MAM
Wieden + Kennedy India onboards senior strategists – Tania Dey and Snigdha Bose
Mumbai: Over the past year, since Santosh Padhi took over as CCO and Ayesha Ghosh joined as President W+K India, the agency has opened up a Mumbai office and has made hires at the top level. Anirban Roy came on board as strategy head, Kapil Batra as NCD and Shreekant Srinivasan as Head of Delhi. The agency has been selective in signing up clients like Jio 5G, Clove Dental, Casio G Shock; campaigns for all of whom are in the making.
Famously, the agency puts work above all else and to that end, their selectivity extends beyond the clients they sign-up, to their recruitment criteria.
After a careful assessment of skills, values and cultural fit, Snigdha Bose and Tania Dey have been welcomed aboard the Delhi and Mumbai offices respectively.
Dey has always been interested in the intersection of technology and human behaviour. They bring with them skills in customer experience roadmaps and building omnichannel brands.
Bose has been a qualitative researcher, in which role she honed her understanding of the subconscious motivations that guide people’s decisions and behaviour. As a strategist, she has used these skills to craft brand solutions that people would feel a real need for and resonate with.
Wieden + Kennedy India head of strategy Anirban Roy commented, “For the past year, we have been working towards onboarding the right kind of people and an eclectic mix of brands that we want to work with – so I am happy to have found Tania Dey & Snigdha Bose. They bring very different skills to the table which will add different colours to the strategic function. I am confident that they will influence both the creative output and the business outcome for our clients.”
Wieden + Kennedy India president Ayesha Ghosh said, “W+K’s creative prowess is what it is because it is guided by depth. Talented people like Tania and Snigdha are the ones who dig deep while not being afraid to take intuitive leaps. With them on board, we feel further inspired and strengthened.”
MAM
ASCI study uncovers how Gen Alpha navigates ads in endless digital feeds
‘What the Sigma?’ ethnographic report maps blurred boundaries between content and commerce for 7–15-year-olds.
MUMBAI: Gen Alpha isn’t scrolling through the internet, they’re living rent-free inside its never-ending dopamine drip, and the ads have already moved in next door. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) Academy, partnering with Futurebrands Consulting, has published ‘What the Sigma?’, an immersive ethnographic study that maps how Indian children aged 7–15 (Generation Alpha) consume, interpret and live alongside media and commercial messaging in a hyper-digital environment.
The research draws on in-home interviews, sibling and peer conversations, and discussions with parents, teachers, counsellors, psychologists, marketers and kidfluencers across six cities. It examines not only what children watch but how algorithms, content creators, peers and parents shape their relationship with the constant stream of shorts, vlogs, gameplay, memes, sponsored posts and ‘kid-ified’ adult material.
Five core themes emerged:
- Discontinuous Generation, Gen Alpha is not growing up alongside the internet, they are growing up inside it. Cultural references, humour, aesthetics and language sync globally in real time, often leaving adults functionally illiterate in their children’s world. A reference that lands instantly for a 10-year-old in Mumbai or Visakhapatnam feels opaque or disjointed to most parents.
- Authority Vacuum, Parents and teachers frequently lose cultural fluency in digital spaces. The algorithm responsive, inexhaustible and perfectly attuned to preferences becomes the most attentive presence in many children’s daily lives. Rules around screen time feel increasingly difficult to enforce when adults cannot fully see or understand the content landscape.
- Digital as Society, Online and offline no longer exist as separate realms, they form one continuous reality. The phone is not a tool children pick up; it is the primary social environment they inhabit.
- Great Media Mukbang, Content flows as an ambient, boundary-less, multi-sensorial stream. Entertainment, advertising, commerce, gameplay, memes and vlogs merge into one undifferentiated feed. The line between active choice and passive absorption has largely collapsed.
- Blurred Ad Recognition, Children aged 7–12 typically recognise only the most overt advertising formats. Influencer promotions, gaming integrations and vlog sponsorships often register as organic entertainment. Children aged 13–15 show greater ad literacy but remain highly susceptible to narrative-integrated, passion-driven and emotionally resonant brand messaging. Discernment remains low across the board in a non-stop stream.
ASCI CEO and secretary general Manisha Kapoor said, “ASCI Academy’s study is an investigation into the content life of Generation Alpha not to judge them but to understand them. Their cultural reference points seem disjointed from those of earlier generations. Insights on how they perceive advertising is the first step towards building more responsible engagement frameworks, given that they are the youngest media consumers in our country right now.”
Futurebrands Consulting founder and director Santosh Desai added, “While earlier generations have been exposed to digital media, for this generation it is the world they inhabit. This report explores not only what they watch but how they are being shaped by algorithms, content and advertising.”
The study proposes four adaptive, principles-led pathways:
- Universal signposting of commercial intent using design principles that make advertising recognisable even to young audiences.
- Ecosystem-wide responsibility shared among advertisers, platforms, creators, schools and parents.
- Future-ready safeguards built directly into children’s content experiences rather than as optional background settings.
- Formal media and advertising literacy embedded in school curricula to teach age-appropriate understanding of persuasion and commercial intent.
In a feed that never pauses, Gen Alpha isn’t merely watching content, they’re swimming in an ocean where entertainment, commerce and identity swirl together. The real question isn’t whether they can spot an ad; it’s whether the adults building the ocean can agree on where the lifeguards should stand.
