MAM
IPG Mediabrands launches mobile marketing Ansible, to work out of three venues
MUMBAI: Ansible India, a global full service mobile marketing company of IPG Mediabrands, has been launched in India. The services of Ansible India will include mobile strategy, mobile media planning and buying, mobile marketing and analytics, creative, technology and enterprise solutions.
Anjali Hegde, the former chief executive of Reprise Media, the second digital agency of IPG Mediabrands, has been appointed CEO of Ansible India.
Ansible’s global footprint includes 18 offices across 11 counties globally, with each providing the mobile marketing options; extending from media, sites and apps into mobile commerce, mobile content, and broader technologies such as wearables, beacons, connected cars, augmented reality and virtual reality.
The company is also providing Ansible India’s clients an access to global publisher ratecards, exclusive technology partnerships, proprietary mobile media planning tools, and patented technologies such as HARK, which is the technology that powers “Kia Game On” tennis. This Ansible mobile app campaign that won “Best In Show” and three other awards at the 2014 Mobile Marketing Association APAC Awards and “Most Innovative App” and “Best Mobile Marketing” at the 2015 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
The brand claims that the focus in India would be media++, whereby the agency would offer the complete gamut of execution and design capabilities.
Ansible global president Travis Johnson said: “Mobile is the most personal media channel – statistically it’s no more than a meter from you for 90% of your day. Indian consumers have high expectations and will quickly reject brands with poor mobile experiences. Ansible India is created to provide end-to-end mobile capabilities to optimise the entire user experience and ensure our clients are ahead of their competition. It’s not just about mobile media, it’s about optimizing the creative, mobile site, app and every element that will soon include wearables and in-car experiences. We are thrilled to enhance IPG Mediabrands India with this breadth of expertise”.
In India, Ansible would operate out of Gurgaon, Mumbai and Bengaluru offices of Interactive Avenues and is currently in the process of building the teams.
“We had been watching the mobile space with great interest. It was evident that in order to create great brand experiences on mobile, we need to have top class tech and development skills of scale. Today, Ansible is perfectly poised to provide the best of media and the best of technology solutions on mobile to brands in India”, added CEO Anjali Hegde.
MAM
ASCI study uncovers how Gen Alpha navigates ads in endless digital feeds
‘What the Sigma?’ ethnographic report maps blurred boundaries between content and commerce for 7–15-year-olds.
MUMBAI: Gen Alpha isn’t scrolling through the internet, they’re living rent-free inside its never-ending dopamine drip, and the ads have already moved in next door. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) Academy, partnering with Futurebrands Consulting, has published ‘What the Sigma?’, an immersive ethnographic study that maps how Indian children aged 7–15 (Generation Alpha) consume, interpret and live alongside media and commercial messaging in a hyper-digital environment.
The research draws on in-home interviews, sibling and peer conversations, and discussions with parents, teachers, counsellors, psychologists, marketers and kidfluencers across six cities. It examines not only what children watch but how algorithms, content creators, peers and parents shape their relationship with the constant stream of shorts, vlogs, gameplay, memes, sponsored posts and ‘kid-ified’ adult material.
Five core themes emerged:
- Discontinuous Generation, Gen Alpha is not growing up alongside the internet, they are growing up inside it. Cultural references, humour, aesthetics and language sync globally in real time, often leaving adults functionally illiterate in their children’s world. A reference that lands instantly for a 10-year-old in Mumbai or Visakhapatnam feels opaque or disjointed to most parents.
- Authority Vacuum, Parents and teachers frequently lose cultural fluency in digital spaces. The algorithm responsive, inexhaustible and perfectly attuned to preferences becomes the most attentive presence in many children’s daily lives. Rules around screen time feel increasingly difficult to enforce when adults cannot fully see or understand the content landscape.
- Digital as Society, Online and offline no longer exist as separate realms, they form one continuous reality. The phone is not a tool children pick up; it is the primary social environment they inhabit.
- Great Media Mukbang, Content flows as an ambient, boundary-less, multi-sensorial stream. Entertainment, advertising, commerce, gameplay, memes and vlogs merge into one undifferentiated feed. The line between active choice and passive absorption has largely collapsed.
- Blurred Ad Recognition, Children aged 7–12 typically recognise only the most overt advertising formats. Influencer promotions, gaming integrations and vlog sponsorships often register as organic entertainment. Children aged 13–15 show greater ad literacy but remain highly susceptible to narrative-integrated, passion-driven and emotionally resonant brand messaging. Discernment remains low across the board in a non-stop stream.
ASCI CEO and secretary general Manisha Kapoor said, “ASCI Academy’s study is an investigation into the content life of Generation Alpha not to judge them but to understand them. Their cultural reference points seem disjointed from those of earlier generations. Insights on how they perceive advertising is the first step towards building more responsible engagement frameworks, given that they are the youngest media consumers in our country right now.”
Futurebrands Consulting founder and director Santosh Desai added, “While earlier generations have been exposed to digital media, for this generation it is the world they inhabit. This report explores not only what they watch but how they are being shaped by algorithms, content and advertising.”
The study proposes four adaptive, principles-led pathways:
- Universal signposting of commercial intent using design principles that make advertising recognisable even to young audiences.
- Ecosystem-wide responsibility shared among advertisers, platforms, creators, schools and parents.
- Future-ready safeguards built directly into children’s content experiences rather than as optional background settings.
- Formal media and advertising literacy embedded in school curricula to teach age-appropriate understanding of persuasion and commercial intent.
In a feed that never pauses, Gen Alpha isn’t merely watching content, they’re swimming in an ocean where entertainment, commerce and identity swirl together. The real question isn’t whether they can spot an ad; it’s whether the adults building the ocean can agree on where the lifeguards should stand.
