MAM
MMA & Isobar India launch ‘The Voice Playbook’
Mumbai : MMA & Isobar, the digital agency from the house of dentsu international, have launched ‘The Voice Playbook’ for India to tap into the potential impact of voice on the global and Indian media and marketing industry.
The playbook allows marketers to understand how to use voice as a medium/platform to engage with their consumers.
“Voice technology will become the next great disruptor and India as a market is very receptive to voice as a medium and Isobar is extremely excited to help brands ride on this new wave,” said Isobar south Asia Group MD Shamsuddin Jasani during the launch. “Just like brands needed an internet strategy in the ‘90s, a search strategy in 2000, and a mobile strategy in 2010, we at Isobar believe now brands need a voice strategy.”
Powered by Slang Labs, ‘The Voice Playbook’ focuses on the key adaptations that will be required in the post-pandemic world, where consumers will have a voice option at self-checkout counters, ATMs, automobiles, elevators, and anywhere else touch is currently needed. It also highlights how voice technology will play a pivotal role in fuelling aided commerce growth as 82 per cent of smartphone users are using voice-activated technology. The growing adoption of voice technology in shopping online will leave voice assistants to suggest products to buy. Link to the report: https://go.mmaglobal.com/TheVoicePlaybook
Voice technology will become the next great disruptor and India as a market is very receptive to voice as a medium, opined Isobar India COO Gopa Kumar. “Consumers are very receptive to it, but there is still very little information on how voice tech will affect the various digital marketing platforms or the marketing mix. This playbook aims to decode that and will help to position yourself or your brand ahead of the curve,” he added.
Voice technology has also become integral to the entire value chain, especially after the pandemic – a fact which marketers have begun to recognise. “In post-pandemic times, contactless experiences, increased voice searches, consumption of vernacular languages, conversational commerce are riding the wave,” said MMA India country head Moneka Khurana.M
According to Slang Labs’ co-founder and Obsessive Dictator, Kumar Rangarajan brands are unable to capture the full potential of this huge market. “When Slang Labs started about four years ago, the marketing was still focused on the digital-savvy and majorly urban population of India. Post-Covid, even the non-digital savvy populations in urban and rural areas are getting on board the digital highway. This is where we see Voice Playbook 2021 enabling marketers to understand the key challenges faced by this huge untapped market and engage accordingly.”
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.
