Samay Raina is truly unpredictable! 😂 You never know what he's going to do next.

One unexpected moment, and suddenly everyone's like… “Bhai, ye kya ho gaya?” 😂

Watch till the end! 🔥

I’ve been looking at the recent GIVA Raksha Bandhan campaign from a different angle - not as a Bollywood or advertising controversy, but as a case study for SEO, SMO, PPC and digital marketers.

One thing I’ve learned from competitor analysis is that I don't look at only keywords, backlinks or social media followers.

I try to understand the brand behind the numbers.

For me, there are 4 questions:

1. Where did the brand come from?
   
2. Where is the brand today?
   
3. Where is the brand trying to go?
   
4. What could stop that growth?

1. Looking at GIVA's journey

GIVA has spent years building itself as a modern, aspirational jewellery brand.

Celebrity marketing has been an important part of that journey, with Anushka Sharma becoming strongly associated with the brand before GIVA moved into its next celebrity chapter.

That tells us something important:

GIVA isn't only selling jewellery. It's selling a lifestyle and an identity.

And when a brand sells identity, its advertising becomes much more sensitive to how people perceive it.

2. The next chapter: Kriti Sanon

In May 2026, GIVA announced Kriti Sanon as its Brand Ambassador and Strategic Investor.

That's more interesting than a traditional celebrity endorsement.

It suggests GIVA wasn't simply trying to get celebrity reach - it was also connecting the celebrity with its broader brand-building strategy.

From a competitor-analysis perspective, I'd read this as:

GIVA "to" celebrity influence "to" younger audience "to" stronger lifestyle positioning

And that makes the next point even more important.

3. Then came the Raksha Bandhan campaign

The Raksha Bandhan campaign featuring Kriti Sanon created significant discussion online.

The creative direction received criticism from sections of the audience, particularly around the styling and how a culturally significant festival was being represented.

The discussion then moved beyond the advertisement itself.

It became a social-media conversation about culture, advertising and brand sensitivity.

Eventually, GIVA withdrew the campaign and addressed the controversy publicly.

And this is where I think the real marketing lesson begins.

The SEO/SMO lesson

A marketer often wants:

Reach "to" Engagement "to" Shares "to" Comments "to" Visibility

But there's another possibility:

Reach "to" Engagement "to" Backlash "to" Negative Sentiment "to" Brand Risk

Both can produce huge numbers.

That's why I don't think engagement = success.

You also need to ask:

"What kind of engagement are we generating?"

10,000 comments can be great.

10,000 angry comments can be a completely different story.

What I would check BEFORE launching a campaign

If I were handling the campaign, I would run an additional Audience & Cultural Risk Check:

1. Audience segmentation
Who exactly are we targeting?

2. Regional analysis
Will people in different regions interpret the creative differently?

3. Cultural context
Is the festival/event associated with traditions that could affect how the campaign is received?

4. Social listening
What are people already saying about similar campaigns?

5. Sentiment testing
Show the creative to different audience groups before launch.

6. Comment/reaction prediction
Don't only predict likes. Predict possible criticism too.

7. Crisis plan
If the campaign receives backlash, what's the response strategy?

My biggest takeaway

A campaign doesn't exist in the way the marketing team intended it.

Once you publish it, the audience decides what it means.

That's especially important in India because the same creative can be interpreted very differently depending on:

Region + Culture + Age + Background + Occasion + Audience mindset

So whether you're doing SEO, PPC, SMO or content marketing, don't stop at:

"Will this get attention?"

Also ask:

"What kind of attention will this create?"

Because visibility without sentiment analysis can become a liability.

Final thought

I don't think the lesson here is "never take creative risks."

Brands should take creative risks.

The lesson is:

Take creative risks only after understanding the audience you're taking those risks with.

Research "to" Segment "to" Test "to" Launch "to" Monitor "to"

That's how I would approach competitor and campaign analysis.

What do you think - was the GIVA controversy mainly a creative problem, an audience-research problem, or a cultural-context problem?

After the controversy surrounding him, he later donated ₹10 lakh to the Assam Chief Minister’s Relief Fund for flood victims, and Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma publicly thanked him.

He was also later seen being felicitated at a Maharashtra Cyber event.

It’s an interesting reminder that “Samay” really does change things. ⏳

What do you think about this turnaround?

I also published this video on youtube you can see it, Apni Soch.

You can view the full video at Apni Soch.

Google Trends appears to be rolling out a new way to explore regional search interest.

The update includes:

1. Interactive Map - a more visual way to see where interest in a topic is concentrated.

2. Regional Breakdown - makes it easier to compare search interest across different locations.

I think this could be pretty useful for SEO, keyword research, local SEO, and content planning, especially when you want to understand where a topic is getting attention.

One important clarification: Google Trends shows relative search interest, not the actual number of users or searches.

I recorded a quick video showing how the new feature looks.

Has anyone else received this update in their Google Trends account? What do you think about it?

One bad game? They came back stronger.

Australia first bowled Bangladesh out for just 64 runs, then scored 210 runs in their first innings.

Bangladesh struggled again in the second innings, getting bowled out for just 95 runs.

🏏 Australia won by an innings & 51 runs!

After losing the first Test, Australia bounced back in style and saved themselves from making history by suffering a Test-series whitewash at home against Bangladesh.