MAM
Kantar: Only 49 of top 75 brands hold ‘meaningful difference’ since 2019
Outperformers grow financial value 2.5x faster, report warns AI and creators risk eroding trust.
MUMBAI:In the brand race, most are running hard but only a handful are actually sprinting ahead. Kantar India in its 2026 Brand Building Playbook reveals a stark reality: fewer than two-thirds of India’s top 75 brands have sustained a “meaningful difference” that potent mix of relevance, differentiation and emotional connection since 2019, even as marketing budgets swelled and digital tools multiplied.
Just 49 brands managed to keep the edge, spanning legacy giants like Nestlé’s Maggi, Tata Group’s Tanishq and HUL’s Surf, alongside digital-first stars Zomato and Swiggy. These outperformers grew their financial value 2.5 times faster than peers who let the advantage slip.
Kantar managing director and chief client officer Soumya Mohanty put it plainly, “When brands maintain meaningful difference consistently over the longer term, they see a disproportionate financial upside.” The gains, she stressed, build gradually rather than arriving in one flashy campaign.
The report also flags twin risks in the creator economy and AI. Influencers can amplify reach, but overuse erodes credibility much like celebrity endorsements once did. Mohanty warned, “AI should deepen human connection and elevate consumer experience. If it is used only to improve efficiency, brands risk weakening that bond.”
Kantar’s “Pentagon Imperatives” for 2026 urge marketers to shift from backward-looking scorecards to forward-looking “desire spaces” emerging motivations shaped by cultural and digital signals. Brands must “think meta spaces” and spot trends before they show up in sales data. In rural India, where consumers are now tech-savvy and digitally sharp, the report calls for faster foresight powered by AI systems.
Zero-click search and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) are emerging battlegrounds for visibility. Ultimately, Kantar argues, lasting success belongs to brands that prioritise cultural relevance and emotional clarity over short-term noise.
In a world obsessed with quick wins, the playbook’s message is clear: the brands still standing tall in 2026 aren’t the loudest, they’re the ones that stayed meaningfully different when everyone else chased the next shiny trend.
MAM
DGTOOHL partners Magnite to scale programmatic DOOH in India
Tie-up aims to boost transparency and real-time access in outdoor ads
NEW DELHI: DGTOOHL, a product of Mobiyoung, has entered into a strategic partnership with Magnite to expand programmatic digital out-of-home advertising capabilities in India, as the sector looks to modernise and align more closely with digital media standards.
The collaboration is aimed at addressing long-standing inefficiencies in the outdoor advertising ecosystem, where manual processes and limited transparency have often made campaign execution difficult to track and measure. By introducing programmatic integration, the partnership seeks to bring real-time visibility, improved accountability and data-led decision-making to the medium.
Outdoor advertising in India has traditionally lagged behind digital channels in terms of measurement and optimisation. The move towards programmatic DOOH is expected to change that, enabling advertisers to monitor, audit and refine campaigns with greater precision.
Under the partnership, Magnite will provide the infrastructure to connect DOOH inventory with global demand-side platforms, allowing advertisers to plan and activate outdoor campaigns programmatically, much like they do across mobile, web and connected TV.
“Programmatic DOOH is bringing a much-needed shift in how outdoor advertising is planned and executed,” said DGTOOHL co-founder and CTO Mayank Sharma. “By introducing transparency and real-time capabilities, we are enabling advertisers to move beyond traditional limitations and adopt a more measurable, data-led approach.”
DGTOOHL will focus on aggregating and streamlining access to DOOH media inventory, while Magnite will handle real-time transactions and demand integration, creating a more seamless buying experience for brands and agencies.
The timing reflects a broader industry shift. As programmatic buying becomes standard across digital formats, DOOH is increasingly being seen as the next frontier, allowing brands to extend digital strategies into physical environments. This integration enables more cohesive, cross-channel campaigns, where outdoor advertising complements online and CTV efforts to boost reach and recall.
“As advertisers look for unified and measurable media solutions, programmatic DOOH offers a strong opportunity to extend digital strategies into the physical world,” said Magnite senior account manager Jerit Kunjumon.
Industries such as FMCG, real estate, automotive and retail, traditionally heavy users of outdoor media, are expected to be among the early adopters of programmatic DOOH in India.
The partnership also promises operational benefits, including near real-time campaign activation, reduced reliance on intermediaries and improved monitoring of campaign performance.
As digital and physical media ecosystems continue to converge, the collaboration between DGTOOHL and Magnite signals a step towards making outdoor advertising more accountable, scalable and aligned with the expectations of modern marketers.
