MAM
‘Mindshare Day’ Celebrated Around the Globe
MUMBAI: Mindshare globally recognized 15 January as Mindshare Day and celebrated it by announcing its refreshed global positioning: original thinking driven by speed, provocation and teamwork. In Asia Pacific, the network held a region-wide video conference call where 17 countries and 24 offices – from Karachi to Sydney – dialed in to share thoughts and ideas around the new vision.
Five years ago, Mindshare moved away from the conventional media agency structure and redesigned itself around four integrated and interactive divisions – Client Leadership (account management), The Exchange (media buying), Invention (strategy and ideation) and Business Planning (data and analytics). In a similar way, Mindshare has now redefined its brand positioning to the rest of the world, and aims to bring to life its promise of being the fastest, most collaborative and most adaptive media agency.
In 2013, Mindshare won the Agency Network of the Year award at the Campaign Agency of the Year awards, Festival of Media Asia and the APAC Smarties organized by the Mobile Marketing Association. Mindshare was also recognized by over 200 awards across the region at local and regional levels for clients including Unilever, Kimberly-Clark, Nestlé, Nike, Cisco, Hong Kong Disneyland and many more.
Mindshare has the youngest and most diverse CEO profile in the region, with Australia’s Katie Rigg-Smith being the first woman to lead a media agency in Australia, and Amrita Randhawa taking the lead of Mindshare China at the age of 35.
The agency also brought in large pieces of business in 2013 – including NAB, Origin Energy and Nike in Australia, booking.com in China and Dyson across the region. Cosmetics giant L’Oréal and pharmaceutical giant GSK were successfully retained in all markets, and the former was added to Mindshare Korea’s portfolio.
It was also a successful year in terms of partnerships for Mindshare. The agency partnered with Geometry Global and Ogilvy Action to create ECC (Emerging Class Consumers) – a comprehensive framework and communications planning tool for rural areas in Asia. This has been implemented with Unilever and Friesland Campina in Vietnam, and will be expanded in 2014.
Another exciting partnership was with McLaren F1 Racing at Cannes, where Nick Emery, Mindshare Global CEO and McLaren F1 racing driver Jenson Button shared the stage to talk about the importance of being adaptive – whether on the race track or in advertising. Mindshare drove yet another innovative partnership between Manchester United and Unilever, where Unilever became the club’s first official Personal Care and Laundry partner in South East Asia. In a mobile study conducted towards the second half of the year, Mindshare toured the region with Yahoo! to share findings of a smart device study that could change the way clients think about mobile altogether.
Ashutosh Srivastava, Chairman Asia / CEO Emerging Markets Group at Mindshare, said – “At Mindshare, we believe it is not just about size and scale, it is about speed and provocation, and challenging the status quo. That’s how we continue to relentlessly adapt to changing trends in the industry; changing needs of clients and consumers; devise new and varied tools and technology and find new ways of thinking and collaborating together. It is testament to our exceptional teamwork that we have been recognized as the strongest network in Asia Pacific by industry leading organizations like Campaign, CSquared and MMA. “
With a consistent desire to be its clients’ lead business partner, and a deep-rooted belief that everything begins and ends in media, Mindshare is evolving the way it talks about itself to adapt as the industry evolves around the world.
Nick Emery, Global CEO, Mindshare, said: “We see everything as a medium. We aim to be our clients’ lead business partner and work together with our clients from beginning to end. Our adaptive approach creates new revenue streams, platforms, communities and partnerships as well as new products and new ways of working. This allows us not only to mirror our clients’ ambitions but also to go one step further.”
Find out more about Mindshare Day here: www.facebook.com/MindshareAsiaPacific
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.
