MUMBAI: If marketing is war, then the battlefield is shifting from loud campaigns to sharper trust-building, from chasing clicks to curating culture. That was the resounding theme at the session “Driving Performance and Brand Reputation in a Dynamic Media Landscape” at the 3rd India Brand Summit 2025, where five marketing heavyweights unpacked what it takes to stay relevant when algorithms, attention spans, and authenticity collide.
On stage were Harshita Hemnani (Bharti AXA Life Insurance), Argho Bhattacharya (Payu), Sayantani Das (Jumboking Burgers), Ritu Mittal (Bayer South Asia), and Anita Subramanian (JLL), with Abhishek Pujar of IAS steering the discussion.
The conversation quickly zoomed in on artificial intelligence not as a futuristic buzzword but as an everyday reality. Mittal argued, “AI-generated content is a broad term not all of it is bad. If brands use AI to scale authentic storytelling and create contextual variations, it’s a powerful ally. But when AI content becomes clutter or poor quality, that’s when reputations get dented.”
Das agreed that authenticity must rule over noise. “The brand will win not by shouting the loudest, but by being contextual and authentic,” she said, pointing out how creative variations and asymmetric segmentation now matter more than ever in cutting through digital saturation.
Culture, too, emerged as a defining battleground. “You can’t drop a generic festive message and expect it to resonate,” said Hemnani. “Brands need to mirror the cultural mood whether it’s Diwali, Pongal or Christmas and be seen in environments reflecting joy, togetherness, and Indianness.”
For Subramanian, real estate marketing offers lessons in nuance: “Trust is everything. Technology can scale, but human-led experiences are irreplaceable. That’s where AI works best augmenting, not replacing, authenticity.” She highlighted how launches today are often creator-led, citing international examples where communities turn content into commerce.
Bhattacharya, from PayU, brought in the customer lens. “Consumers don’t care about brands, they care about what you can do for them. Value is the keyword, whether it’s price, quality, or convenience. Festivals amplify this tendency to spend, but the trick is to stay transparent, relevant, and valuable.”
When the debate turned to balancing short-term performance with long-term reputation, the panel agreed there’s no either/or. “It’s not performance versus brand anymore, it’s about balance,” said Mittal. “Whether that’s 70-30 or 50-50 depends on your category and consumer priorities, but both are critical for sustainable growth.”
Looking ahead, panellists predicted disruption from agentic AI, niche AI tools for smaller cohorts, and experience-driven marketing that fuses data with human insight. As Mittal summed up: “Responsible AI, trust, and personalisation will define the winners. In the long run, transparency and authenticity will separate brands that thrive from those that fade.”
With over 300 delegates in attendance, the session reinforced a striking truth: in an era where algorithms increasingly decide visibility, the ultimate differentiator remains deeply human trust, culture, and value.
