MAM

GUEST ARTICLE: Video marketing trends we can expect in 2023

Published

3 years ago

August 14, 2023

Mumbai: If there’s one word that’s seen an immense rise in consumption from the pandemic, it has to be “content.” Though content has always been there in the limelight, it gained prominence in 2019–20 since all of us were stuck in our homes. Many people wanted to enter the content creation industry but could not do so because of full-time jobs or a lack of time. However, after the pandemic, so much time was suddenly available for hobbies and following our passion.

The creative economy has grown tremendously over the last two years. In fact, as per reports, it’s expected to touch Rs 2,500 crore by 2025, which in itself is testimony to the fact that both content creation and consumption are on the rise. Not only this, but there have been significant investments made in the content creation industry, in startups focused on content creation and content monetisation, and also on individual creators to help and support them in their journey.

I started my content creation journey in 2018 when I was juggling competitive exams and my startup venture. As someone who has seen social media platforms evolve over time and introduce new features to help creators, here are some video marketing trends to watch for in the coming year:

Celebrities have become creators and creators have become celebrities

It is now normal to say that every single person, whether or not they are celebrities, has realised the power of good content. There is a certain sense of relatability and shareability that comes with content, which is why certain pieces of it go viral. One of the key differences between celebrities and creators is access; the latter is more accessible. Celebrities have been hopping on to this trend and starting to put out “content” in their own capacity to engage with their audience. For example, actors like Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt have been consistently posting content on their YouTube channels, and the same goes for cricketers like Aakash Chopra and Shoaib Akhtar. On the contrary, there are creators who have become viral sensations and have become celebrities of some sort.

Brands will start creating content for themselves

With TikTok getting banned in India and Reels & Shorts coming into the picture, it is very evident that short-form content is on the rise. Instagram leveraged Reels to its advantage, and the same was done by YouTube with Shorts. In addition to creators creating content for their own pages, brands also should be creating content to make sure that they send across the right messaging. It’s important for the brands to focus on their own content in addition to investing in creators to do so for them. Since a lot of brands and companies have seen the importance of short-form content, they will start building a content engine for themselves and driving traffic organically too. So if you’re a business owner, make sure to leverage content to your advantage. The trend will also focus on brands creating user-generated content and using that to their advantage.

Short-form content will continue to rise but long-form will help in authenticity

We’ve seen this in the last year or so when so many creators became overnight sensations, and the trend will continue. It is said that the average attention span of a goldfish is longer than that of humans. People will still continue to consume short-form content as attention spans are declining. But that doesn’t mean long-form content won’t be consumed. One of the most interesting ways to produce long-form content at scale is podcasts, and I feel that this will be a trend one can expect in 2023. We can expect a lot more podcasts in the next year, not just from creators but from businesses, entrepreneurs, artists, freelancers, and more.

The second way to create video content at scale is to document everything. This was said by American entrepreneur and investor Gary Vaynerchuk, where he said, “Document, don’t create,” which basically takes the load off the creator to create content. One long piece of content can give you more than 60 pieces of short-form content. The art is in churning out content and distributing it so that people watch it.

Overall, I am very optimistic about the content creation space, and I can’t wait to see how it unfolds in the near future. It’s difficult to predict trends as nobody knows what might change or what might happen, considering the recent Elon Musk deal with Twitter, but we can only hope for the best. Well, now is as good a time as any to start creating content. If you haven’t started yet, what are you waiting for? Get started today.

The author of this article is digital content creator and Iceberg Creations founder Deepak Pareek.

Brands

Netflix India names Rekha Rane director of films and series marketing

Streaming giant bets on a seasoned marketer who helped build Amazon and Netflix into household names

Published

4 weeks ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Netflix has put a proven brand builder at the helm of its films and series marketing in India, naming Rekha Rane as director in a move that signals sharper focus on audience growth and cultural cut-through in one of its most hotly contested markets.

Rane steps into the role after seven years at Netflix, where she has quietly shaped how the platform sells stories to India. Her latest promotion, effective February 2026, crowns a run that spans brand, slate and product marketing across originals, licensed content and new verticals such as games.

A strategic marketing and communications professional with roughly 15 years’ experience, Rane has spent much of her career building technology-led consumer businesses and new categories, notably e-commerce and subscription video on demand. She was part of the early push that introduced Amazon.in, Prime Video and Netflix to Indian homes, then helped turn them into everyday brands.

At Netflix, she most recently served as head of brand and slate marketing for India from March 2024 to February 2026, leading teams across media and marketing for global and local content portfolios. Before that, as manager for original films and series marketing, she led IP creation and go-to-market strategy for titles including Guns and Gulaabs, Kaala Paani, The Railway Men* and The Great Indian Kapil Show, spanning both binge and weekly-release formats.

Her earlier Netflix roles covered product discovery and promotion in India and integrated campaign strategy to drive conversations around the content slate, product awareness and brand-equity metrics.

Before Netflix, Rane logged more than three years at Amazon in brand marketing roles in Bengaluru. There she handled national and regional campaigns for Amazon.in, worked on customer assistance programmes in growth geographies and contributed to the go-to-market strategy for the launch of Prime Video India.

Her career began well away from streaming. At Reliance Brands in Mumbai, she worked on retail marketing for Diesel and Superdry. A stint at Leo Burnett saw her work on primary research for P&G Tide, mapping Indian shoppers’ paths to purchase. Earlier still, at Orange in the United Kingdom, she rose from sales assistant to store manager, running a team and owning monthly P&L for a retail outlet.

