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Tag: Indian advertising trends

  • Goafest day two blends bold ideas, brand battles and billboard truths under the Goan sun

    Goafest day two blends bold ideas, brand battles and billboard truths under the Goan sun

    MUMBAI: The second day at Goafest 2025 closed on a power-packed note, stitching together the evolving face of leadership, storytelling, advertising, and digital strategy with candid charm and calculated insight.

    The post-lunch energy got a creative jolt with the session ‘WTF is Creative Leadership Now?’, where industry veterans Bobby Pawar, Sonal Dabral, Senthil Kumar and Lulu Raghavan broke down the evolving role of the CCO. “If you’re not in an agency where the CCO is central, you’re in the wrong one”, Bobby declared, dubbing the creative head the “instigator-in-chief”. Lulu called for reinstating the CCO as the creative spine, not a spreadsheet slave. Sonal framed the role as a bridge between brand vision and talent culture. Rohit Ohri summed it up: “The CCO today isn’t the loudest in the room but the one who builds safe, collaborative spaces”.

    Next, Amazon MX Player’s Karan Bedi spotlighted the streaming surge. With over 1.4 billion downloads and 250 million active users, MX is doubling down on drama, romance, and reality content across Amazon platforms. “Streaming video ads are outperforming other formats in brand recall”, Bedi noted, predicting digital video advertising will eclipse TV within a year. He laid out a full-funnel strategy integrating shopping signals, micro-dramas and show-based storytelling to help brands find their tribe.

    The attention then shifted outdoors in the IOAA-backed panel ‘The Last Unskippable Medium’. Times OOH’s Shekhar Narayanaswami noted, “You can’t swipe past a billboard”. Ajay Kakar called for killing the ‘digital vs non-digital’ binary. Promita Saha urged brands to go beyond metros, tapping cultural hotspots like melas. Sandeep Bommireddi argued that digital is a horizontal layer across all media. Dipankar Sanyal closed with a reminder: “OOH isn’t guesswork anymore. It’s data-backed, measurable and fiercely effective”.

    In a lighter yet no-nonsense fireside chat titled ‘Why So Serious?’, Gautam Gambhir disarmed the crowd with brutal honesty. “10,000 runs don’t matter. Match-winning moments define you”, he said. Speaking on leadership and legacy, Gambhir urged youth to make peace with mistakes: “If you take a decision with the right intent, it’s okay to be wrong”. His message: play for the common man, not the broadcaster.

    The storytelling baton passed to ‘Rewriting the Rules of Storytelling’ featuring Suniel Shetty and Deepak Dhar. Shetty spoke of action, discipline and emotional arcs. “Fitness isn’t just muscles, it’s sustainable health”, he said, describing Hunter Season 2 as more heart than hammer. Dhar unpacked Rise and Fall as a metaphorical hustle between privilege and grit. “Great content is built on process and passion”, he said.

    The day wound down with Wine & Cheese hosted by Amazon MX Player, followed by a musical showdown at ‘Advertising Rocks’, giving agency folks their moment to rock the mic. Delegates gathered for a breezy sundowner powered by Truecaller & Big Live before the night turned up with Abby Awards 2025. Set India, Sony Sab and Sharechat handed out honours in digital, design, PR, mobile, and broadcaster categories.

    Masterclasses by Shahad Anand (MediaKart), Sana Shaikh (Flipkart), Nick Eagleton (D&AD), and Senthil Kumar (VML) provided hands-on insights into next-gen ads, innovation pipelines, storytelling craft, and split-second narratives.

    As Goa’s salty breeze cooled the creative heat, day two proved that in a world of scrolls and skips, stories, strategy and serendipity still rule the game.

    Stay tuned as Goafest 2025 enters its final day. For the day three agenda, visit: https://www.goafest.com/goafest2025/event-schedule.php

  • Masculinity needs a makeover, not a rescue mission, say ad leaders at Goafest 2025

    Masculinity needs a makeover, not a rescue mission, say ad leaders at Goafest 2025

    MUMBAI: Goafest 2025’s day two lit up with sharp insights and simmering provocations during the session “Mardon Wali Baat: A discussion on Masculinity in Advertising”. Held under the banner of ASCI Academy’s report ‘Manifest: Masculinities beyond the Mask’, the panel challenged brands to move past rigid and reductive representations of men.

