MAM
DDB Mudra readies Terra for high growth
MUMBAI: With rural and semi-urban India seeing rapid growth in income and consumption, DDB Mudra Group‘s rural marketing agency Terra is gearing up to seize the opportunity.
Almost four years into existence, Terra is drawing up plans to expand. The workforce has been built gradually over the years to a strength of 100, skills have been acquired through a process of learning from experience, and the agency is ready to pitch aggressively for more business.
Says DDB Mudra Max head and president (experiential, retail and OOH) Mandeep Malhotra, “India is a country where media darkness is significant considering the population of the towns and villages. As an agency Terra has come a long way in a short time. Our work force stands at 100 today and we have teams that can cater to a population of 5000 people at a time. Whenever a corporate or public service body calls for a pitch for rural marketing, Terra is definitely considered.”
Having recently appointed Rohit Samarth as senior vice president to assist Malhotra, Terra is looking to target the virgin territories of the heartland.
Says Samarth, “Though 2011 was not so good, we expect 2012 to be a good year in the communication sector. We as an agency have a well spread network with people actually living in the areas where the communication has to be carried out. We expect to cash in on the momentum we have built over the years and gain pace into our operations.”
Industry experts believe that the rural marketing space itself has evolved to a great extent in the past five years. At a time when telecommunications and mobile has penetrated the semi urban and rural spaces, the population in these areas has seen a sea change in outlook and exposure. This has altered their attitudes and increased their needs, wants and desires. Fundamentally speaking, the rural audience has evolved.
Samarth says, “Today we find rural pockets around big cities like Delhi and Mumbai. Rural marketing is becoming more about experiential marketing in this age.”
Though the industry as a whole may still be struggling to find its ground, Malhotra is sure that the agency has a bright future. “We are confident that the future for Terra is bright considering the growth and learning it has registered for the past four to five years. As an industry on the whole, the future is a tad bit uncertain considering its unorganised nature. The margins are also not that lucrative,” he explains.
Recognising the challenges of the market, Malhotra is not yet ready to share his growth targets. “We will be aggressive,” is all that he is willing to say at this stage.
So get ready to hear more from Malhotra as he presses the accelerator to post high growth this year.
Brands
Tata Consumer Products highlights workplace bias with no repeat campaign
Women often repeat ideas to be heard; Tata campaign spotlights bias
MUMBAI: In many offices, a familiar moment unfolds. A woman shares an idea in a meeting. The room nods politely, then moves on. A few minutes later, someone else repeats the same thought and suddenly it lands.
This International Women’s Day, Tata Consumer Products is drawing attention to that quiet but persistent workplace dynamic through TheNoRepeatCampaign, an initiative that highlights how often women must repeat themselves before their ideas are acknowledged.
Conceptualised by Schbang, the campaign centres on a mockumentary-style film featuring a corporate employee known simply as “Doobara”, which literally means “again”. The character symbolises the many women across workplaces who find themselves restating their ideas during meetings, brainstorms and presentations before they receive recognition.
The campaign is grounded in research that reflects a broader workplace pattern. According to McKinsey & Company’s Women in the Workplace 2024 report, 39 percent of women say they are interrupted or spoken over in professional settings. Research by Perceptyx in 2022 adds to that picture, with 19 percent of women reporting frequent interruptions and 42 percent saying it happens at least sometimes.
Tata Consumer Products head of corporate communications and investor relations Nidhi Verma, said the campaign aims to bring a commonly experienced but rarely discussed bias into the open.
“Workplaces thrive when every voice is heard the first time it speaks. With #TheNoRepeatCampaign, we wanted to shine a light on a bias that many women experience but rarely gets called out openly. By encouraging teams to listen more consciously and acknowledge ideas fairly, we hope to create environments where contributions are valued for their merit, not the number of times they need to be repeated,” she said.
The film cleverly mirrors the very behaviour it critiques. Through deliberate repetition in the storytelling, viewers experience the subtle frustration of having a point overlooked until someone else echoes it back to the room.
The initiative also ties into Tata Consumer Products’ internal SpeakUp culture, which encourages employees to share ideas and feedback openly while emphasising the shared responsibility of listening and acknowledging contributions.
Schbang president of solutions Jitto George, said the insight behind the campaign came from everyday workplace observations.
“The insight was simple but powerful. Many women have experienced moments where their ideas gain traction only after someone else repeats them. We wanted the storytelling to reflect that reality in a way that feels relatable, slightly uncomfortable and difficult to ignore. The mockumentary format helped capture that everyday dynamic while prompting viewers to rethink how conversations unfold in their own workplaces,” he said.
Aligned with International Women’s Day 2026’s theme, “Give To Gain”, the campaign underlines a simple message. When organisations give attention, acknowledgement and visibility to women’s voices, the entire workplace benefits.
After all, when good ideas are heard the first time, they do not need a second attempt.
