MAM
Havas Media Group re-organises Asia Pacific operations
MUMBAI: Havas Media Group has re-organised its Asia Pacific operations with the formation of a separate Greater China cluster, which will report into its Global Executive Committee.
The re-organisation is part of the group’s strategy to increase focus on priority markets by turning them into strategic business units with direct supervision from the global team. The rest of the Asia Pacific region will continue to be overseen by the current management helmed by Vishnu Mohan.
Additionally, Havas Media Group has also appointed Christophe Cases as CEO for Greater China.
In his new role, Cases will oversee the group’s operations in Greater China and will be responsible for growing the business across the three markets of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
He will focus on accelerating the expansion of the Havas Media Group’s services and the adoption of the agency’s collaborative ‘Havas Village’ model that unifies creative, media, and other specialist services to enable clients to capitalise on the meaningful connections and agility created by integrated communications strategies.
Based out of Shanghai, Cases will report to the Group Executive Committee and Havas Media Group global managing director Dominique Delport.
Prior to joining Havas, Chase spent more than two decades in management consulting with companies like Accenture, Capgemini, and Ernst & Young and worked around the world with global brands as an acknowledged expert in customer and growth strategy, new product/service launch, market expansion, and building high performing customer-centric organisations.
Most recently, Chase was managing director with Accenture in Greater China where he was leading the Accenture Strategy practice looking after consumer goods, retail, and pharmaceutical clients and focused in particular on digital, marketing analytics, and e-commerce. Prior to relocating to Shanghai, he had been working with Accenture since 2006 in the US, as leader in the operations strategy practice.
Commenting on the appointment, Delport said, “Christophe has an incredible track record of success as a management consultant working with some of the top consulting companies around the world. He also has a deep understanding of the complex and exciting market in China. I have experienced firsthand Christophe’s intelligence, fresh strategic vision and enormous capacity to innovate. His ability to thrive during intense periods of growth and activity will be invaluable as we take our operations in China to the next level.”
Chase added, “I am very excited to be joining Havas Media Group at this exciting stage of its global evolution. There is an established momentum within the group. Its integrated proposition combining creative, media, data, content, and range of digital specialties is getting a lot of attention from stakeholders in the industry. I look forward to leveraging this energy and the group’s vision to accelerate its growth and expansion in one of the world’s largest and most exciting economies.”
MAM
ASCI study uncovers how Gen Alpha navigates ads in endless digital feeds
‘What the Sigma?’ ethnographic report maps blurred boundaries between content and commerce for 7–15-year-olds.
MUMBAI: Gen Alpha isn’t scrolling through the internet, they’re living rent-free inside its never-ending dopamine drip, and the ads have already moved in next door. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) Academy, partnering with Futurebrands Consulting, has published ‘What the Sigma?’, an immersive ethnographic study that maps how Indian children aged 7–15 (Generation Alpha) consume, interpret and live alongside media and commercial messaging in a hyper-digital environment.
The research draws on in-home interviews, sibling and peer conversations, and discussions with parents, teachers, counsellors, psychologists, marketers and kidfluencers across six cities. It examines not only what children watch but how algorithms, content creators, peers and parents shape their relationship with the constant stream of shorts, vlogs, gameplay, memes, sponsored posts and ‘kid-ified’ adult material.
Five core themes emerged:
- Discontinuous Generation, Gen Alpha is not growing up alongside the internet, they are growing up inside it. Cultural references, humour, aesthetics and language sync globally in real time, often leaving adults functionally illiterate in their children’s world. A reference that lands instantly for a 10-year-old in Mumbai or Visakhapatnam feels opaque or disjointed to most parents.
- Authority Vacuum, Parents and teachers frequently lose cultural fluency in digital spaces. The algorithm responsive, inexhaustible and perfectly attuned to preferences becomes the most attentive presence in many children’s daily lives. Rules around screen time feel increasingly difficult to enforce when adults cannot fully see or understand the content landscape.
- Digital as Society, Online and offline no longer exist as separate realms, they form one continuous reality. The phone is not a tool children pick up; it is the primary social environment they inhabit.
- Great Media Mukbang, Content flows as an ambient, boundary-less, multi-sensorial stream. Entertainment, advertising, commerce, gameplay, memes and vlogs merge into one undifferentiated feed. The line between active choice and passive absorption has largely collapsed.
- Blurred Ad Recognition, Children aged 7–12 typically recognise only the most overt advertising formats. Influencer promotions, gaming integrations and vlog sponsorships often register as organic entertainment. Children aged 13–15 show greater ad literacy but remain highly susceptible to narrative-integrated, passion-driven and emotionally resonant brand messaging. Discernment remains low across the board in a non-stop stream.
ASCI CEO and secretary general Manisha Kapoor said, “ASCI Academy’s study is an investigation into the content life of Generation Alpha not to judge them but to understand them. Their cultural reference points seem disjointed from those of earlier generations. Insights on how they perceive advertising is the first step towards building more responsible engagement frameworks, given that they are the youngest media consumers in our country right now.”
Futurebrands Consulting founder and director Santosh Desai added, “While earlier generations have been exposed to digital media, for this generation it is the world they inhabit. This report explores not only what they watch but how they are being shaped by algorithms, content and advertising.”
The study proposes four adaptive, principles-led pathways:
- Universal signposting of commercial intent using design principles that make advertising recognisable even to young audiences.
- Ecosystem-wide responsibility shared among advertisers, platforms, creators, schools and parents.
- Future-ready safeguards built directly into children’s content experiences rather than as optional background settings.
- Formal media and advertising literacy embedded in school curricula to teach age-appropriate understanding of persuasion and commercial intent.
In a feed that never pauses, Gen Alpha isn’t merely watching content, they’re swimming in an ocean where entertainment, commerce and identity swirl together. The real question isn’t whether they can spot an ad; it’s whether the adults building the ocean can agree on where the lifeguards should stand.