    Moderated by Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) CEO & secretary general Manisha Kapoor, the panel featured Marshan.Ink (formerly Kotak) principal Karthi Marshan, and Infectious Advertising co-founder & director Nisha Singhania.

    “Masculinity is not unidimensional—it has many facets”, said Singhania, kicking off the discussion. She stressed that the emotional complexity of men is often neglected in ad narratives, where strength is still seen through a bicep rather than vulnerability. “Men are tired of being portrayed as a ‘work in progress’ or needing to be fixed”.

    She also took aim at legacy brands. “They rely too much on past data and lack the patience to build new narratives”, she said, pointing out that India’s evolving masculinity isn’t as entitled or rigid as marketers presume. “The narrative of ‘get him married and he’ll change’ is outdated and unfair”.

    Marshan pushed for a fundamental mindset shift: “Masculinity vs. feminism is a false dichotomy—we need to move beyond gender and sexuality labels”. He challenged the belief that long-term investment alone makes a campaign successful. “Disruption works—if a brand gets attention, people will engage, regardless of target audience”.

    Echoing Singhania’s view, Marshan said, “Marketers underestimate audiences—viewers are more progressive than assumed”. He called on creatives to stop playing safe and start trusting viewers’ ability to embrace evolved storytelling.

    The session served less as a sermon and more as a mirror—reflecting both the flaws in the way men are marketed and the possibilities that await when brands loosen their grip on stale stereotypes.

  • Cereone Media partners with Yahoo DSP to revolutionise Indian advertising

    Cereone Media partners with Yahoo DSP to revolutionise Indian advertising

    MUMBAI: Advertisers, rejoice! The future of programmatic advertising in India just got a major upgrade. Cereone Media has partnered with Yahoo demand-side platform (DSP) to supercharge ad campaigns with AI-driven insights, omnichannel reach, and precision targeting. Effective immediately, this collaboration promises to put Indian brands in the fast lane of digital marketing, arming them with the best-in-class programmatic tools Yahoo DSP has to offer.

    In the cutthroat world of digital advertising, brands demand more than just flashy impressions. They crave transparency, razor-sharp audience insights, and return on investment that makes CFOs sleep easier at night. Enter Yahoo DSP- a powerhouse platform backed by AI-driven optimisation, premium ad inventory, and robust identity solutions. Through this alliance, Cereone Media aims to help advertisers decode complex consumer behaviours and turn data into pure marketing gold.

    What’s in store for Indian advertisers? A whole new level of precision. Yahoo DSP’s omnichannel capabilities allow brands to seamlessly run and optimise campaigns across mobile, desktop, and even Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH). Meanwhile, its AI-powered engine, Yahoo Blueprint, analyses vast data signals to provide real-time campaign adjustments, ensuring brands get maximum bang for their advertising buck.

    “Advertisers today demand greater accountability, efficiency, and transparency from their media investments. By integrating Yahoo DSP’s robust programmatic technology with Cereone Media’s expertise, we are empowering Indian brands to make data-driven decisions, optimise performance, and scale their advertising strategies globally,” said Cereone Media Pvt Ltd co-founder & director Deepak Karnani.

    Yahoo head of commercial sales, southeast Asia, Kenneth Koh added, “We’re excited to work with Cereone Media to bring more powerful programmatic solutions to Indian advertisers. With Yahoo DSP, Cereone can help brands navigate an evolving digital landscape—giving them smarter optimisation, premium inventory, and privacy-first identity solutions to drive real business impact.”

    This partnership doesn’t just stop at programmatic wizardry. By teaming up with both Yahoo and FreeWheel, Cereone Media is unlocking new frontiers in addressable TV advertising. With premium inventory and Yahoo ConnectID’s precise targeting capabilities, Indian brands can now craft hyper-personalised campaigns that drive engagement and real business results.

    Cereone Media Pvt Ltd co-founder Harish Patil commented, “Partnering with both Yahoo and FreeWheel enables us to bring addressable TV to Indian advertisers. With premium inventory from FreeWheel and Yahoo ConnectID, our clients can achieve precision targeting and gain accurate performance insights to optimise their campaigns effectively.”

    With Yahoo DSP already trusted by Fortune 500 brands worldwide, this partnership signals a new era for Indian advertisers-one where data reigns supreme, AI takes the wheel, and programmatic advertising is smarter, faster, and more effective than ever before.