AI+ Smartphones is chasing cultural moments, not media mixes: Archi Gogoi

New Delhi: A year is barely enough time for a smartphone brand to establish a product, let alone a personality. AI+ Smartphones, however, has spent its first year ensuring it is rarely absent from the conversation. Since launching in July 2025, the homegrown brand claims to have sold over one million smartphones, introduced around 20 products across smartphones and AIoT devices, and set itself a target of shipping five million smartphones this year. It has appeared alongside the IPL through partnerships with Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders, associated with cricketer Ishaan Kishan, and is now the title sponsor of India's Got Latent, Season 2. That choice becomes even more interesting when viewed against the backdrop of one of the company's defining moments. The pace is unusual. So, is the marketing philosophy underpinning it. Rather than committing itself to fixed media allocations or long-term celebrity campaigns, AI+ says it is building around what Brand Head, Archi Gogoi repeatedly calls “relevance.” The strategy appears to be simple. Wherever consumer attention shifts, the brand intends to follow. That approach, however, has also meant navigating one of the more public creator disputes witnessed by an emerging smartphone brand. When trust itself became the story Earlier this year, AI+ landed in the middle of a public dispute after creators questioned the authenticity of its smartphones in review videos. The company responded with legal action, leading to videos being pulled down. For a young brand trying to establish credibility, it was an uncomfortable place to be. Yet, instead of stepping away from creators, AI+ doubled down on them. Speaking to BestMediaInfo.com, Gogoi maintained that the company never viewed creators as adversaries. Ai+ Smartphones responded to the backlash with launching another model in their portfolio and organising an Open Review Programme that invited reviewers to test devices before they reached consumers. “We actually had a lot of people sign up for the open review program,” she said, adding that the company still received “enough and more reviews” and the visibility it had hoped for during launch. Whether the initiative was an exercise in transparency, damage control or simply another marketing tactic depends on perspective. Relevance over media plans Throughout the conversation, Gogoi returned repeatedly to one word more often than television, digital, GRPs or impressions - Relevance. It is also where AI+'s marketing appears to diverge from conventional consumer brands. Founder Madhav Sheth had earlier told BestMediaInfo.com that nearly 70% of the company's marketing spends were earmarked for traditional media during launch. Asked whether that mix had evolved, Gogoi avoided discussing percentages altogether. Instead, she argued that annual media plans have become increasingly fluid. “I think in whatever marketing or brand building we're doing, relevance is very important,” she said. The company, she explained, still plans annually, but constantly revisits those plans because “we're in such a fast-changing, evolving industry.” Some months may demand television. Others may require digital-first investments. “There is no split,” Gogoi said. That philosophy helps explain AI+'s choice of partnerships. IPL, according to Gogoi, was a natural fit because “the whole of India literally ate, lived and breathed IPL.” The company's subsequent association with India's Got Latent Season 2 follows the same logic. A property commanding disproportionate online attention among younger audiences. Interestingly, Gogoi's definition of relevance appears to extend beyond media channels to cultural moments themselves. Can trust be accelerated? Trust remains central to almost every answer Gogoi gave, “building trust is a continuous process.” At the same time, many of the brand's biggest marketing decisions point towards properties designed to generate immediate visibility. Asked whether there was a contradiction between advocating “slow trust” while marketing through viral properties, Gogoi disagreed. “We didn't get into it thinking that it (IGL S2) will go viral,” she said. “It has gone viral. So it's a win-win for us.” AI+ insists virality is an outcome rather than the objective. Yet nearly every campaign the company highlights, from IPL sponsorships to India's Got Latent and creator collaborations, sits inside environments where public attention accumulates rapidly. Marketing cannot rescue a weak product Questions around market share, media allocations and marketing budgets produced relatively few numbers during the conversation. Instead, Gogoi consistently redirected the discussion towards product quality. “If today I'm only spending on marketing and it's not giving my business any output, then what's the point of my marketing efforts?” she said. “Marketing, product and business have to go together.” According to Gogoi, AI+ has crossed one million smartphone sales, launched around 20 products within a year and is targeting five million smartphone shipments this year. She also cited May as a particularly strong month, claiming sales of around three lakh smartphones and revenues of roughly Rs 350 crore. While the company declined to disclose its market share, marketing spends or category-specific media allocations, Gogoi argued that consumer demand itself justified the pace of expansion. That expansion also feeds into a larger ambition repeatedly hinted at by the company. The aim is to build an integrated consumer technology ecosystem rather than remaining solely a smartphone brand. A lean machine chasing cultural moments AI+'s organisational structure mirrors its marketing strategy. The company does not work with a traditional agency of record, instead relying heavily on internal teams while appointing agencies for specific mandates. The same flexibility extends to celebrity partnerships. “We as a brand generally believe in brand advocates rather than brand ambassadors,” she said, arguing that shorter, context-driven associations are better suited to a fast-moving consumer environment. That may also explain why AI+'s first year has been characterised less by conventional brand-building milestones and more by continuous participation in high-attention moments, whether through cricket, creator culture or internet entertainment. The irony is difficult to miss. A company that speaks most often about patience has built much of its visibility through environments that reward immediacy. A brand that wants to be trusted first has become known, at least in its first year, for the conversations surrounding it as much as the products it sells. Whether that eventually translates into enduring consumer preference or simply sustained visibility will become clearer over the next few product cycles.