New Delhi:
Mayank Pravinchandra Shah, Vice President at Parle Products, has described the massive brand publicity boost from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni sharing a video holding a packet of Melody toffees as nothing less than a kind of “divine intervention” for Parle, the maker of the chocolate toffee.
At the NDTV Profit Goa Fest 2026, Shah said such a boost, however, can’t move on its own momentum without any extra work put into it.
“Throughout the day, I was busy, you know, just attending calls and giving interviews. So as you rightly said, and as also, you know, Sam put it rightly, I think that’s a great opportunity that we have got and we need to build on it,” Shah said replying to NDTV Editor-in-Chief Rahul Kanwal’s comment that mentioned ad guru Sam Balsara’s theory about building and sustaining what goes viral, which, without effort, would disappear as fast as it came.
“We already started with the digital initiatives and many more things are planned and that would follow. But yes, I think what we are talking about, the hook is there. How we build on it is something that, you know, is up to us now,” Shah said.
“Things have been, you know, moved. Some of those things right from PR and digital, which you can start immediately, they are already in place and they are done. And the other things will follow,” he said.
“But yes, I can’t agree more to this, that you require the hook. And then once you have it, you need to build on it. You just can’t say that you have the hook. Then, things won’t happen on their own,” the Parle vice president said at the event in Goa.
To a question whether he knew the Melody toffee content would appear on the internet, Shah said he had no idea.
“No idea. I mean, when you were asking me, ‘did you plug it?’ I said, I don’t have anything to do with that. But I would put it as divine intervention,” he added.
