June 9: ITC Mangaldeep, one of India’s incense brands, has unveiled a new brand film centred on its Sixth Sense initiative a first-of-its-kind programme that places visually impaired individuals at the heart of its fragrance development and evaluation process. The film, conceptualised by Ogilvy, arrives not as a corporate responsibility statement, but as a quiet, powerful revelation of a truth already embedded within the brand: that the deepest way to understand fragrance is to experience it without the distraction of sight.
Set against the unhurried backdrop of a neighbourhood cricket match, the film follows Amit, a visually impaired child, and his friend Rohan. In a gentle moment of childhood honesty, Rohan finishes a snack without sharing only to be caught out when Amit offers him a handkerchief, noting with calm certainty that Lallan’s samosas are always oily. The pretence collapses. Apology turns to laughter. And in that small, unremarkable exchange, the film makes its case: They see with their noses. The film closes on a thought that is as much philosophy as campaign line: “Smell what is possible.”
Introduced in 2021, the Mangaldeep Sixth Sense Panel was conceived as a structured, ongoing collaboration with the visually impaired community, a genuine enhancement to the fragrance development process. Today, the programme has grown to include over 180 trained panelists across Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, and Hyderabad, each brought in to evaluate and refine Mangaldeep’s fragrance offerings with the precision of trained specialists.
The training, conducted by ITC Mangaldeep’s in-house fragrance experts, covers olfactive familiarisation across core fragrance families Fruity, Floral, Woody, Herbal/Mint, and Oudh/Amber, through both raw materials and blended experiences. Panelists are introduced hands-on to Mangaldeep’s key product formats, including dhoop sticks, flora agarbattis, premium cups, and sambrani sticks, via touch and scent. They are then equipped with structured evaluation protocols to participate in monthly fragrance trials and provide detailed, calibrated feedback that directly shapes the products consumers experience.
“At ITC Mangaldeep, we have always believed that the finest fragrances are shaped not just by expertise, but by the depth of human perception. The Sixth Sense programme began as a conviction that those who experience the world differently often understand it most acutely. Over four years, our visually impaired panelists have moved from being participants to becoming indispensable collaborators in how we develop and refine our fragrances. This campaign is our way of sharing that truth. Not as a story of inclusion but as a story of craft.” Said, Mr. Rohit Dogra, Chief Executive, Matches & Agarbatti Business Division, ITC Ltd.
“The starting point of this project was so good that writing a film for it was sheer delight. ITC Mangaldeep’s Sixth Sense project has found a way to employ the superpowers of the visually impaired as fragrance testers. This is where we wanted to pitch the film. Set between two small-town friends the film takes the audience through an awkward moment between them, when one friend discovers the superpower of his visually impaired friend’s nose.” Said Harshad Rajadhyaksha, CCO, Ogilvy India
“The director Talha Bin Mohsin has captured their relationship and the tenderness of the moment beautifully. We have to mention that it takes a brave client to allow this kind of storytelling, where the emotion leads and the brand follows.” Said Kainaz Karmakar, CCO, Ogilvy India
What began as an initiative has steadily become integral to how Mangaldeep creates and refines its fragrance portfolio. The visually impaired panelists are not participants in a programme, they are product experts. Their heightened olfactory sense, sharpened by the absence of sight, provides the brand with a quality of sensory insight that conventional testing simply cannot replicate.
What might once have been framed as social responsibility has been reframed truthfully as product intelligence. The Sixth Sense Panel is not a communications construct; it is a real, functioning part of how Mangaldeep develops its fragrances. Built on restraint rather than sentiment, the film does not manufacture a narrative it uncovers one, letting the audience arrive at the truth before the brand names it. Viewers have described it as “emotionally intelligent” a campaign that moves without explaining itself.
