency: In-House
Creative Agency: In-House
