AD Agencies
Account Planning Group (APG) announces its board members for India Chapter
MUMBAI: The India Chapter of the Account Planning Group (APG) has announced the induction of Board Members that represent planning heads across major advertising agencies.
In keeping with its credo, the committee would work towards equipping planners and strategists with the training and inspiration they need to be bold and rigorous thinkers while also driving several initiatives for APG in India including its soon-to-be-announced Awards show.
APG members include DDB Mudra national planning head Amit Kekre, J Walter Thompson India chief strategy officer Bindu Sethi, Leo Burnett chief strategy officer of South Asia Dheeraj Sinha, Ogilvy India chief strategy officer Prem Narayan, Whyness Worldwide head of strategy and new business Roma Singhal, McCann Truth central national head, planning and executive VP and GM of McCann Mumbai Suraja Kishore, Lowe Lintas chief strategy officer S. Subramanyeswar and Publicis India chief strategy officer and managing partner Sudeep Gohil.
The APG got off to a commendable start in India at the end of 2017, and has since organised a couple of community-driven initiatives including the recently held workshop on Culture and Creativity by Whyness founder and chairman Ravi Deshpande. The committee has queued up several such workshops and training modules in the coming months, which would be hosted across key metros in India.
As of date, the APG is being led by a consortium of leading agencies from India including Ogilvy & Mather, J Walter Thompson, MullenLowe Lintas Group, Leo Burnett India, DDB Mudra Group, Publicis India, Taproot, Dentsu, Grey Worldwide, McCann Worldwide, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, Famous Innovations, Rediffusion Y&R, Whyness Worldwide and others.
The Account Planning Group is a membership organisation that promotes smarter thinking. Headquartered in London, it is a not-for-profit organisation run for and by its members: primarily account planners in advertising agencies. It is expanding with a community of communications strategists, including media planners, channel planners, DM planners and digital planners.
AD Agencies
AdTrust Summit 2026 to examine trust, AI and Gen Alpha in advertising
Two-day summit in Mumbai to explore ethics, regulation and the future of advertising trust
MUMBAI:Â At a time when advertising is navigating a delicate trust deficit, the Advertising Standards Council of India is preparing to bring the industry to the table. On 17 and 18 March, the body will host the inaugural AdTrust Summit 2026 in Mumbai, a two-day gathering designed to spark conversation around responsibility, regulation and credibility in modern advertising.
The summit, to be held at the Jio World Convention Centre in Bandra Kurla Complex, will bring together leaders from advertising, media, technology and policy to examine how brands can build trust in a marketplace increasingly shaped by algorithms, influencers and artificial intelligence.
In an age of deepfakes, dark patterns and blurred lines between content and commerce, the question is no longer just how brands capture attention, but whether audiences believe what they see. The AdTrust Summit aims to unpack that challenge.
Day one will turn its attention to the youngest digital natives. Titled Decoding Gen Alpha, the session will unveil ‘What the Sigma?’, a study by ASCI and Futurebrands Consulting that explores how children growing up in a hyper-digital environment encounter advertising and commercial messaging.
The report presentation will be delivered by Santosh Desai, founder and director at Think9 Consumer Technologies and a social commentator known for his insights into consumer behaviour. The discussion that follows will attempt to decode how Gen Alpha consumes media, interacts with brands and navigates the growing overlap between entertainment and marketing.
In a move that mirrors the subject itself, two Gen Alpha students will also join the conversation, offering a rare perspective from the generation advertisers are trying to understand.
The second panel of the day will shift the focus from observation to implication, asking what the report’s findings mean for brands, agencies and society. Speakers include Karthik Srinivasan, communications strategy consultant; Preeti Vyas, president at Mythik; and Abigail Dias, associate president planning at Ogilvy. The session will be moderated by Sonali Krishna, editor at ET Brand Equity.
Day two moves from insight to regulation. Under the theme From Compliance to Trust, ASCI will release its Ad Law Compendium, a comprehensive guide to India’s advertising regulations.
The day will open with a keynote by Sudhanshu Vats, chairman at ASCI and managing director at Pidilite Industries, followed by a chief guest address by Sanjay Jaju, secretary at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Legal experts from Khaitan & Co., including Haigreve Khaitan, senior partner, and Tanu Banerjee, partner, will present an overview of the current advertising law landscape in India and examine whether existing frameworks are equipped to deal with emerging technologies and formats.
Subsequent panels will explore issues increasingly shaping the industry’s ethical compass. Conversations will range from the limits of persuasive design and the rise of dark patterns, to the growing scrutiny brands face from digital creators and consumer watchdogs.
One session will also feature Revant Himatsingka, widely known online as the Food Pharmer, whose critiques of packaged food brands have sparked debate around transparency and corporate accountability.
Later discussions will turn toward media literacy among Gen Alpha, asking how children can be equipped to navigate a digital world where gaming, content and commerce are becoming indistinguishable.
The summit will conclude with a final panel on the future of advertising, bringing together voices from agencies, legal circles and technology platforms to discuss how innovation, intelligence and integrity can coexist.
For an industry built on persuasion, trust has always been its quiet currency. But as audiences grow more sceptical and digital ecosystems more complex, that currency is under pressure.
Events like the AdTrust Summit suggest the advertising world knows it cannot afford to take credibility for granted. The real challenge now is turning conversation into commitment.
