MAM
Challenge status quo through experiential marketing
MUMBAI: As brands around the globe are grappling with the Covid2019 pandemic, it has also raised questions about the future of experiential marketing, also known as the touch-and-feel marketing.
In this new age of experiential marketing, the challenge before brands is to showcase that their products are better than the rest in the most creative and unique manner. It is more about engaging with your audiences on a personal level. But with social distancing and lockdown can anything be experiential? How is the industry redefining itself and what are the skillsets that industry practitioners need to equip themselves with?
To discuss all these scenarios, The Advertising Club of Bangalore hosted a webinar with a theme "Experiential Marketing – The Next Pivot." The panellists included Group M APAC head experiential marketing Dalveer Singh, Geometry Encompass Roshan Abbas, Brand Aid Events and FanTam Brands founder and director Vipul Mathur, DEIVEE co-founder Darshan M.
About how experiential marketing will reinvent itself, Abbas said: “As experiential marketers we need to embrace the change quickly. If you are just entering into this industry don’t jump into it directly. Take a pause and understand this situation, challenge the status quo and let the creator play with their mind. This is how television, radio and Netflix came into play.”
Darshan said that it was always about being Instagram-ready. Marketeers have been wary of adapting this but now there is no choice but to adopt this. He adds that the second screen has always existed but now it has become the primary screen.
Elaborating more on the changes seen in experiential marketing during pandemic, Dalveer says, “I think now home will become the epicentre of everything. It is not like everything in experiential will become digital, you may be able to do many things which are physical. The way to look at it is not purely virtual or digital but what is the best way to connect with the needs of the consumer.”
Vipul Mathur who comes from an apparel background where touch and feel is the most important thing feels that even if people are buying stuff online, differentiating between products is still a challenge.
Everything from artificial intelligence to virtual reality to augmented reality is being tried out, but we need someone to orchestrate well between industries and create that 360 degree experience and urgency for consumers to buy the product.
Abbas explained that while some of them had the fear of technology, others were ready for the experiment. They wrote a play that is contextual with Supriya Pilgaonkar and Radhika Madan. After the show Abbas focussed more on the interactivity process. They included chats, poll and multiple other formats in their system. From the experiment stage Abbas has now come to the revenue stage. The company now has close to 12,000 people interacting on Instagram which has invited a lot of brands to invest.
Dalveer who has done a lot of work at the rural level said that the last two to three months were very challenging for the rural audiences. It has been difficult for people staying in the rural market as well as those migrants who have been on the move.
“The next transformation in the rural experiential market is pin code marketing. We have got 21000 pin codes across the country. And we use the simple formula of three V. The idea is how I can reach the people who use smartphones through video, voice and above all you put the vernacular piece to it. Because there are 14 languages and many dialects. We have done a couple of pilots which is helping brands reach the audiences,” he further added.
The panellists agreed upon a point that this pandemic will also bring a lot of event technologists and people who will increase time span, who will build loops and feedbacks within their programme which will eventually help others. They were of the opinion that people who have fresh ideas and can produce cost-effective solutions will survive.
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.
