MAM
Time for younger generation to take over, say ad gurus
NEW DELHI: Creativity in advertising can work only if there is a mix of the global and the local and when the consumer is hooked to the brand one is trying to market.
At the same time, it is highly important that the creative minds behind any ad campaigns are properly groomed and adequately compensated.
It is equally important to learn from one‘s peers and therefore one should know the history of the medium one is associated with.
The ongoing AdAsia 2011 with the participation of over 1200 delegates imparted all these lessons in the first two days of its sessions.
But in a session “the new Asian Creative minds”, Ogilvy & Mather executive chairperson and creative director, South Asia Piyush Pandey set the tone when he received huge ovation as he remarked in his well-known brusque manner: “It all boils down to are we paying them enough? Pay peanuts, get monkeys! If you want good people, start paying better.”
He also denied that India is not a brand building market. He said just because India is a new entrant to the international domain did not mean it is not building brands. In fact, he said that multi-nationals operating in India have already understood this.
The others on the panel included Dentsu Global executive creative advisor Akira Kagami; Cheil Worldwide chief strategy officer Bruce Haines; Lowe China CEO Kitty Lun; and JWT, North Asia area director Tom Doctoroff, who moderated the session.
Pandey said the Indian market is divided into two distinct parts: rural and urban.
Lun said “The overall market in China is very young. As advertising in China does not have a long history, they want to do courageous things. So there is an ambition of creativity but there are certain blocks.” She also said local companies did not believe in brand building.
Haines added there are very few multinationals in Korea and so the local people are not worried about brand building.
Kagami said brand building is for the corporation and not for the product being marketed.
The speakers were firm that the younger generation has to be encouraged to face new challenges with greater creativity.
The power of hierarchy, training and retaining manpower, and satisfactory remuneration to the younger lot in advertising are some of the issues that affect creativity, the panelists felt.
Earlier management guru Ram Charan in a keynote address analysed the theme of the meet, ‘Uncertainty is the new certainty‘.
Charan said creativity is also the cause of uncertainty in the advertising world. But there is need to change this uncertainty into prosperity.
He said digitisation has liberalised the consumers and marketers as well, resulting in the social and marketing change and a change in business models.
Interestingly, Charan strongly refuted the notion that foreign direct investment or creativity is traveling from west to east. He said it is in fact traveling from north – with countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, Russia, Japan and Korea – to the south with countries like China, India, south Asia, Latin America and Africa. Thus the south really showed the markets of the future and said the fact that some Indian companies are making huge investments overseas is an indication of this. But there is need for caution and one should go into a new market with a “deliberate strategy” and not just for global exposure.
He wanted companies to work towards finding the right kind of talent and train them to brace up to the challenges of the new world.
In a session on ‘The Game Changers‘, Hindustan Unilever Chairman Harish Manwani said his group is constantly reinventing itself to keep up with the changing times. Both he and Interpublic Chairman and CEO Michael Roth who conducted the discussion agreed on the importance of adapting to the changing environment thus making the brands relevant to its consumers.
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.
