MAM

ML & AI to play a key role for marketers in the third connected age: Rishad Tobaccowala

Published

4 years ago

May 21, 2022

MUMBAI: The world is now entering the third connected age and it is going to have a huge impact on various areas of advertising and marketing. Shifts are happening including data connecting to data, which is machine learning. Artificial Intelligence is fuelling everything including marketing, advertising services, and biotech.

Advisor, speaker, and educator Rishad Tobaccowala who is also an author spoke at the MMA India seminar called ‘Impact India: The Future of Modern Marketing’ recently. While addressing at the event, he noted that the first shift going on in the third connected age is machine learning. The second shift going on in the third connected age besides machine learning is that there are much faster ways of connecting like Jio which has had a massive impact. “In the next few years, India will move faster and faster to 5G. It is very resilient and one can download a high definition movie in seven seconds or less. It will open up more things,” added Tobaccowala during his talks at the event.

He also highlighted that mobility will not just be about the mobile device. It could be things like glasses, and headphones because the third shift will be about new ways of connecting. He gives the example of ‘Voice’ and this will continue as devices become smaller and more powerful. Also, augmented reality technology will become important. Virtual reality will also happen though it is in its early days. It will have a big impact on areas like gaming which is already bigger than movies and gambling. The fourth shift will be new trust currencies emerging and blockchain will be the key factor. This third connected age will build on the first and second connected ages and will change the way the world of marketing exists.

He noted that 1993 was the first connected age with the world wide web where people connected to interact. That gave birth to businesses like search and e-commerce and to companies like Google and Amazon. In 2007 there was the second connected age which was about being connected all the time and it gave rise to mobile, and social media. Today, most traffic in the US comes from mobile and unlikely from the desktop. These three ages build on each other and they will not replace each other.

He noted that Audience, Brands, Content, Data and Enterprise are now significantly shifting. Every marketer recognises that they do not just send messages to audiences. Increasingly, customers are becoming active rather than passive.

He also spoke about the move towards re-aggregated rather than segmented marketing. In the latter, you take large audiences and make them smaller audiences like TV, newspapers including others. In the former, you are able to thrive in the digital age. You start with an audience of one and re-aggregate him/her through things like decision engines.

He mentioned three trends that will grow when one talks about brands. The first is that brands will increasingly become experiences. That is important as a great experience will result in people speaking about it and becoming loyal. Second, the brand’s purpose will become important. What does a company stand for? The third new trend is branding as employees. In the future, no company will survive without its employees and suppliers. “The most important advocate for brands even more than happy customers is happy employees,” he added.

In terms of content, he noted that it is impossible to put content into a bucket. He gave the example of seeing an ad on Tiktok while travelling in a car resulting in him buying a product at a store. Is it ATL or BTL? Is it offline or online? Is it mobile e-commerce or social? Is it analogue or digital? It was all those. Content is morphing and so is marketing. Also, new content creators are changing pretty dramatically.

He mentions the fact that more views and interactions are happening for Instagram, and Youtube creators than those who watch the Superbowl. New kinds of content will emerge. In terms of data, he said marketers must recognise that data alone is not the way brands are built. It is about how you extract meaning from data, and how you tell stories utilising data. The big mistake people make is thinking that data by itself is the differentiator. Connecting data to other things in a company is what will make the difference. Less than half a dozen companies have special data. So, it is how you use, and leverage data to tell stories. That is important because human beings choose with their hearts to make purchases. Then they use data to justify what they just did. That is what happens 7 out of 10 times.

The future is about data-driven storytelling, not data-driven marketing. Marketers cannot be only driven by data numbers otherwise they will be out of a job, he warned.

He stressed that marketing is about stories & insights and not just about data and algorithms. Pure numbers are not the answer.

Enterprise, he said, is rethinking the way an organisation is set up for the future. The future, he cautions cannot fit into the containers of the past. The best marketing companies, he said, revolve around people speaking up freely and challenging each other. That is how ideas are born. Also, the best companies constantly reinvent themselves.

So, how does one do this? First, constantly learn, he said and added that if marketers do not then they will fake it and will become irrelevant as individuals, marketers and businesspersons. Marketers must set aside an hour a day to learn new things.

Also, marketers must build a case for the exact opposite of what they believe. That will strengthen an argument. Third, learn new technologies by doing things. “Learn, do, build the case for the opposite” he concluded.

Related Topics:advertising AI customers Machine Learning marketing MMA Rishad Tobaccowala

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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

7 days 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

7 days 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

7 days 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.