Data, trust and targeting dominate Goafest 2026 marketing debate

GOA: In an age where clicks are currency and consent is king, the advertising industry appears to be discovering that the real gold rush is not just about collecting data, but earning the right to use it.

At a packed session titled “The War on Data: Who Owns the Signal?” during Goafest 2026, some of India’s leading marketers, media executives and consumer brand strategists unpacked the growing battle over customer signals, digital identity and trust in a rapidly tightening regulatory landscape.

Moderated by Saptharushi founding chief executive officer Gowthaman Ragothaman; the panel featured Parle Products vice president Mayank Shah; Mondelez International director, consumer experience, global marketing Anjali Madan; Indian Express Online chief executive officer Sanjay Sindhwani and The Coca-Cola Company director, consumer experiences Saikat Sinha for a conversation that moved well beyond the usual AI buzzwords and into the mechanics powering the modern marketing economy.

The discussion revolved around a simple but increasingly thorny question: who really owns consumer data in a world where every swipe, stream, subscription and shopping cart leaves behind a signal?

A recurring theme across the session was the growing tension between brand-building and performance marketing. The panellists argued that companies often fall into the trap of chasing short-term conversions while weakening long-term brand equity. As brands obsess over immediate clicks and measurable returns, customer acquisition can become more expensive, brand recall weaker and consumer relationships increasingly transactional.

The panel stressed that consumers do not distinguish between “brand” and “performance” touchpoints. Whether a customer is interacting through e-commerce, digital campaigns, content experiences or loyalty initiatives, every engagement contributes to the same overall brand perception. Treating them as separate silos, the discussion suggested, risks creating fragmented customer journeys and diluted marketing effectiveness.

For consumer-facing giants like The Coca-Cola Company and Parle Products, the challenge is amplified by scale. While these brands reach millions of households across India, mass visibility does not necessarily translate into deep consumer understanding. The panel explored how companies continue to rely heavily on broad-reach advertising and traditional market research, even as digital ecosystems promise sharper targeting and behavioural insights.

At the same time, marketers acknowledged that modern consumers expect more than passive advertising. Audiences now want interaction, participation and experiences tailored to moments, moods and contexts. This has increased the value of real-time signals drawn from partnerships across retail, entertainment, food delivery, sports and media ecosystems.

The conversation also highlighted how publishers are rapidly reinventing themselves in response to shifting digital economics. Indian Express Online was cited as an example of how media companies have moved from merely selling advertising inventory to actively building subscriber ecosystems, sign-in layers and first-party data infrastructure.

Publishers, the panel noted, spent years helping advertisers optimise conversions without directly selling products to their own audiences. Subscription models changed that equation. Once publishers began monetising directly through readers, they were forced to understand user behaviour more deeply, improve conversion funnels and build stronger customer relationships.

The rise of logged-in audiences, gated content and subscription-driven models has also accelerated investment in proprietary data systems. Panellists discussed how reliance on third-party analytics tools is no longer sufficient, pushing companies to develop internal data stacks and audience intelligence capabilities.

Yet even as the industry races to gather more signals, the looming implementation of India’s Digital Personal Data Protection framework has shifted the conversation from scale to accountability.

Consent emerged as the defining word of the session.

The panellists broadly agreed that the future winners in advertising and marketing will not simply be the companies with the largest datasets, but those that can secure meaningful consumer trust and transparent permissions. Several concerns were raised around the quality of existing consent mechanisms, with fears that consumers often agree to data collection without fully understanding how extensively their information is being used.

The industry, according to the discussion, is now entering a phase where data itself is being treated like a high-value corporate asset. That shift is forcing brands, agencies and publishers to rethink governance, compliance and even business models.

Agencies in particular were described as standing at a crossroads. Traditionally valued for media buying, planning and strategy, agencies may increasingly be judged by the strength and legitimacy of the data ecosystems they can offer clients. However, the panel cautioned against a reckless race to accumulate data without clarity on consent, ownership and long-term brand impact.

The session ended on a strikingly unified note: consumers, not corporations, are the true owners of data. In a marketplace crowded with algorithms, audience pools and acquisition wars, the next competitive edge may not come from collecting more information, but from using it responsibly.

At Goafest 2026, the message was clear. The signal is getting louder, but so is the demand for trust.