MAM
Building India’s next gen all rounders
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The problem: Research showed children of today were different from that of yesteryears. They wanted to be more in control, more informed and more ready to explore and this was seen in their willingness to explore unconventional career options like sports, acting and flying. The key consumer insight was that children nowadays want to enjoy life and have a sense of achievement at the same time.  Horlicks recognised this desire in every kid not just to explore life on their own terms but without having the burden of excelling in academics, a theme so ubiquitous in India. In the famous words of George Bernard Shaw “Simply not letting schooling interfere with their education”. The aim: Horlicks aimed to celebrate this spirit in childhood – and designed its media and communication around “dynamic development.” Communication Goals:
And all this within the school…! Media solution and execution:
India’s largest inter-school talent program reached out to a million kids across 4,500 schools in 15 cities to unearth and demonstrate their talent in as many as 25 non-academic fields. Horlicks Wizkids also provided a platform for kids to hone their talent through a stint with specialist partners in various fields like Ashley Lobo for Dance, Girish Karnad for Theatre etc who trained the winners of the respective fields. The All rounders were crowned as India’s Dream team.
Result: Horlicks Wizkids helped bring holistic development for children in India to the forefront for the first time. What makes the idea special? 1) It was based on key consumer insights and brands core proposition.
3) It received positive coverage across media – newspapers and TV channels amounting to 2 times the money invested. 4) Client speak: “An incredible idea, executed on a massive scale with great detailing and amplified many times through media tie-ups. This will form a key part of the Horlicks calendar in the years to come,” exclaimed GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare GM Marketing Shubhajit Sen. |
‘Horlicks Wizkids’ – an initiative that brought alive dynamic development of kids.
To inform kids and their parents of this event, the program was promoted across media – television, radio and newspapers prior to the event.
2) A long term branded property for Horlicks which imbibed the brand values and created a buzz amongst kids. Buzz scores (i.e Awareness of Horlicks from friends/relatives) registered significant growth during Wizkids activity. This growth can be directly attributable to this activity since all other media inputs remained more or less constant.
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.
