Introduction to Asian Paints
Asian Paints is India’s largest and one of the most respected paint companies, recognized globally for its innovation, quality, and strong customer connect. Founded in 1942 by four friends—Champaklal H. Choksey, Chimanlal N. Choksi, Suryakant C. Dani, and Arvind R. Vakil—the company started as a small paint manufacturer during the Second World War when imports were restricted. From these humble beginnings, Asian Paints has evolved into a multinational corporation operating in over 15 countries and serving consumers in more than 60 nations.
Headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, Asian Paints is a market leader in the Indian decorative paints segment, holding a share of over 50%. Its portfolio includes decorative paints, industrial coatings, waterproofing solutions, and home décor products. The company’s strong brand equity, deep distribution network, and commitment to innovation have made it a household name in India and a significant player internationally.
In its early decades, Asian Paints focused on making paint affordable and accessible to the masses. By offering smaller, budget-friendly packaging and vibrant colours suited to Indian tastes, the company captured the imagination of middle-class households. Over time, it expanded into industrial coatings, automotive paints, and protective coatings through subsidiaries and strategic alliances.
In the 2000s, Asian Paints diversified into the home décor and interior design space with offerings such as wall coverings, modular kitchens, and furniture. This expansion was complemented by its foray into home painting services, giving customers a complete end-to-end solution—from colour selection to application.
Asian Paints is known for adopting advanced technology in both manufacturing and marketing. Its Colour World tinting machines revolutionized the retail experience, allowing customers to choose from thousands of shades instantly. The company has also invested heavily in research and development to create eco-friendly paints, low-VOC products, and solutions that improve durability and aesthetic appeal.
Digital innovation is another strength. The brand has embraced online colour visualization tools, mobile apps, and virtual home makeover experiences to help customers make confident design choices.
Asian Paints has built a strong emotional connect with consumers through iconic campaigns like “Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai”, “Where the Heart Is”, and “Har Rang Kuch Kehta Hai“. These campaigns go beyond product features, focusing on the emotional bond people share with their homes. This human-centered approach has helped the brand stay relevant across generations.
The company’s mascot, Gattu—created in the 1950s by cartoonist R. K. Laxman—played a vital role in making Asian Paints relatable to the masses. Over time, the brand evolved from functional advertising to storytelling, positioning itself as more than just a paint manufacturer.
Asian Paints operates in markets across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the South Pacific through subsidiaries like Berger International, Apco Coatings, and SCIB Paints. Its global strategy combines local customization with strong operational efficiency.
From a small start-up in 1942 to a global leader, Asian Paints’ journey is a testament to the power of vision, customer focus, and innovation. The brand has successfully moved beyond selling paint to offering complete home décor solutions, earning trust and loyalty worldwide. With its continued emphasis on creativity, sustainability, and technology, Asian Paints is well-positioned to colour the future.
Asian Paints Marketing Campaigns
Asian Paints has built its brand not by selling paint alone, but by selling emotions, experiences, and home transformation. Its marketing has evolved from functional messaging to emotionally resonant storytelling, and most recently into experience-driven, tech-enabled positioning. Several campaigns stand out as milestones:
1. Gattu Era – The Early Mascot Connection
The Gattu Era marks the beginning of Asian Paints’ transformation from a functional commodity brand to one with personality and recall. Introduced in the mid-1950s, Gattu was a mischievous, paint-splattered boy created by celebrated cartoonist R. K. Laxman. He embodied playful irreverence—seen painting everything in sight, from walls to unlikely surfaces—under the tagline “Any surface that needs painting needs Asian Paints.” This wink of humour made the brand approachable to middle-class Indian households and helped establish early mass recognition.
Gattu featured predominantly in print advertisements from the 1950s to the 1970s, becoming a folklore-like mascot in Indian advertising, akin to the Amul girl in cultural stickiness. His antics were designed not to depict child labour but playful creativity—a point later clarified by those close to the campaign’s legacy to address occasional critiques.
Beyond charm, Gattu played a strategic role: the character served as a visual shorthand for innovation and reach, coinciding with Asian Paints’ push into smaller towns via affordable packaging and expanded distribution. The presence of Gattu on cans and in communications reinforced familiarity, and by the early 1990s, he became a television sign-off, refreshing the connection in a multimedia landscape.
