When Thums Up released its ‘Taste the Thunder’ anthem featuring Hanumankind and Vishal Dadlani, it reflected a familiar shift in Indian advertising: music is no longer being treated as supporting material, but as a central part of campaign strategy.
Over the past decade, brand-funded music has gradually moved away from short jingles towards full-length tracks designed for streaming platforms, social media, and event-led promotion. These releases are expected to function simultaneously as advertisements, digital content, and, in some cases, commercial music products. Thums Up’s latest campaign fits squarely into this pattern.
At its centre is the recurring line “Aaj Kuch Toofani Karte Hain”, which operates as both a lyrical hook and a positioning device. Rather than being limited to a television spot, the phrase anchors a full-length track intended for repeated circulation across platforms.
Structuring the Collaboration
The project was developed by WPP Ogilvy, with Universal Music India acting as strategic partner. This reflects a growing model in which brands work directly with music companies instead of commissioning standalone advertising compositions.
For labels, such partnerships offer access to substantial marketing budgets and predictable exposure. For brands, they provide production infrastructure, artist networks, and distribution systems that extend beyond traditional media buying.
The outcome is content that occupies a middle ground between commercial communication and commercial release.
Choosing the Right Voices
The pairing of Hanumankind and Dadlani plays a central role in the campaign’s positioning. Hanumankind speaks to younger, digitally native audiences shaped by hip-hop and independent music scenes. Dadlani brings long-standing mainstream recognition and cross-generational familiarity.
Rather than attempting to merge these identities into a uniform sound, the track allows both artists to retain their distinct styles. This reflects a broader trend in brand collaborations, where contrast is increasingly used to widen audience reach.
The music was composed by Sushin Shyam, with lyrics by Varun Grover, adding further creative credibility to the project.
Visual Execution and Production
Directed by Bijoy Shetty, the music video adopts a fast-paced, high-energy visual style. The film prioritises movement and rhythm over linear storytelling, reflecting how such content is now consumed across short-form and long-form platforms.
Produced by Early Man Films, the project illustrates the growing role of specialist production houses in delivering content that must function as advertising, music video, and digital asset at the same time.
This modular, multi-format approach has become standard for large-budget brand films, where a single shoot is expected to generate material for multiple platforms and use cases.
Launch and Distribution Strategy
The anthem was introduced through a closed media and creator showcase in Mumbai, followed by a wider digital release. This staged rollout mirrors practices commonly used in commercial music launches, where early access is used to build momentum.
The inclusion of cricketers Suryakumar Yadav and Rinku Singh links the campaign to Thums Up’s long-standing association with cricket, particularly around the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup cycle.
Music, sport, and celebrity culture continue to operate as interconnected visibility engines for mass-market brands in India.
From Campaign to Catalogue
Senior leadership from Coca-Cola India and Southwest Asia, Ogilvy India, and Universal Music Group have framed the project as part of a longer-term brand strategy.
This reflects a wider shift in how advertisers now think about music. Instead of treating each campaign as disposable, many are building libraries of reusable audio-visual assets that can be reactivated across multiple cycles.
In this context, brand anthems begin to resemble catalogue items rather than one-off seasonal promotions.
Visual Identity and Brand Consistency
The campaign also coincides with Thums Up’s recent visual refresh, its first in over two decades. The updated design language is integrated into the film’s visual world, ensuring alignment across packaging, advertising, and digital platforms.
Such consistency has become increasingly important in an environment where audiences encounter brand content in fragmented and non-linear ways.
What This Signals for the Industry
The ‘Taste the Thunder’ project reflects several structural changes in India’s brand-music ecosystem:
- Deeper integration between advertisers and music companies
- Artist collaborations driven by audience overlap
- Production designed for long-term reuse
- Campaigns shaped by label-style launch strategies
- Growing emphasis on catalogue value over short-term visibility
For industry observers, the campaign underlines how brand-funded music is becoming more professionalised, more expensive, and more strategically embedded within marketing systems.
Whether this leads to more durable creative work or simply higher-budget advertising remains open to debate. What is clear, however, is that music now occupies a central role in how major brands attempt to remain relevant in an increasingly crowded media landscape.
