MAM
22feet Tribal WW strengthens leadership with appointment of Anvita Arora and Shyam Nair
MUMBAI: 22feet Tribal Worldwide has announced the appointment of Anvita Arora as vice president & head of Mumbai and Shyam Nair as executive creative director. The announcement marks their return to the company after successful stints across top creative networks. Their journey at 22feet Tribal Worldwide comes full circle, now marked by broader perspective and a shared ambition to help shape the next phase of the agency’s growth.
Anvita and Shyam bring a sharp blend of storytelling, strategic thinking, and brand-building expertise over a combined 3-decade career span. Anvita’s unique experience across digital, content, and strategy at Yahoo, Ogilvy, Supari Studios, Kulfi Collective, and most recently, Creativeland Asia is a big plus. With leadership roles at VML, Lowe, and Creativeland Asia, Shyam has led impactful campaigns for brands like Disney Star, Netflix, and Spotify.
Commenting on the new leadership appointments, 22feet Tribal Worldwide president Vanaja Pillai said, “Over the past few years, we’ve seen strong growth and had the privilege of working with an ambitious set of brands that push us to raise the bar. Welcoming Anvita and Shyam again is not just about familiar faces returning; it’s about the energy, trust, and shared history they carry with them. Their return is a testament to the work we’re doing, the environment we’ve built, and the exciting road ahead for our clients and teams.”
Speaking on her new role, Anvita said, “I’ve always had a soft spot for 22feet Tribal WW. The people are sharp, the culture is electric, and the work has always had teeth. My primary goal is straightforward: to grow the business, expand the brands, and build teams that thrive on ideas and collaboration. What sets 22feet apart is its guts. It’s one of the few agencies that has stayed proudly digital while still thinking like a brand builder. I plan to take that legacy and push it further, creating work that doesn’t just land but lingers, work that clients back and audiences actually feel.”
“At 22feet Tribal WW, I believe we can do more than just making ads. We can craft stories that earn attention, move culture, and live beyond the brief. With the talent, the brands, and the drive to outdo ourselves, we can create work that’s built for the medium, not just the media plan. Because the best advertising doesn’t feel like advertising, it feels like something worth sharing,” added Shyam.
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.
