MUMBAI: The lights went out on Indian advertising this Diwali. Piyush Pandey, the wordsmith who turned bus rides and roadside tea into unforgettable campaigns, died on Friday aged 70. Just four months earlier, at the Emvies awards in Mumbai, veterans had touched his feet for blessings while young hopefuls queued for selfies. He looked frail but smiled through every encounter. Humility was his signature; genius was his secret.

Pandey never claimed special talent. His gift was simpler and rarer: he kept his eyes open. The famous Fevicol advertisement—a Jaisalmer bus groaning under passengers clinging to every inch—came from a real sighting. The magic was slapping a Fevicol poster on the back of the bus. “Keep your eyes open, keep your ears to the ground and have a heart willing to accept,” he told newcomers at Ogilvy. It wasn’t a slogan. It was scripture.
 

He joined Ogilvy & Mather in 1982 at 27, after failing at cricket, tea tasting and construction. When Mani Iyer, who headed the agency, introduced him to me as creative director in the late 1980s, Pandey’s deep, soft voice belied a fierce passion for the craft. Like Roda Mehta, who ran media at Ogilvy, he was generous with his time,  patiently explaining the thought behind many a campaign to me. Those campaigns moved hundreds of thousands of crores worth of products off shelves over their lifespans.

His method was observation turned into emotion. The Dum Laga Ke Haisha Fevicol spot was originally made for a smaller brand called Fevitite. The Parekhs, who owned Pidilite, told him the ad was too good to waste. Reshoot it for Fevicol, they urged. He did. That single decision spawned a series of award-winning campaigns and turned Fevicol into the category itself.

His philosophy was disarmingly simple: love life. “Whether you are sipping tea from a roadside vendor or in a five-star hotel, whether you are travelling by second class or in a Mercedes-Benz,” he would say. Great ideas came from loving all of it—the chaos, the mundane, the sublime. “Be open to accepting ideas from the world. Be open to sharing ideas with the world. Learn to talk but most importantly also learn to listen.”

Pandey despised lazy advertising. Technology for its own sake was pointless; celebrities without ideas were  useless. “Many TVCs are pathetic these days when they use celebrities. They are made very lazily,” he once said. For him, the idea came first. Technology could enhance it; fame could amplify it. But without a core truth, it was just expensive noise.

He believed consumers, not suits or pony-tailed creatives, made advertising great. “It’s when he or she accepts the product and emotionally bonds with it, the product becomes a brand,” he said. His advice to brand managers was blunt: stop being salesmen. Build brands, not just products.

I lost touch with him for decades  as I went about building the indiantelevision.com group and all its ancillary services. Journalism and writing as I used to practice when I was younger was relegated to the background. It was during the pandemic that I reached out to him and requested him to spare some time for an online interview. To my surprise, he remembered me and he readily agreed. It was an interesting conversation about how Ogilvy was serving clients during the pandemic and how its creative edge was being maintained. We had agreed we would speak for 30 minutes, but the conversation went on for an hour. It was peppered with Pandey-isms. But that was the last time we spoke at length to each other, though we said hello to each other at advertising industry get-togethers which I rarely attended. Sadly, for me. 

The man who taught India to watch, listen and love has gone silent. But his voice echoes still—in every vernacular tagline, every slice-of-life commercial, every campaign that dares to see India as it truly is. Pandey didn’t just sell products. He gave an entire nation permission to speak in its own accent, to find poetry in the everyday, to believe that the roadside and the boardroom could meet and make magic. 

The lights dimmed this Diwali, but the spark he lit—built on observation, fuelled by empathy, sustained by love—will burn for generations. That’s not advertising. That’s immortality.

MUMBAI: Once, they blazed across the Indian media landscape with the swagger of pioneers. Entrepreneur-led behemoths like Subhash Chandra’s Zee Entertainment, Kalanithi Maran’s Sun TV, Prannoy Roy’s NDTV, and Raghav Bahl’s Network18 weren’t just market leaders — they were institutions, holding their own even as foreign giants circled hungrily.

Today, those stars are fading. Some have already fallen.

Network18 and TV18 are now firmly in the grip of Reliance Industries and Disney Star. NDTV, long a bastion of editorial independence, is under the control of the Adani Group. Its founders — Roy and Radhika — have exited stage left, their names now relics of an era that once prized journalistic idealism.

Zee, once the crown jewel of Indian broadcasting, is barely hanging on. The Chandra family — once majority owners — now clutch a meagre four-odd  per cent stake. It’s a dramatic fall from grace fuelled by Subhash Chandra’s ill-advised adventures into infrastructure. To bankroll these forays, he pledged Zee shares, opening the gates to lenders who came calling. The result: a sharp dilution of promoter ownership and a credibility crisis. The failed merger with Sony’s Indian arm, Culver Max Entertainment, only added insult to injury — scuppered reportedly due to concerns about Zee’s financial hygiene. A company once viewed as squeaky clean had its reputation muddied.

