MAM
Pawan Soni joins Fuel Content India as chief business officer
Mumbai: FCB Group India’s content production arm, Fuel Content, has announced the appointment of Pawan Soni as chief business officer. He will lead FCB Group’s content production business and develop capabilities in India to offer full-funnel content solutions to their clients.
With this new appointment, FCB Group India has taken a step to expand its client offerings in this dynamic and ever-evolving media landscape. Soni aims to leverage his wealth of knowledge and years of expertise to drive Fuel Content’s next phase of growth and solidify FCB’s role as a partner for the client’s business growth.
Soni, who brings with him 18 years of management experience to the role, will be reporting to FCB India & Fuel Content CEO Debarpita Banerjee. He is a seasoned professional with a depth of experience across content and marketing as well, most recently at his own content agency, ThumbThamba Media, where he works with brand owners and agencies to create digital content while helping brands build their content strategies to solve business problems.
He was previously head of content and marketing verticals for Disney’s Fox portfolio in India, where he managed brands like National Geographic and Fox Life. Before joining National Geographic, he was with JWT (now Wunderman Thompson) and worked on GSK’s consumer healthcare portfolio with brands like Horlicks & Iodex. The move underlines FCB Group India’s effort to offer their clients best-in-class content solutions across myriad production formats and platforms.
Speaking on the appointment, Banerjee said, “I have known Soni for more than a decade and have worked with him closely in different roles across different organisations. I have always been a fan of his ability to unknot any situation and find a shining solution. As a force, he always moves forward, and as Fuel expands its offerings and expertise to our clients and moves into its next phase of operations, I am confident that Soni will be able to steer this unit to new and exciting heights.”
On the appointment, Soni said, “This is an amazing opportunity, and I am excited to work alongside super talented folks at FCB Group India to produce even more creative stories and engaging content of the highest quality. I believe that great production is where creativity and curiosity go hand in hand with problem-solving, which allows us to create customised solutions every time for our clients’ storytelling needs. I’m looking forward to leading and growing Fuel Content into a modern production company that fuses agility, creativity, and technology to produce highly engaging yet effective work. Our ambition is to build a full-service production company that provides world-class production support, standout creative guidance, and a range of innovative solutions for our clients to produce insightful content that meaningfully connects with audiences in authentic and culturally relevant ways.”
For the record, Fuel Content integrates key FCB tools like Brand Bedrock and aligns core brand strategy with content strategy to create “never-finished” content across platforms in India. It believes in a collaborative content creation approach; hence, it works closely with a network of individual content creators and different digital platforms to optimise content visibility and management for its clients.
MAM
Ad:tech honours 2026: Full list of winners announced
Expanded awards spotlight winners across 22 categories as industry doubles down on intelligent automation
NEW DELHI: Marketing’s tech elite took the spotlight as the ad:tech honours 2026 returned with a sharper focus on AI, data and immersive media, signalling how deeply technology now underpins brand strategy. Held at Yashobhoomi on March 17, the second edition drew industry leaders to celebrate innovation that is reshaping engagement and performance.
Presented with the International Advertising Association India chapter and new partner Huella, the awards expanded from 8 to 22 categories, tracking the rapid convergence of creativity, automation and analytics.
The winners’ list reads like a snapshot of marketing’s future. In affiliate and partner marketing, Lyxel & Flamingo – Boat and Paytm Ads – Giva took silver. Mobavenue Media Private Limited struck gold in AI-driven dynamic creative optimisation, alongside a silver for Laqshya Media Limited.
Creative AI collaboration saw Rediffusion Brand Solutions Private Limited win gold, with Saltinc Consulting Private Limited securing silver. Laqshya Media Limited continued its strong run, taking gold in AI conversation agents and adding multiple wins across categories, including silver in GenAI-led creative and both gold and silver in interactive DOOH campaigns for Tanishq and Tata Coffee.
Predictive AI honours went to Strong Metrics and Tyroo, both silver, while Orient Bell Limited picked up silver in immersive retail tech. In GenAI-led creative, Laqshya Media Limited, Salt – Kotak and Sumimoto each secured silver, reflecting the crowded race in generative creativity.
Publicis bagged silver in influencer management and gold in performance marketing, where it shared the stage with Arm Worldwide and The Trade Desk, both silver. Glad U Came Private Limited stood out with gold in influencer measurement and analytics.
Marketing automation saw CereOne Media Pvt. Ltd. and Globale Media win silver, while ADMOTT Private Limited claimed silver in OTT innovation.
Programmatic media categories highlighted the shift to advanced targeting and connected screens. Mobavenue Media Private Limited clinched gold in connected TV advertising, with Animmoov Digital Media Pvt Ltd – Asus and Lyxel and Flamingo taking silver. Cheggout Services Private Limited won silver in retail media advertising, while Paytm Ads – Versuni secured gold.
On social platforms, Vayner Media India took gold in community and UGC engagement, with Under 25 – Oppo winning silver. Segumento rounded off the list with silver in the innovation category.
Jaswant Singh, country managing director at ad:tech India, underscored the momentum, saying generative AI and data-driven decision-making are now central to marketing impact. Neena Dasgupta, IAA mancom member and chief executive and founder at The Salt Inc Consulting, added that the awards celebrate not just technology, but “the people, the creativity, and the relentless effort behind it.”
Backed by Comexposium Group, ad:tech New Delhi has long tracked digital disruption. Now, with the honours, it is rewarding those who are not just adapting to change but engineering it.
In an industry racing towards automation, the message from 2026 is unmistakable. The future of marketing will be written not just in ideas, but in algorithms.