The arc is telling. As global streamers fight for attention in a crowded Indian market, executives who understand both mass retail behaviour and digital habit-building are prized. Rane’s career sits at that intersection.

For Netflix, the bet is simple: in a market spoilt for choice, sharp marketing can still tilt the screen. And with Rane now leading the charge, the streamer is signalling it wants not just viewers, but fandom.

Brands

Orient Beverages pops the fizz with steady Q3 gains and rising profits

Kolkata-based beverage maker reports stronger revenues and profits for December quarter.

Published

4 weeks ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: A fizzy quarter with a steady aftertaste that’s how Orient Beverages Limited, the company that manufactures and distributes packaged drinking water under the brand name Bisleri closed the December 2025 period, as the Kolkata-based drinks maker reported improved revenues and a healthy rise in profits, signalling operational stability in a competitive beverage market.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2025, Orient Beverages posted standalone revenue from operations of Rs 39.98 crore, up from Rs 36.42 crore in the previous quarter and Rs 33.53 crore in the same quarter last year. Total income for the quarter stood at Rs 42.24 crore, reflecting consistent demand and stable pricing across its beverage portfolio.

Profit before tax for the quarter came in at Rs 3.47 crore, a sharp improvement from Rs 1.31 crore in the September quarter and Rs 0.39 crore a year ago. After accounting for tax expenses of Rs 0.79 crore, the company reported a net profit of Rs 2.68 crore, nearly three times the Rs 0.99 crore recorded in the preceding quarter.

On a nine-month basis, the momentum remained intact. Revenue from operations for the period ended December 31, 2025 rose to Rs 117.66 crore, compared with Rs 106.95 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net profit for the nine months climbed to Rs 5.51 crore, more than double the Rs 2.18 crore reported in the same period of the previous financial year.

The consolidated numbers told a similar story. For the December quarter, consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 45.06 crore, while profit after tax came in at Rs 2.06 crore. For the nine-month period, consolidated revenue touched Rs 133.57 crore, with net profit of Rs 4.49 crore, underscoring the group’s improving profitability trajectory.

Operating expenses remained largely controlled, with cost of materials, employee benefits and other expenses broadly aligned with revenue growth. The company continued to operate within a single reportable segment beverages simplifying its cost structure and reporting framework.

The unaudited financial results were reviewed by the Audit Committee and approved by the Board of Directors at its meeting held on 7 February 2026. Statutory auditors carried out a limited review and reported no material misstatements in the results.

In a market where margins are often squeezed by input costs and competition, Orient Beverages’ latest numbers suggest the company has found a reliable rhythm not explosive, but steady enough to keep the fizz alive.

MAM

Washington Post CEO exits abruptly after newsroom cuts spark backlash

Leadership change follows layoffs, protests and a bruising battle over trust.

Published

4 weeks ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: When the presses are rolling but patience runs out, even the editor’s chair isn’t safe. The Washington Post announced on Saturday that its chief executive and publisher Will Lewis is stepping down with immediate effect, bringing a sudden end to a turbulent two-year tenure marked by financial strain, newsroom unrest and public backlash.

Lewis’s exit comes just days after the Bezos-owned newspaper announced sweeping job cuts that triggered protests outside its Washington headquarters and a wave of anger from readers and staff. While newspapers across the US are grappling with shrinking revenues and digital disruption, Lewis’s leadership had increasingly come under fire for how those pressures were handled.

The Post confirmed that Jeff D’Onofrio, a former Tumblr CEO who joined the organisation last year as chief financial officer, has taken over as CEO and publisher, effective immediately. In an email to staff, later shared by reporters on social media, Lewis said it was “the right time for me to step aside.”

The leadership change follows the announcement of large-scale redundancies earlier this week. While the Post did not officially confirm numbers, The New York Times reported that around 300 of the paper’s roughly 800 journalists were laid off. Entire teams were dismantled, including the Post’s Middle East bureau and its Kyiv-based correspondent covering the war in Ukraine.

Sports, graphics and local reporting were sharply reduced, and the paper’s daily podcast, Post Reports, was suspended. On Thursday, hundreds of journalists and supporters gathered outside the Post’s downtown office in protest, calling the cuts a blow to public-interest journalism.

Former executive editor Marty Baron described the moment as “among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organisations.”

Lewis defended his record in his farewell note, saying “difficult decisions” were taken to secure the paper’s long-term future and protect its ability to publish “high-quality nonpartisan news”. But his tenure coincided with growing scrutiny of editorial independence at the Post.

Owner Jeff Bezos faced criticism for reining in the paper’s traditionally liberal editorial page and blocking an endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 US election. The move was widely seen as breaking the long-standing firewall between ownership and editorial decision-making.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, around 250,000 digital subscribers cancelled their subscriptions after the paper declined to endorse Harris. The Post reportedly lost about $100 million in 2024 as advertising and subscription revenues slid.

While the wider newspaper industry continues to battle declining print advertising and the pull of social media, some national titles have stabilised. Rivals such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have managed to build sustainable digital businesses, a turnaround that has so far eluded the Post despite its billionaire backing.

As Jeff D’Onofrio steps into the role, the challenge is stark, restore confidence inside the newsroom, win back readers who walked away, and prove that one of America’s most storied newspapers can still find its footing in a brutally competitive media landscape.