Sun TV, the fourth of the old guard, is also showing cracks. Helmed with iron discipline by Kalanithi Maran, it long stood as a symbol of stability. But the facade is now under strain. A family feud has burst into public view, with brother Dayanidhi Maran accusing Kala of wresting control of Sun TV through backdoor share acquisitions. Legal notices have flown, regulatory filings issued, and the company insists all was above board. Still, some reputational damage has been done — and the gossip mills are churning.

The result is a media map being redrawn in real time. Where once these founders shaped the narrative, today they’re either sidelined, embattled, or ousted. And as corporate titans and conglomerates take over, the question is whether passion-led media can survive in an era of balance sheets, bottom lines, and boardroom power plays.

India’s media isn’t short on ambition. But nostalgia alone won’t stop the sun from setting on yesterday’s giants.

MUMBAI: India is at a pivotal moment in rethinking how businesses move people. As companies continue to grow in a post-pandemic, sustainability-focused era, safe and efficient employee transport is more critical than ever. AI-powered transport-as-a-service (TaaS) platforms—once seen as futuristic—are now driving tangible efficiencies and smarter mobility.

In a landscape long dominated by legacy systems and fragmented vendors, successful adoption increasingly depends on strategic marketing that builds trust and drives behaviour change. As more companies shift to integrated, tech-enabled solutions, India’s employee transportation market is poised to reach $13.2 billion by 2030—propelled by the expansion of GCCs, rising focus on employee well-being, and environmental accountability. 

However, the concept of TaaS is still relatively new to many businesses, especially those in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. And with TaaS providers rapidly growing in India, standing out now hinges on strategic marketing—not just tech. So how does marketing drive all this? Rather than flashy promotion, the focus has pivoted to education, translating AI-driven, real-time transport orchestration into boardroom value. Marketing teams are now playing a crucial role in educating decision-makers about the cost, environmental, safety and operational benefits of transitioning from legacy transport models to digital-first, on-demand solutions. 

Targeted content campaigns, engaging webinars, whitepapers, industry events, data-driven campaigns, and fact-based storytelling have become prime levers for TaaS marketers to successfully communicate the advantages of reduced overheads, improved route optimization, and enhanced employee satisfaction.  

Powerful sources such as Google India’s Think with Google: B2B Playbook indicate that Indian business buyers digitally explore solutions to the extent of around 80% prior to going into contact with vendors. This makes online reputation, transparent data, and customer reviews critical marketing touchpoints. In response, thought leadership marketing—via blogs, LinkedIn articles, and panel discussions—has emerged as a strategic lever, positioning TaaS not just as a logistics solution, but as a vital pillar of future-ready enterprise strategy. 

In an ESG-conscious corporate world, sustainability has become a major buying criterion. Indian TaaS platforms have leveraged this through savvy green marketing. Campaigns emphasizing electric vehicle (EV) adoption, carbon footprint reduction, and alignment with India’s net-zero goals have resonated strongly with large enterprises under pressure to showcase sustainability metrics. 

Perhaps most fascinating is the shift in how trust and value are built. Marketing’s function today is to encourage internal adoption within client organizations, offering toolkits and change management processes to facility teams and HR rather than simply selling a service, but inducing behaviour change through tailored communication, including ROI calculators and demo videos. Trust is further reinforced through robust safety protocols, comprehensive driver background checks, vehicle health monitoring systems, and transparent ESG impact reports and sustainability dashboards playing a pivotal role in accelerating adoption.

A critical dimension in the evolution of corporate TaaS platforms is monetisation. TaaS platforms often operate on a hybrid model, combining subscription-based pricing with usage-linked fees. Several research from PwC and Bain & Co. reveals a trend toward transparent, outcome-driven pricing, with additional layers for advanced analytics, ESG reporting, and premium support. Strategic marketing plays a role here too—by clearly communicating the ROI, cost-saving benefits, and long-term value of these offerings, platforms are able to position themselves not just as transport providers but as strategic mobility partners. 

As India accelerates its push toward digitization, green mobility, and human-centric workplaces, the role of smart transport marketing becomes increasingly critical. Marketing is no longer a peripheral function—it is a strategic force that drives awareness, builds trust, fosters engagement, and accelerates adoption.

By aligning brand narratives with operational excellence and measurable socio-environmental impact, marketing ensures that TaaS platforms aren’t just selected—they’re embraced and advocated for by forward-thinking Indian enterprises.

(This comment piece has been penned by Routematic chief business officer Arjun Bhojraj. The views expressed in it are entirely the author’s and indiantelevision.com need not subscribe to them)