Over time, as the brand evolved and repositioned itself, Gattu’s prominence waned—officially de-emphasized during the 2012 identity refresh—but the early mascot era laid the emotional and cultural groundwork that allowed Asian Paints to later shift into deeper storytelling platforms. The legacy of Gattu endures as a case study in using character-driven branding to humanize a product and build enduring recall.
2. Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai
Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai (Every Home Tells a Story) is Asian Paints’ watershed marketing platform, first launched in 2002 and built on a simple but profound insight: a home is not just a structure of walls and roofs, it is a reflection of the people who live in it—their memories, emotions, identities, and life’s quiet moments. Conceived at Ogilvy with Piyush Pandey as the principal creative force, the campaign foregrounded emotional storytelling over product push, celebrating the personality of the homeowner while gently “saluting” it, rather than defining it. In its original execution, the brand famously didn’t even overtly name itself; audiences understood and connected with the idea because it felt honest and resonant.
The campaign’s tagline—loosely translated as “every home has something to say”—was inspired by planners and creatives who emphasized that each household carries a unique story. Early creative discussions even included voiceover options; while Pandey had considered narrating it himself, the decision to involve Amitabh Bachchan came from internal belief in a more universal, trusted voice, with Bachchan ultimately advising that the original film be left untouched.
Over two decades later, Asian Paints revived the original film in 2024, not as nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake, but to reaffirm that the core human truth at its center—homes as extensions of self—remains timeless. The relaunch evoked emotional memory while reinforcing the brand’s enduring relevance, blending legacy with current cultural contexts.
The campaign’s strength lies in its understated power: through everyday moments of families choosing colours, rearranging spaces, and making personal touches, it turned the act of home-making into a story worth celebrating—cementing Asian Paints as a partner in life’s lived-in narratives, not just a paint seller.
3. Royale Play
Asian Paints Royale Play is a premium marketing initiative that elevates walls from mere backgrounds to personal storytelling surfaces through luxurious textured finishes. The campaign’s recent and standout iteration features Mira Kapoor, who draws on her travel memories—especially her visit to Rome—to inspire a wall transformation in her home. By translating the “weathered elegance” and architectural depth of Roman stonework into tactile Royale Play textures, the film demonstrates how spaces can hold and express emotional resonance without literal depiction.
The core insight of Royale Play is that décor is not just about colour—it’s about experience, memory, and identity. Mira Kapoor’s narrative, “Every place I’ve travelled to has left a mark on me… and now, on my home,” anchors the campaign emotionally, showing how personal journeys can be visually and sensorially embedded into interior spaces.
Technically, Royale Play offers a curated range of finishes—rustic plasters, marbleised effects, and nuanced overlays—that capture light and texture in ways that shift subtly over the day, making walls feel lived-in and evocative. The campaign’s visual storytelling is reinforced by the brand’s leadership framing: Amit Syngle, MD & CEO of Asian Paints, positions Royale Play as a “powerful toolkit” for consumers to bring cherished moments to life through design, bridging aspiration with accessibility.
The initiative works because it blends craftsmanship and emotion—inviting homeowners to see their walls as extensions of their narratives. By partnering with a culturally resonant voice like Mira Kapoor and grounding luxury in relatable memory, Royale Play shifts perceptions from paint as a product to texture as a medium of personal expression.
4. Where The Heart Is
Asian Paints – Where The Heart Is is a long-running digital series that takes audiences inside the homes of India’s most admired celebrities, blending lifestyle storytelling with subtle brand positioning. Launched in 2017, the series moves away from traditional advertising to offer an intimate, documentary-style look at how public figures design and inhabit their personal spaces—revealing that a home is as much about emotions and memories as it is about aesthetics.
Each episode features a different personality—from actors and musicians to sports icons—personally guiding viewers through their home. The conversations focus on personal design choices, sentimental artefacts, and the unique ways in which the space reflects their life journey. Rather than overt product placement, Asian Paints integrates its brand values through themes of warmth, individuality, and connection—underscoring the idea that “home is where the heart is.”
