Digital Agencies
Pocket Aces finds growth in brands seeking performance marketing
NEW DELHI: The lockdown saw a double whammy – people stuck at home with an appetite for content and the inability to venture out and satiate that demand. While content creators tried to produce new and interactive content, this also gave an opportunity for brands to engage with online audiences by working with content creators. Pocket Aces VP sales and brand solution Vishwanath Shetty spoke to Indiantelevision.com on the new trends and shifts being observed in brand engagements in the pandemic and the change in consumption patterns among viewers.
As everything went into lockdown, shooting from home emerged as a new trend. According to Shetty, “Working remotely has been a great learning experience for all of us as we experimented with different methods of production and created content that was lockdown-friendly. During this phase, we have been able to maintain a steady flow of operations over the last four months. Our first piece of content produced remotely along with a popular whiskey brand saw a phenomenal response. We garnered over four million views on Filter Copy and around 215,000 conversations, as well as an engagement ratio of about 5.78 per cent, which motivated us to know that we are on the right track.”
There has been a different set of advertisers showing interest as well. “The lockdown has created a unique opportunity for brands to reach out to users through innovative ways and introduce new products specially catered to the needs of the hour. Ready to eat foods, dating apps, edutainment and ed-tech dominated this list. Fitness portals and health brands are actively promoting across channels. The new ‘big thing’ in the market today is Covid2019 insurance, a new offering from insurance brands, which is being widely advertised,” he shares.
“A lot of other large companies are also moving budgets internally, to promote relevant products, while staying sensitive to the situation at hand. Food delivery aggregators and services have also increased their marketing and advertising activities. While on a less grand scale, festive sales will still take place, which will, of course, be boosted across channels. So, advertising spends while reduced in some areas, have gone up in others,” he adds.
Shetty asserts that it would be wrong to say that there has been absolutely no impact of the pandemic on the advertising industry. “Across the board, we have seen spends on OOH, TV, and others significantly drop. As brands and channel partners, we need to relook at our strategies and create value propositions that are mutually beneficial. Essential services and technology-powered brands will be drivers of the economy this year and will be the ones to invest in advertising. Brands are now focusing more on performance marketing, which is the need of the hour and this will continue to drive conversations and spends during the festive season and the rest of 2020.”
He shares that the second season of Firsts was entirely shot at the actors’ homes, and they saw 30 per cent more views than the first season. “As a result of the success, brands saw this as a good opportunity to engage with their target audiences and in this manner, we continue to produce short format shows. The more such content we uploaded, the higher our engagement rates went, even touching over 13 per cent.”
The brand's content channels have seen an overall 20 per cent rise in figures. Shetty shares, “The increase in views can also be attributed to curiosity, as audiences were exposed to new formats, which piqued their interest, and contributed to the success of our lockdown content.”
Pocket aces eSports platform Loco has seen a huge uptake when it comes to the amount of content being streamed. Partnerships with influencers too brought in new users, and today it has 24 million registered users with an average time of 30 minutes spent on the app.
BENGALURU: For years, creative teams have learned to live with ambiguity. Vague comments, last-minute changes, feedback that arrives without context, clarity, or conviction. It became part of the job – something teams worked around rather than getting it solved.
But as we head into 2026, that tolerance is wearing thin.
Creative work today moves faster, scales wider, and involves more stakeholders than before. Teams are producing more content across more formats, often with distributed collaborators and tighter timelines. In this environment, guesswork is no longer a harmless inconvenience. It’s a cost – to time, to budgets, and to creative mindspace.
The real problem isn’t feedback, it’s how it’s given
Most creative professionals you see today will tell you they’re not against feedback. In fact, they rely on it. Good feedback sharpens ideas, strengthens execution, and pushes work forward. The problem is ‘unclear’ feedback. When someone says “this doesn’t feel right” without context, they aren’t just revising – they’re basically decoding. They’re guessing what the problem might be, trying different directions, and burning time in the process. Multiply that by a few stakeholders and a few rounds, and suddenly days disappear.
In 2026, when teams are expected to deliver faster without compromising quality, interpretation is a luxury most can’t afford.
Scale has changed rverything
Creative projects used to be smaller and simpler. A designer, a manager, maybe one client contact. Feedback loops were short, even if they weren’t perfect.
Today, the same project might involve internal marketing teams, agencies, freelancers, brand reviewers, and regional teams. Everyone has a say. Everyone leaves comments. And often, those comments don’t agree. More people reviewing work means alignment matters more than ever. Clear feedback isn’t just about being nice to creative teams, it’s about keeping projects moving when complexity increases.
Guesswork quietly wears teams down
One of the less talked-about impacts of unclear feedback is what it does to people.
When feedback is vague or contradictory, creatives second-guess their decisions. They hesitate. They overwork. They keep extra time buffers “just in case.” Over time, confidence drops. Ownership fades. Work becomes safer, not stronger. Creative energy gets spent on managing uncertainty instead of pushing ideas forward. And in an industry already grappling with burnout, unclear feedback adds unnecessary mental load.
Actionable feedback is a shared skill
Clear feedback doesn’t mean controlling creative decisions or dictating every detail. It means being specific enough that someone knows what to do next.
Actionable feedback answers three basic questions:
What exactly needs attention?
Why does it matter?
What outcome are we aiming for?
This applies whether you’re reviewing a video frame, a design layout, or a copy draft. The clearer the feedback, the fewer follow-ups it creates. In 2026, teams that treat feedback as a skill and not an afterthought, will move faster with less friction.
Tools shape behaviour (whether we admit it or not)
The way feedback is delivered is often dictated by the tools teams use. Comments buried in long email threads, messages split across chat apps, or notes detached from the actual work all contribute to confusion.
When feedback lives outside the work, context often gets lost. When it’s disconnected from versions and timelines, decisions get questioned. When it’s scattered, accountability disappears. More teams are starting to realise that feedback problems aren’t just communication issues, they’re workflow issues. How work moves between people matters just as much as the work itself.
From Opinions To Alignment
One of the biggest shifts happening in creative teams is a move away from purely opinion-driven feedback. Instead of “I like this” or “I don’t,” teams are asking better questions:
● Does this meet the brief?
● Does this solve the problem?
● Does this align with the goal?
This change reduces unnecessary back-and-forth and helps feedback feel less personal and more productive. It also makes decisions easier to explain and defend. As creative work becomes more strategic, feedback has to support that shift.
2026 Is About Fewer Loops, Not Faster Loops
There’s a misconception that speed means moving through feedback cycles faster. In reality, the most creative teams aren’t just accelerating loops, they’re reducing them. Clear, actionable feedback upfront leads to fewer revisions later. Clear approval stages prevent last-minute surprises. Clear decisions stop work from circling endlessly.
In 2026, efficiency won’t come from working harder or longer. It will come from designing workflows that respect creative time and attention.
Ending guesswork is a mindset change
Ultimately, ending creative guesswork isn’t just about better tools or processes. It’s about mindset. It’s about recognising that clarity is an act of respect – for the work, for the people doing it, for the time invested and for the mindspace used. It’s about moving from “figure it out” to “here’s what we’re aiming for.”
Creative teams that embrace this shift will find themselves not only delivering faster, but also enjoying the process more. And in an industry built on imagination, that might be the most valuable outcome of all.
