MAM
WPP strengthens digital foothold with acquisition of Predictys
MUMBAI: Wunderman owned data-driven, insight-based customer engagement provider KBM Group, will be acquiring Predictys, a marketing company specialising in digital data and campaign technology. KBM Group‘s parent company, Wunderman, is part of the Young & Rubicam Group and a member of WPP. The move comes as a step towards strengthening WPP‘s position in the digital marketing space.
Based in France, Predictys was founded in 2007 and has rapidly growing data resources owing to an influx of digital information from other countries. Predictys will not only strengthen KBM Group‘s value to clients in France; the acquisition also strategically fuels KBM Group‘s growth throughout Europe, the US and Latin America.
Predictys‘ database powers its digital automated marketing services for customer acquisition via proprietary automated systems for managing and optimizing email marketing campaigns. The company‘s scalable email campaign technology, offered directly to clients or to e-marketing agencies, provides additional opportunities for KBM Group to build its marketing offerings.
Working closely with its parent company Wunderman, KBM Group acts as the data engine, helping to connect ‘always-on‘ customers with global brands. On a broader agency network level, the value of data and customer intelligence extends as well to WPP, the global advertising and marketing services group, of which they are a part.
KBM Group CEO Gary S Laben said, “The oceans of data generated by always-connected consumers of all ages present both a challenge and an opportunity for global marketers. As companies accelerate their marketing around the world, they need to be able to find and reach consumers on their personal devices efficiently and with informed strategies based on the best possible representations of who their most receptive and profitable customers might be. By adding Predictys‘ data resources to our own, we can better offer our global clients a way to harness data to forge customer engagements that are successful and meaningful. Marketing that is customer intelligent delights consumers and so enables companies to stay competitive.”
Predictys‘ cooperative database includes information from 140 million opted-in consumers from among more than 25 co-op partners. The database powers Predictys‘ automated campaign software serving agencies and clients, including Snapfish, Galeries Lafayette and Swiss Life.
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.