The series has showcased a wide variety of design sensibilities, from heritage-inspired décor to ultra-modern minimalism, allowing viewers to explore diverse creative expressions. This diversity not only reinforces Asian Paints’ broad design expertise but also inspires audiences to see their own homes as canvases for personal storytelling.
Production-wise, Where The Heart Is stands out for its high-quality visuals, intimate tone, and focus on authentic narratives. It thrives in the digital content space, leveraging YouTube and social platforms to reach design-conscious millennials and aspirational homeowners who engage more with lifestyle inspiration than traditional paint ads.
Over multiple seasons, the series has evolved into a trusted content property—part inspiration, part brand storytelling—that subtly reinforces Asian Paints as more than just a paint company. By associating the brand with emotion, aspiration, and individuality, Where The Heart Is strengthens the company’s positioning as a partner in creating homes that truly reflect the personalities of those who live in them.
5. Express Yourself
Asian Paints – Express Yourself is a marketing initiative designed to inspire homeowners to see colour as a means of self-expression, rather than just a finishing touch for walls. Rooted in the belief that every individual’s personality, mood, and life story can be reflected in their living spaces, the campaign positions Asian Paints as a partner in helping people bring their unique visions to life.
Launched in the early 2000s, Express Yourself was more than an advertising slogan—it became a service proposition. Alongside emotive advertising, Asian Paints introduced personalised colour consultancy services under the same banner. Trained colour experts would visit customers’ homes, understand their lifestyle and preferences, and recommend customised palettes and finishes. This direct service integration made the campaign a blend of inspiration and practical execution, ensuring the idea of self-expression translated into real, satisfying results for customers.
Creatively, the advertising leaned on vibrant visuals and relatable narratives, showing families and individuals using bold, unconventional, or thoughtfully chosen shades to transform their homes. The messaging encouraged consumers to break away from safe, conventional colours and embrace tones that resonated with their emotions, aspirations, or cultural influences.
The Express Yourself initiative was significant because it moved Asian Paints further into the space of lifestyle branding. Rather than simply selling paint, the brand sold a creative journey—empowering customers to take ownership of their home’s personality. The campaign also reinforced Asian Paints’ role as an expert guide, making the colour selection process less intimidating and more enjoyable.
By combining emotional storytelling with a tangible, value-added service, Express Yourself successfully deepened consumer engagement. It laid the groundwork for Asian Paints’ later premium and experiential campaigns, cementing the brand’s image as not just a provider of paint, but a facilitator of self-expression through design.
6. ColourNext
Asian Paints ColourNext is the brand’s flagship colour and material intelligence initiative—launched in 2003—that annually forecasts emerging design, cultural, and emotional trends shaping how spaces are experienced. It blends rigorous research with creative insight, drawing from interviews, workshops, and collaborations with experts across architecture, fashion, sociology, art, media, and lifestyle to surface shifting sensibilities in colour, texture, and meaning.
Each edition culminates in a Colour of the Year, a Wallpaper of the Year, and a set of broader “design directions” or material narratives that collectively serve as inspiration for designers, brands, and consumers. In ColourNext 2025, Cardinal was named the Colour of the Year—a dusky, emotionally layered shade encouraging authenticity, introspection, and embracing the full spectrum of feeling—while Spring Tune became Wallpaper of the Year, evoking quiet, unhurried elegance through motifs inspired by traditional Indian courtyards. The four accompanying forecast trends—Feel More, Salt, India Everywhere, and Bad Taste?—explore sensory richness, minimalist grounding, cultural hybridity, and exuberant self-expression, respectively.
ColourNext functions both as a thought leadership platform and a strategic tool: it informs Asian Paints’ product innovation, seasonal merchandising, and storytelling while providing the design community with a culturally attuned, future-facing palette framework. Its longevity—over two decades—has made it a benchmark in the subcontinent for credible trend prediction, helping brands and homeowners align aesthetic decisions with broader emotional and social currents.
By positioning colour as a language of identity and experience, ColourNext elevates Asian Paints from a paint manufacturer to a curator of meaning in built environments.
