Brands
Brands lag as women drive up to 85 per cent of buying decisions
HerKey–Havas report reveals gap between women’s influence and marketing action
MUMBAI: Women may be steering the shopping cart, but brands are still learning how to keep up. A new report by HerKey in partnership with Havas Creative India finds that while women influence 70–85 per cent of purchase decisions in India, most marketers are yet to translate that clout into meaningful strategy.
Titled The Paradox of Influence: Women’s Structural Power vs Marketing Reality, the study paints a familiar picture with a twist. Marketers recognise women’s growing economic and cultural sway, yet action remains tentative. Nearly 79 per cent of respondents say women’s influence has risen in the past two years, but only 14 per cent consider themselves leaders in women-centric marketing.
The disconnect is most visible in execution. Even in categories traditionally associated with women, such as fashion, personal care and retail, only about half to two-thirds of brands run consistent women-focused campaigns. In sectors like auto, BFSI and real estate, efforts are still sporadic, more test drive than full throttle.
Interestingly, the problem is not a lack of budget but a lack of understanding. The report flags insight gaps, legacy assumptions and limited qualitative research as the biggest barriers. In other words, brands are talking to women without fully listening.
Old habits, too, die hard. Nearly a third of brands continue to portray women primarily as caregivers. While many acknowledge the need for change, concerns around measurement and balancing empowerment with realism often pull them back to familiar tropes.
There are signs of a shift. Marketers are moving away from broad, one-size-fits-all messaging towards deeper engagement. Community-led ecosystems, ai-driven personalisation and regional storytelling are emerging as preferred routes to connect more meaningfully.
The report also calls out the ‘occasion trap’, where brands show up loudly on Women’s Day or Mother’s Day but go quiet the rest of the year. For a consumer group that quietly shapes most buying decisions, that stop-start attention may no longer cut it.
“Women already influence the majority of purchase decisions, yet brand engagement hasn’t evolved at the same pace,” said HerKey founder & CEO Neha Bagaria. She added that deeper insight into women’s motivations could unlock not just better marketing but sustained growth.
Echoing the sentiment, Havas Creative India MD & chief creative officer Anupama Ramaswamy noted that women are no longer just an audience segment but a force shaping entire categories. “Recognition isn’t enough. Brands need stronger cultural connection and real understanding,” she said.
Based on surveys and interviews with senior marketing leaders across industries, the report suggests that the opportunity is clear. Women are not a niche. They are the market. The real question is whether brands are ready to treat them that way.
Brands
IICT partners with Gativedhi to bring studio production tools to students
New MoU lets students explore AI-driven production pipelines for AVGC-XR
MUMBAI: The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) has teamed up with Gativedhi Technologies to give students a front-row seat to modern studio production. The collaboration will integrate Gativedhi’s AI-powered production intelligence platform, Shotrack, into academic programmes, letting students experience the workflow systems used by animation, VFX and gaming studios.
Under the MoU, faculty, students and researchers will get hands-on access to Shotrack through beta programmes, pilot deployments and academic evaluations. This will allow them to explore simulated production pipelines, understand asset management, track tasks and monitor schedules, essentially seeing how complex projects come together behind the scenes.
Shotrack is designed to tackle a key industry challenge: when multiple studios work on the same project, differing internal systems often create bottlenecks, slow approvals and complicate version control. The platform provides a unified production environment, enabling smoother collaboration across distributed teams while generating operational insights and predictive analytics to optimise crew allocation, forecast schedule risks and manage costs.
The collaboration also opens doors to Gativedhi’s wider ecosystem. Upcoming tools include StudioTrack, for studio operations management covering budgeting, recruitment and IT infrastructure, and WorkTrack, which measures workflow efficiency and team productivity across industries.
IICT plans to embed these tools into programmes covering animation pipelines, VFX workflows, gaming production and media project management. Students will also benefit from guest lectures, masterclasses, workshops, internships and research projects that connect academic learning with real-world studio practices.
IICT CEO Vishwas Deoskar, said the partnership provides “An environment where production pipeline tools can be explored, tested and refined while students gain insight into how large-scale productions are organised.”
Gativedhi Technologies founder & CEO Senthil Kumar added, “This collaboration introduces students to real-world studio management tools and helps us improve our platform with academic feedback.”
With Shotrack in classrooms, India’s future animators, VFX artists and gaming producers will get a taste of studio life long before they step into one.
