MAM
Corporate Image Mythology
As e-commerce matures, it opens a great door for smart marketing based on some fundamental laws of common sense, which should address bringing out honest and clean messages to ease the pain of the customers. Smart messages with powerful names will grow in time, and don’t require permanent, expensive fireworks support to attract customers.
There are three common myths about corporate image and name identity: Big money will buy you a big image, customers are just sheep, and constant bombardment will bring constant sales. Corporate image and name identity form the backbone of any business. Without them there will be no growth, no IPOs, no M&As. It is critical to understand how to play this game, blindfolded or with clear vision.
Let’s explore some of this mythology.
Blowing on an Image
Traditionally, the branding advice has been that a big branding budget coupled with a big blowout fireworks will ensure a great corporate image and identity. Sure, it worked in the 1960s or 1980s, but not in the “years of the zeros” during 2000 to 2005 and beyond.
There has been a serious meltdown and erosion in this thinking. Today, big spending cannot guarantee a big image. The real truth is often traveling much faster than the sugar-coated image. Now it is necessary first to put the result in front to match the talk about the image.
Money helps to get some of the things in motion. However, “the bigger the amount, the bigger the image” is a thing of the past. Today, the right money with the right image and corporate performance will bring out a great corporate identity. Take a look at Google; it had no advertising agency, and simply relied on shoestring marketing with smarts and record-breaking performance. Now it is the top brand in e-commerce, all without any big branding bucks.
There are thousands of corporations exploring such strategies, while hundreds of others with thousands of dollars a day in branding budgets are still scratching their heads and going nowhere. Branding costs are there to help, but the idea that unlimited budgets will give you unlimited growth is just a myth.
Are Customers Really Sheep?
Big agencies believe that consumers are large herds of sheep and will follow to any creative exploitation, and for that reason, they encourage wild and bizarre campaigns.
Perhaps it was true in the past, as until recently, customers simply followed the wind and worshiped the sun; anything shining was good enough to follow. Not today. Now they are very clever and overly exposed — stalking for the best deals, ignoring the lure while frustrated by the crazy blast.
All customers want is simple name recognition as a calling device, something to remember and something easy to type. The rest of the fanfare is lost in the multi-media jungle. Today, the key is marketing one-to-one, delivered with some clarity and respect. Today, success through wild branding fanfare to the masses, as if they were all sheep, is just a myth.
Bombardment of Messages
How much bombardment of the message is required until the masses have succumbed? How often should a name be repeated in a commercial before they can recall a name, and how often should they be jolted with shock before they are all mesmerized?
Hypnotized or dazed the customers might be. However, often for other reasons, like the daily grind of life, they are not buying the old beaten up mantra of repetitiveness. The more you repeat the dysfunctionality of a message, the more they shut out.
A simple, clean message is more than enough. A clean corporate identity message with a sharp name designed to simulate their needs rather than make fun of their intelligence is what’s required.
The old concept of “thousands of repeated ads will get thousands of orders” might have worked in the past, but not today. The radio age or the TV age was responsible for this thinking, but not now, as in this cyber age it is a one-to-one format. The idea that repetitive messages will bring repetitive success is just a myth.
As e-commerce matures, it opens a great door for smart marketing based on some fundamental laws of common sense, which should address bringing out honest and clean messages to ease the pain of the customers. Global cyber-branding demands the application of proper rules.
Smart messages with powerful names will grow in time, and don’t require permanent, expensive fireworks support to attract customers. Today, corporate identity requires a serious re-evaluation and, most importantly, it must be done in light of all this mythology.
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.