7. Socha Bhi Nahi Hoga
Asian Paints – “Socha Bhi Nahi Hoga” is a 2025 corporate campaign launched to mark World Interiors Day, built around the insight that home transformation can be imaginative, surprising, and deeply personal—“beyond your imagination.” The four-part film series follows a young couple as they renovate their home, using a mix of emotion-led storytelling and tech-enabled design solutions to turn vague ideas into real spaces. In the narrative, everyday disagreements about colour and style are resolved through tools like the “Colour with Asian Paints” app and a WhatsApp chatbot, making decision-making smoother and more collaborative.
The campaign weaves aspiration with accessibility. One episode sees the wife re-create the charm of Italy using Royale Play textures, surprising her partner and reinforcing the tagline “Socha Bhi Nahi Hoga” as a reflection of design possibilities that feel unexpected yet achievable. Another film brings in the premium “Sabyasachi for Nilaya” partnership, blending cultural luxury with home aesthetics in a playful reveal, further underscoring the brand’s role as a creative ally.
Asian Paints positions the campaign as a nudge for homeowners to view their living spaces as canvases for self-expression—where colour, texture, and design converge to tell unique stories. Amit Syngle, MD & CEO, frames it as inspiration to “see their homes as a canvas,” reinforcing the brand’s evolving identity from paint supplier to imaginative design partner. The execution balances relatability with elegance, using lighthearted, real-life moments to show how expert guidance and technology can unlock ideas people might not have envisioned for themselves.
By combining narrative warmth with tools that reduce friction, “Socha Bhi Nahi Hoga” creates both emotional engagement and practical empowerment, making home design feel intuitive, joyful, and unexpectedly possible.
8. Mera Wala Mood
Asian Paints – “Mera Wala Mood” is a Diwali 2023 campaign that marries emotion, colour, and technology to celebrate the idea that homes reflect not just spaces, but moods. Built as an interactive festive experience, the initiative acknowledges that the season brings a spectrum of feelings—joy, nostalgia, anticipation, even quiet introspection—and that each of those “moods” can be expressed through colour.
At the heart of the campaign is a tech-enabled microsite where users scan their face via smartphone camera; the system reads their current expression and maps it to a corresponding colour. That emotional-colour pairing is then brought to life through a personalized short film, layered with evocative visual décor and a bespoke poem narrated by legendary copywriter Piyush Pandey. These poems elevate the selected shade, making it feel less like a product choice and more like a reflection of inner sentiment.
The films and experiences are crafted to feel intimate and celebratory, positioning Asian Paints not merely as a paint brand but as a curator of emotional ambience during one of India’s most culturally significant festivals. The campaign leverages storytelling, personalization, and user-generated engagement—encouraging people to share their “wala mood” and the colour that represents it, thereby extending reach organically.
“Mera Wala Mood” works because it taps into a culturally resonant truth: colour is a language of feeling, especially in moments of homecoming and celebration. By blending data-driven personalization with poetic narrative and festive relevance, Asian Paints deepened emotional association while making the act of choosing colour feel playful, meaningful, and distinctly one’s own.
Conclusion on Asian Paints Marketing Campaigns
Asian Paints’ marketing journey is a masterclass in evolving a commodity into a cultural and emotional experience. At its core, the brand has moved from functional messaging to deeply human storytelling—beginning with relatable character-driven recall in the Gattu era, scaling into timeless emotional platforms like “Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai”, and continually reinventing relevance through campaigns such as “Socha Bhi Nahi Hoga” and Royale Play.
What makes these initiatives stand out is their layering: emotion is always paired with utility—be it through personalization tools, digital visualization, or premium texture experiences—so that consumers don’t just see a possibility, they feel and realize it. Thought leadership via ColourNext anchors the brand in future-facing aesthetics, while culturally tuned activations like “Mera Wala Mood” turn colour into personal expression.
Asian Paints’ strength lies in blending heritage and reinvention. Legacy platforms are refreshed without losing their core truths, premium aspirations are made accessible through storytelling, and technology reduces friction in the design journey while amplifying emotional resonance. The result is a cohesive ecosystem where the brand is perceived not just as a paint manufacturer but as a design partner and curator of lived-in identity.
In sum, Asian Paints’ campaigns succeed because they don’t sell paint; they invite people to narrate their lives in colour, texture, and space—turning homes into expressions of self and making the brand indispensable in the journey of transformation.
