MAM
Saatchi & Saatchi promotes Justin Billingsley as worldwide COO
MUMBAI: Justin Billingsley has been promoted to the role of worldwide chief operating officer (COO) for the network.
Billingsley is presently CEO of Dynamic Markets at Saatchi & Saatchi, having joined the company in 2009. Based in London, he commences his role immediately.
All of Saatchi & Saatchi’s offices across the world will report to Billingsley, who will focus on leading the network’s growth and performance across markets, and on transforming the capabilities of the business to meet the future needs of clients. He will continue to lead the agency’s worldwide M&A activity and continues on the executive board and global leadership team of Saatchi & Saatchi.
Saatchi & Saatchi CEO worldwide Robert Senior said, “Justin is a proven transformational leader for us, first in China, then in EMEA and in his new role, will focus on improvement in our performance globally. Justin and I have a great working partnership. It is as simple as this: we both stand in the doorway of the Saatchi & Saatchi network. From there I tend to look outwards, and Justin tends to look inwards. We need to do both in order to lift our game and achieve our purpose.”
Billingsley added, “This role represents an inspirational challenge to wake up to each day: If we are promising our clients and our people that ‘Nothing is Impossible’ then what kind of agency does it take to deliver this today and what will be needed tomorrow? We are defining what this means and transforming accordingly, combining new skills with a hunger for creative excellence and world-changing ideas. And it’s fun, making Saatchi & Saatchi more Saatchi & Saatchi.”
His appointment follows a series of additions to the global leadership team at Saatchi & Saatchi, including David Hackworthy as chief strategy officer, and Jeff Geisler as chief marketing officer.
Prior to being named CEO of Dynamic Markets in January 2015, Billingsley was the COO of the EMEA region for Saatchi & Saatchi. He joined the agency in 2009 as CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Greater China, and before that held various senior marketing leadership roles at companies including Unilever, Nokia, Orange, and The Coca-Cola Company.
Previous COO Chris Foster has moved to a new role in Publicis Groupe as SVP – global clients.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
