MAM
National brands gauge the Bangla TV market on Tele-wise Bangla summit
Mumbai: There is little doubt about television as a far-reaching instrument of viewership connecting masses pan India. It remains the medium of choice to build reach and brand salience. However, as the second wave of the pandemic swept through the country, it also impacted the overall TV viewership across regions. This, in turn led the advertisers and brands to reflect on the way they leveraged TV to reach out to their target audience.
As a part of the inaugural edition of the Tele-wise Bangla Summit 2021 organised by Indiantelevision.com in partnership with Zee Bangla, industry experts and stakeholders from across sectors weighed in on the strength of the West Bengal TV market and the disruption caused by Covid-19 on people’s lives, their consumer spending, and TV viewing habits.
In an informative discussion ‘Gauging the Might of the Market’ – moderated by independent media consultant Paritosh Joshi, marketers debated on how the Bangla market remains highly relevant for national brands looking to make their presence felt in the state when it comes to TV ad spends.
The session kicked off with Joshi observing that, although the pandemic has largely resulted in an overall bleak economic environment, FMCG remained the sole bright spot. Godrej Consumer Products Limited marketing head (homecare category) Somasree Bose Awasthi pitched in that it was true specifically with regards to essential items, which have been driving the growth in the sector. The premium or discretionary categories like grooming or hygiene products have suffered a setback in the last year. She added, however, that the reverse migration due to the pandemic had led to a revival in the rural economy across the country, including West Bengal.
Shyam Steel India, head of brand marketing, Bidyut Nath corroborated this by saying that, while the pandemic had brought most large-scale construction activity in the cities to a standstill, with workers going back to their villages, it had continued almost uninterrupted in the rural areas as people did not cease to build houses for themselves, irrespective of the pandemic. So while there was little positive growth in the sector, it did reflect a steady growth with nearly 69 per cent of the populace constructing homes, he said.
The panellists discussed how the pandemic also caused people to become risk-averse when it came to buying decisions, due to which market leaders in a particular sector and trusted brands gained.
According to Maruti Suzuki India’s marketing & sales executive director Shashank Srivastava in such times, the trusted brands become the anchor for consumers. “That trust helped us, and our market share went up in most segments, despite Automobiles being a discretionary, high-value purchase. In general, the retail sales were better in 2020 than the previous year for Maruti, mainly because of the change in consumer perception towards public transport, resulting in more people becoming inclined towards owning private vehicles,” he said.
However, the fall in incomes did show in the “telescoping of demand”, whereby the demand for a higher segment shifted towards a lower segment vehicle, he added.
Future Group’s Big Bazaar marketing head Aditi Mahale shared that while the group had 15 to 20 stores across the state, nearly eight to ten of them were based out of Kolkata.
“We had to cut back on TV ad-spend last year, mainly due to lack of fresh content, and we focused more on the news genre and digital,” said Mahale, but the group continues to use television as part of its marketing strategy, especially during regional festivals, for “retail is, by nature, always local” with even their competition being largely local in the genre.
For ITC, which has its roots in West Bengal, the state is “priority #1 market”, said ITC’s Media & PR head Jaikishin Chhaproo, largely because of the unparalleled distribution strength that it provides.
When it came to the media mix in the state, panellists shared that television had a regional reach of more than 70 per cent in the state. Hence brands try to capitalize on the richness of the regional content by preparing creatives with local flavour and by going “hyper-local”.
“Becoming hyper-local is the need of the hour. Doing local TVCs with local actors really pays off. But brands face challenges in terms of talent & cost,” said Wavemaker India’s ITC lead and special initiatives president MK Machaiah.
In West Bengal, like most other markets- there is an innate attachment to sports. So while Shyam Steel India did see great brand engagement post onboarding Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma as brand ambassadors, Bidyuth Nath agreed that going hyper-local by engaging with local celebrities is also indispensable. All panellists agreed on the value that localised content brings to brand promotions in the state, regardless of the medium – print, television, or digital.
Apple rarely announces minor updates with much fanfare, and iOS 26.4 is no exception. No dramatic redesigns, no flashy keynote moments. What it delivers instead is a focused set of improvements that sharpen the experience you already have. If that sounds underwhelming, spend a week with it. You will change your mind.
Apple Music Learns to Listen Better
The biggest shift in this update lives inside Apple Music. Apple has brought AI-powered playlist generation to the app, and it works on mood rather than genre. Type something like “rainy evening at home” or “running late on a Monday,” and it builds a playlist that actually fits. This is not algorithmic guesswork dressed up in new clothing. It genuinely reads the intent behind vague descriptions and responds well.
Alongside this, a new concerts feature scans your listening history and surfaces live events happening near you. It is a smart bridge between your digital music habits and real-world experiences. Apple is quietly making the case that a music app should do more than just play songs.
Shazam also gets a meaningful upgrade. It can now identify songs without an internet connection. This might sound like a minor convenience, but anyone who has tried to Shazam something at a crowded venue with patchy signal will tell you it is anything but minor. The feature works locally on-device, which also means it is faster.
CarPlay Gets Smarter Controls
CarPlay has been updated with deeper integration for intelligent voice assistants. The goal is to reduce how often drivers need to look at a screen or tap anything at all. You speak, things happen. It is a clear step toward making the driving experience safer without stripping away functionality. The integration feels natural rather than bolted on, which is a harder thing to achieve than it sounds.
The Fixes You Feel Every Day
This is where iOS 26.4 earns its keep. Keyboard responsiveness has been improved, and the difference is noticeable immediately. Typing feels more accurate and less combative. Accessibility features have been refined across the board, with better contrast options and adjusted spacing that makes the interface easier to read without forcing you into larger text sizes.
The Health app has also been updated. It now surfaces more actionable insights from your daily data rather than just displaying numbers. If your sleep patterns have shifted or your activity levels have changed, the app now contextualises that clearly instead of leaving you to interpret raw figures on your own.
These are the kinds of changes that do not photograph well for a press release. They also happen to be the ones that make your phone feel genuinely better to use.
A Few Other Additions
New emojis have been added in this update. They will find their way into your conversations faster than you expect. Family Sharing has also been updated, with more granular control over shared payments and subscriptions. If you share an Apple account with family members, this puts clearer limits on who can spend what, which has been a long-requested fix.
What This Update Actually Represents
iOS 26.4 is Apple doing what it does best when it is not trying to make headlines. Every addition here serves a clear purpose. The AI music features are genuinely useful. The CarPlay improvements address a real safety concern. The small UI fixes accumulate into a noticeably smoother daily experience.
There is no bloat. Nothing feels experimental or half-finished. That discipline is harder to maintain than it looks, especially as operating systems grow more complex with each passing year.
If you have been holding off on updating, this is the one worth installing.
