MAM
WPP’s Brand Union promotes Toby Southgate to worldwide CEO
MUMBAI: WPP’s global brand strategy and design agency Brand Union has promoted Toby Southgate to worldwide CEO, effective 1 July.
Southgate will manage the growth of the global network while to continuing his responsibilities in the Americas. He will remain based in New York and will report to Brand Union and FITCH group CEO Simon Bolton.
“Toby is a true professional in our industry and a trusted adviser to senior clients all around our network. He has a unique thought process and leadership style that enables him to have compelling conversations with clients, prospects and talent alike. I have no doubt Toby has what it takes to step into this role on a worldwide stage and take Brand Union to the next level,” said Bolton.
In this new role, Southgate will be responsible for leading the growth of Brand Union across each of its 24 markets. He will manage all of Brand Union’s international teams and lead collaboration with other WPP agencies, delivering on the group’s ‘horizontality’ strategy.
“I love this business and I’m proud to be leading Brand Union beyond the traditional definition of branding. I’m delighted Simon has given me the chance to lead the network. Brand Union is all about creating brilliantly designed and beautifully connected experiences for our clients and their brands. There is much more to come,” said Southgate.
Southgate brings extensive Brand Union experience to this role, having joined the agency in 2008. He has held a number of roles including Brand Union Middle East managing director, Brand Union UK CEO and most recently, CEO Americas. In his latest role, he helped grow the agency’s footprint leading the acquisition of Epigram, a Brazilian brand and communications agency, in 2014.
He has been a key player in the agency’s business development over the last seven years, bringing in major clients like The Coca-Cola Company, Vodafone, Shazam, GlaxoSmithKline and CBRE.
CBRE global chief marketing officer Paul Suchman said, “Toby’s partnership and dedication to our business has been nothing short of outstanding. Under his leadership, Brand Union has helped us find a powerful global voice and significantly strengthen our brand equity in every market we serve.”
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.
