AD Agencies
Advertising Club Madras launches 27th PGDA program to empower creatives
MUMBAI: Ever wondered how the masterminds behind the most iconic ads cracked the code of grabbing your attention? From billboards that dominate cityscapes to campaigns you just can’t get out of your head, these advertising wizards didn’t stumble upon their craft overnight.
Well, the modern world is here, and now you can study something far beyond traditional textbooks—something that promises a thrilling creative journey.
If you’ve ever dreamed of becoming the next advertising guru, with your campaigns taking over every billboard and social media feed, here’s your golden ticket.
The Advertising Club Madras is back, launching its 27th Post Graduate Diploma in Advertising (PGDA) program. A dynamic weekend course crafted for ambitious minds, it blends creativity and strategy to transform you into an industry-ready professional. It’s not just a course; it’s a gateway to a world where your ideas define the future of advertising.
The event, hosted in Chennai, was graced by notable dignitaries, including Advertising Club Madras president, Balasubramanian S.; PGDA Sub-committee, joint secretary & chair, Kavitha Srinivasan; Executive committee member, Rakesh; and Advertising Club Madras, former president & a program tutor, Jagannath Ramasamy.
This year’s 75-hour weekend program has enrolled over 25 enthusiastic students, offering a hands-on curriculum that covers diverse aspects of advertising, media, and creativity. With a focus on equipping students with real-world knowledge and skills, the program continues its legacy of producing over 500 successful alumni from its previous 26 batches.
Expressing his pride in the initiative, Balasubramanian remarked, “This program is a flagship initiative of the Advertising Club Madras and is one of the most unique in the Indian advertising fraternity. With 27 batches and over 500 alumni, the PGDA program continues to inspire and shape the next generation of advertising professionals. This year, we’ve also offered scholarships to deserving students, making this opportunity accessible to all.”
Adding to this, Advertising Club Madras secretary, Surej Salim Kumar said, “The PGDA program is a testament to the legacy of Advertising Club Madras. Each year, it evolves to reflect the changing dynamics of the industry, ensuring students receive top-notch training from some of the most accomplished leaders in advertising and media. I’m excited to see this batch embark on their journey toward professional success.”
Highlighting the program’s mission, Srinivasan stated, “This program represents our club’s core mission of fostering knowledge, creativity, and growth in advertising. The overwhelming response and enthusiasm from this year’s students are heartening, and I am deeply grateful to the tutors and mentors who bring unmatched value to this program.”
The PGDA program brings together an impressive roster of mentors, including:
. Blue Noodles, consultant, K. AnbuChezhian
. Printers Forum India president, Narayanan
. The Hindu Group, CEO, L.V. Navaneeth
. Kaybase director, Poornima Bhaskaran
. Catalyst Public Relations Pvt Ltd, founder & director, Ramkumar Singaram among others.
The esteemed faculty promises to guide students through practical insights and industry best practices, offering an unparalleled learning experience.
The Advertising Club Madras continues to set benchmarks in advertising education with its innovative and inclusive approach. By merging academic excellence with real-world industry exposure, the PGDA program empowers aspiring creatives to navigate and excel in the fast-paced world of advertising.
AD Agencies
Kevin Vaz opens FICCI-EY report with a declaration: India’s M&E industry set to breach Rs 3 trillion mark by 2027
In a keynote address at the FICCI-EY report launch, Kevin Vaz says sport, AI and the connected TV boom are driving a multi-screen revolution with no signs of slowing
MUMBAI: India’s media and entertainment industry is growing faster than the economy, reshaping global benchmarks and is on course to blow past Rs 3 trillion by 2027. That was the headline message from Kevin Vaz, chairman of the FICCI Media and Entertainment Committee and chief executive of entertainment at JioStar, who delivered the opening keynote at the launch of the FICCI-EY Media and Entertainment Report 2026 in Mumbai on Monday. He did not waste much time on caveats.
The industry hit Rs 2.78 trillion in 2025, outpacing GDP per capita growth and surpassing even last year’s bullish forecasts. Vaz described the year in three words: scale, convergence, transformation. The numbers, he suggested, were only half the story. The other half was how that growth was happening.
Digital has become the industry’s largest segment, driven by advertising, subscriptions and commerce. But Vaz was quick to puncture the familiar narrative of digital killing everything else. India, he argued, is not an either-or market. It is an AND market. Connected TV is surging. Linear television, mobile, films and print are all still expanding. AVGC, the animation, visual effects, gaming and comics sector, is emerging as a serious growth engine, opening new storytelling formats and new global revenue streams. Nothing, he said, is replacing anything. Everything is reinforcing everything else.
Nowhere is that more vivid than in sport. In an on-demand world where audiences can watch anything, anytime, Indians still show up live. “Sports don’t fragment audiences,” Vaz said. “They unite them, just on different screens.” The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 made the point emphatically. During the final, JioHotstar delivered 72.5 million concurrent streams, a global record. Group chats exploded. Families renegotiated control of the television. Advertisers, Vaz noted with undisguised relish, stopped asking where audiences were and started asking how fast they could get in.
Cinema had its own landmark year. More than 1,900 films were released, with several crossing the Rs 1 billion mark. Dhurandhar was singled out as proof that Indian audiences will still turn up in large numbers for content that grips them. Live experiences, too, are getting bigger and more immersive, though Vaz suggested the surface has barely been scratched.
Then there is artificial intelligence, which he described as quietly, and sometimes not so quietly, reshaping everything. AI is enabling personalisation, efficiency and scale, but Vaz argued its deeper significance lies in what it is doing to creativity itself. He pointed to Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh, billed as the world’s first AI-produced show, as evidence that the technology can amplify creative ambition rather than hollow it out. He also used the platform to call on Indian policymakers to engage seriously with the creative industry on AI and copyright, ensuring that creators are fairly compensated as the technology spreads.
The picture that emerges from the report, and from Vaz’s keynote, is of an industry that has stopped thinking of itself as a fast-growing emerging market and started thinking of itself as a global template. Scale, diversity and innovation, he said, are no longer in tension in India. They are coexisting, and the rest of the world is taking notes.
The Rs 3 trillion milestone is two years away. As the man who chairs the committee that shapes the industry’s policy agenda and runs the country’s most powerful entertainment platform, Vaz set the tone for the day with characteristic directness: India’s media business is not just chasing growth. It is deciding what the country talks about at dinner. That is a different kind of power altogether.
