MAM
AdAsia begins with I&B Minister stressing on the need of CSR
NEW DELHI: Even as advertising has grown from Rs 100 billion to Rs 300 billion in the last 20 years, consumers are rewarding those advertising agencies who are doing good for society and fulfilling their corporate social responsibility (CSR), Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said here today.
CSR should be used in a country like India for health and education, she said while inaugurating the 27th AdAsia being held in India after a gap of eight years.
Reiterating that the government is for a free media, she noted that the Advertising Standards Council of India (Asci) is doing a great job in self-regulation as far as advertising was concerned.
At the same time, the government wants to bring in a more robust system for television rating points and is working towards that end.
She said the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) is being revamped to “match up to the private advertising agencies”.
Meanwhile, she said that despite the meltdown in the west, Indian media has continued to grow and there is a boom in the newspaper industry where around 107 billion copies are being sold daily. The number of television channels has reached almost 800 and the number of radio FM channels is expected to go up to 839 after the third phase.
She said the country had also taken concrete steps to be fully digitalised by 31 March 2014.
Referring to the theme of the meet, ‘Uncertainty: the new Certainty‘, Soni said “the only certainty is that there will always be uncertainty.”
Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, who has just achieved a milestone in marketing with the way his film Ra.One has been promoted, said on the occasion that he saw himself in various ways as far as advertising was concerned. He was the consumer who always fell for the dream merchants and the “tricks unveiled on my poor unsuspecting greed”; the brand endorser; the seller of his own films and the causes he endorsed including the Kolkata Knight Riders; and marketing himself as a brand for which he always needed to re-invent himself. Luring attention to himself is a great effort and therefore he believed in the idiom “early to bed and early to rise, work as hell and advertise.”
Khan also unfurled the AdAsia flag, before former Miss India Diana Hayden who was conducting the inaugural ceremony asked him to do a jig on ‘You are my chhamak chhalo‘ from Ra.One.
About 1200 delegates from India and 25 other countries are attending the meet, which is featuring around fifty of the world‘s top experts in the world of marketing, media and advertising.
Around 18 sessions are being held on various subjects apart from the opening and closing ceremonies. The speakers will include around 45 from overseas.
MAM
Sleepwell unveils nationwide sleep study on World Sleep Day
79 per cent use screens before bed, 36 per cent of 18–25-year-olds sleep ≤5 hours.
MUMBAI: Sleepwell just dropped the pillow truth bomb because when India’s sleeping less and scrolling more, even the mattress wants to stage an intervention. On World Sleep Day 2026, Sleepwell released its nationwide Sleep Study, painting a stark picture of India’s escalating sleep crisis. The findings show that 79% of Indians use screens right before bed, fuelling restless nights and drowsy days. Alarmingly, 36% of young adults aged 18–25 sleep five hours or less making them the country’s most sleep-deprived group.
The study also busts the myth of “catch-up sleep”, 65% of respondents actually sleep even later on weekends, pointing to increasingly irregular patterns that spill fatigue into the working week. Mattress discomfort emerged as a frequently overlooked culprit behind late-night wake-ups and constant leak-anxiety checks.
To drive the message home, Sleepwell’s CMO Puneet Gulati appeared on Zee Business, stressing that quality sleep isn’t a luxury, it’s foundational health. He highlighted how the right mattress can transform restless nights into restorative ones.
The brand doubled down with clever late-night activations, partnering with a quick-commerce platform to serve contextual ads between 11 pm and 3 am, gently nudging bleary-eyed scrollers to consider mattress discomfort as the reason they’re still awake and pointing them to the nearest Sleepwell store. Digital influencers and creators also shared relatable stories of how poor sleep fuels impulsive late-night behaviour.
In a nation that celebrates hustle but quietly pays for it in lost rest, Sleepwell isn’t just selling mattresses, it’s selling the radical idea that sometimes the bravest thing you can do is close your eyes and actually sleep well.
