India – November 2, 2023—Today NielsenIQ announced its highly-anticipated 2023 BASES Breakthrough Innovation Awards for India. The awards recognize successful product launches across all strategies, category disruptors that grew their brand, to targeted plays intended to delight specific audiences.

This year, the BASES Breakthrough Innovation Awards named 10 winners across innovative brands in India that have transformed their categories. It also acknowledged 2 Wavemakers, products that show great potential for future success.

This year’s Breakthrough Innovation winners launched in market in 2020-21 and have successfully navigated through a persistently precarious landscape, marked by the enduring impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions and extraordinary inflationary constraints and succeeded in making huge strides across diverse categories.

There were common product themes across these winners—consumers gravitated towards food and beverage brands with fun, indulgent attributes. Spicy flavors were popular with buyers, but consumers also sought out healthy, whole ingredients in their snack foods. Health benefits were in demand in other verticals including Personal Care products, where proactive and preventative care top of mind. India’s Breakthrough Innovation winners also excelled at delivering convenience through a variety of product formats and packaging options across categories.

“When it comes to evaluating innovations, there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach anymore. It is critical to understand the business objectives and the innovation strategy,” said Vidya Sen, BASES Leader, South Asia. “However, one common thread for success is sustainability of the innovation in-market which is non-negotiable.” As a result, BASES looks at the scale of the innovations in year 1 and their sustained growth in year 2, to arrive at the winners.

BASES scrutinized more than 3,000 innovations across 85 categories in FMCG and OTC, to come up with 12 winners. The combined year 1 sales across the winners are Rs. 623 Crores, which speaks of the impact innovations can have if developed and executed to perfection.

“Innovation is more than making a change. It is making a difference!” said Vidya Sen.

The 2023 India Breakthrough Innovation Award Winners are:

• Cadbury 5 Star Oreo
• Cadbury Dairy Milk Lolly
• Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk Mousse
• Colgate Visible White O2
• L’Oréal Paris Dream Lengths
• Lay’s Sizzlin’ Hot
• SMOODH
• Sunfeast All Rounder Potato Biscuit – Cream & Herb
• Tata Soulfull Ragi Bites No Maida Choco
• Whisper Choice Night

The 2023 India Breakthrough Innovation Award Wavemakers are:

• Dettol Powder to Liquid Handwash
• Lay’s Gourmet

For over a decade, BASES has identified more than 700 products from around the globe as Breakthrough Innovations. These innovations addressed key consumer needs and delivered stand-out experiences that redefined their categories. This, in turn, has resulted in incredible outcomes.

For more information about this year’s Breakthrough Innovations winners and to learn from their successes, please visit the Breakthrough Innovation website.

About NielsenIQ

NIQ is the world’s leading consumer intelligence company, delivering the most complete understanding of consumer buying behavior and revealing new pathways to growth. In 2023, NIQ combined with GfK, bringing together the two industry leaders with unparalleled global reach. With a holistic retail read and the most comprehensive consumer insights—delivered with advanced analytics through state-of-the-art platforms—NIQ delivers the Full View™.

NIQ, is an Advent International portfolio company with operations in 100+ markets, covering more than 90% of the world’s population. For more information, visit NIQ.com.