Digital
Ad to the Future Google revs up AI to rewrite the rules of marketing
MUMBAI: Who needs a crystal ball when your ads can now predict, create and convert, all thanks to AI? At its annual Google Marketing Live event, Google rolled out a wave of AI-powered advertising tools designed to flip the marketing playbook from reactive to proactive. From smarter bidding and creative generation to shoppable TV and AI-driven search ads, the tech giant is giving Indian marketers a suite of tools to anticipate consumer behaviour, not just respond to it.
“The purchase journey isn’t a straight line anymore, it’s a maze of swipes, scrolls and searches,” said Google India MD for digital first businesses Roma Datta Chobey. “Our new launches help brands cut through the chaos, scale creativity, and reach the right people at the right time with precision and impact.”
Here’s what’s turning heads:
Smarter Shopping, Streamlined Selling
● Shoppable CTV lets users buy products right from their smart TVs using QR codes or “send to phone” options.
● Youtube Masthead is now shoppable on mobile, giving brands high-visibility, click-to-cart impact.
● Ads in AI Overviews will soon roll out in India, inserting Search and Shopping ads directly within AI-generated search summaries.
AI-Powered Creativity with “Generated for You”
● Set to launch in Product Studio later this year, this tool will generate images and videos based on product catalogues, trends, and brand identity no design skills required.
Performance Max Retention Only Mode
● In beta in India, this lets brands focus solely on re-engaging existing users. Swiggy tested it and saw a two-thirds reduction in cost for bringing users back to the app.
AI Max for Search
● Now live in India, it’s a one-click booster that learns from your site and existing keywords to serve smarter, more relevant ads. Cashify reported a 15 per cent conversion bump in early trials.
Smart Bidding, Smarter Insights
● A major bidding update now helps brands uncover less obvious conversion paths, with testers reporting an 18 per cent increase in new query categories that convert.
Meridian Gets an Upgrade
● Google’s open-source Marketing Mix Model (MMM) will now include a dynamic scenario planner and more frequent access to key reach/frequency data via API.
AI Agents in Ads & Analytics
● New “agentic” AI tools will soon help with campaign setup, keyword strategy, and performance reporting inside Google Ads and Analytics, using conversational prompts and visuals.
For early adopters like Swiggy, the tools have already shown impact across the funnel from creative acceleration to better cost efficiency and growth in new user cohorts.
As marketers juggle non-linear journeys across screens, platforms and attention spans, Google’s AI arsenal aims to give them not just tools, but an edge where insights spark action, and creativity scales without compromise.
In the race for attention, Google isn’t just offering ads. It’s offering answers.
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.
