MAM
Colgate launches “Ask the Dentist” campaign
MUMBAI: Colgate-Palmolive India, the market leader in oral care, today launched a new “Ask the Dentist” campaign for its flagship brand, Colgate Dental Cream.
Developed by Bates India, the television commercial has been shot in an interactive talk show format with a dentist providing real information to consumers about prevention of tooth decay and educating consumers about Colgate Dental Cream’s importance in protecting teeth.
The TV campaign is being amplified across different media touch points.
The campaign is based on insights that most Indians do not visit a dentist and care little about tooth decay. They visit a dentist only when they have a problem and do not think dental check ups are required on a regular basis. This consumer engagement aims to make the dentist accessible to every Indian.
Said Colgate-Palmolive (India) VP marketing Rajesh Krishnamurthy, “Our research shows that only 3 per cent people in India visit a dentist regularly. India has a low dentist to population ratio compared to WHO recommended ratios. As market leaders in oral care, we see it as our responsibility to drive oral care awareness in the country. Our new “Ask the Dentist” campaign centers around a friendly approachable dentist who encourages families to ask and get answers to common questions on oral care.”
The campaign is a marked shift from the previous campaigns as it aims to further enhance consumer engagement on oral hygiene by leveraging an interactive communicative platform.
“As part of the campaign, we have also set-up a toll-free number and a website, where consumers can call and ask the dentist their own questions related to oral health. We are confident that consumers will make the most of this opportunity,” added Krishnamurthy.
Consumers can also log on to www.askthedentist.co.in and get oral care queries answered.
MAM
AI could unlock billions for India’s $30 billion media industry, says JioStar vice-chairman Uday Shankar
JioStar vice-chairman urges industry to seize once-in-a-generation AI moment to turn India into the world’s creative capital
DELHI: India’s media industry stands at a historic inflection point. Artificial intelligence, long discussed as a technological disruptor, could now become the lever that propels the country from a domestic content giant to a global creative powerhouse.
Delivering the keynote at the IndiaAI Impact Summit, Uday Shankar argued that AI offers India a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lead, not follow, in global media and entertainment.
Shankar credited the prime minister’s vision for centring India’s growth agenda around AI and described the summit as overdue . Drawing on three decades in media, he traced the industry’s transformation from the arrival of the first newsroom computers to the launch of India’s earliest digital platforms, each wave of technology reshaping speed, scale and audience engagement.
The numbers tell a story of staggering growth. In just 25 years, India’s media and entertainment sector has expanded from a few billion dollars to become the world’s fifth-largest market, contributing more than $30bn to the economy. Television households have jumped from about 70m to over 210m, with more than 800m video consumers today.
Yet global influence remains elusive. While South Korea exported Squid Game and Parasite to worldwide acclaim, and Puerto Rico produced the most-streamed artist on the planet, India has struggled to consistently break through beyond its domestic and diaspora audiences .
The constraints are structural. Hollywood studio productions command budgets of $65m to $100m, with tentpoles running as high as $300m. The average Indian film operates on $3m to $5m . A marquee US television episode can cost $20m to $30m; an Indian serial is typically produced for Rs 7 lakh to Rs 10 lakh per episode, roughly $10,000. The capital gap, Shankar argued, has narrowed ambition and limited global competitiveness.
AI, he said, changes the equation by rewiring the three pillars of the industry: content, consumer and commerce.
On content, AI-powered production is collapsing infrastructure costs and accelerating timelines. At JioStar, the company recently produced Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh, a 100-episode live-action series delivered three to five times faster than a traditional production pipeline. The implication is stark. The remaining constraint is no longer capital, but imagination.
On consumers, AI enables conversational discovery, interactive storytelling and regionalisation that goes beyond simple dubbing to reflect India’s linguistic texture. On commerce, it unlocks granular segmentation and dynamic pricing, moving beyond the blunt instruments of subscription and advertising that have defined the industry for a century.
The prize is vast. The global media market, currently worth nearly $3trn, is projected to reach $3.5trn by 2029. India’s share remains under 2 per cent. Even a shift to 5 per cent would generate tens of billions of dollars in additional value.
But Shankar cautioned that opportunity does not guarantee outcome. He called for three commitments: self-disruption before external disruption, aggressive skilling to create AI-native creative hybrids, and policy frameworks that accelerate rather than constrain innovation.
Hollywood’s defensive posture towards AI, he suggested, offers India a rare window to design the business models and regulatory frameworks that could set global precedents. The shift in advantage, he argued, favours nations with deep cultural reservoirs and massive audiences.
The question is no longer whether India can lead in the AI age of media, he concluded, but whether it will move fast enough to claim that position.
The stories were always here. Now the technology has caught up.
