MAM
Pocket FM strengthens leadership team; appoints Shubh Bansal as VP- growth
Mumbai: Personalised audio streaming service Pocket FM has announced Shubh Bansal’s appointment as VP-growth and Rahul Nag as head of communications. Both Bansal and Nag will be reporting to Pocket FM CEO and co-founder Rohan Nayak.
With these appointments, the company aims to intensify its focus to accelerate revenue, speed up growth initiatives, and elevate its brand positioning, it said in a statement.
Bansal will be leading the business growth initiatives across listeners, and new business opportunities. He was a co-founder at Truebil, an auto-tech platform acquired by Spinny where he was responsible for spearheading growth, marketing, and revenue. Before Truebil, he was associated with Housing.com.
Nag will be driving stakeholder engagement through external, social media, and internal communications along with establishing Pocket FM as a culture-first internet organisation. With over a decade and half years of experience in the communications landscape, he has worked with organisations like Flock, Mindtree, and ShareChat. In his earlier roles, he has led the crisis communication for Mindtree during the L&T takeover conflict and contributed to leading the communications for ShareChat and Moj.
Welcoming them onboard, Nayak said, “As we continue our exponential growth curve on the backdrop of a unique storytelling experience, we are bullish on our market leadership in pioneering the ‘audio entertainment’ space. Both Shubh and Rahul are proven leaders in their space and are valuable inclusions into our strategic team. With their strong skillsets and expertise, we hope they will bring the required momentum to our growth, revenue, and brand recall as we continue to build Pocket FM for our community.”
These key appointments come amidst Pocket FM scaling up rapidly, and reflects an increasing trend in audio content consumption on the internet. Over the past few months, the platform has aggressively focused on monetisation and content diversity.
Joining Pocket FM, Shubh Bansal said, “It gives me immense pleasure to work with a company that is pioneering and leading the audio-entertainment category in the OTT space. Our vision is to build category leadership for Pocket FM and lead the OTT landscape through our product innovations and business acumen. I am thankful to the founders for their trust and confidence bestowed upon me, and we will together take Pocket FM to newer milestones.”
Rahul Nag added, “I have always been a great believer in audio-first digital content and it always feels special to have the opportunity to contribute to the leader in the space. Our objective is not just to lead India but become a strong force to reckon with, and we are hopeful of emerging as a stronger brand for our listeners, creators, employees and investors.”
According to the company, it has recently raised $65 million in Series C funding to double down on its strategic priorities of building AI capabilities, multiplying its listeners base with new languages and strengthening its creator community. The company has already hired senior executives to address these priorities and continues to look for talents in the product and tech space aggressively, it stated. Pocket FM has raised $93.6 million till date and is backed by some marquee investors like Lightspeed, Times Group, Tanglin Venture Partners, Goodwater Capital, and Naver.
MAM
Brands push beyond compliance as trust takes centre stage
ASCI AdTrust Summit 2026 spotlights shift from legal checks to credibility.
MUMBAI: In a world where a disclaimer can be legally sound yet socially suspect, brands are learning that compliance may tick boxes but trust wins markets. At the inaugural ASCI AdTrust Summit 2026, a panel on “Beyond Compliance: The New Currency of Trust” unpacked a growing industry reality: the gap between what the law permits and what consumers accept is widening and fast.
Moderated by Meenakshi Ramkumar of National Law School of India University, the discussion brought together leaders across law, marketing and academia to examine how brands must evolve in a digital ecosystem increasingly shaped by scrutiny, scepticism and speed.
Ramkumar set the tone by highlighting a critical shift, advertising today operates in the same digital space that fuels misinformation, scams and fake news, making credibility harder to establish. “The challenge is not just about what brands do, but the broader context of low institutional trust,” she noted, adding that when violations go unchecked, trust erodes not just in brands but in the regulatory system itself.
This vacuum, she said, has given rise to consumer activism from boycotts to social media backlash as a parallel accountability mechanism.
For Amit Bhasin, Chief Legal Officer at Marico, the distinction was clear, legal compliance is non negotiable, but insufficient. “Compliance is the minimum threshold. The real challenge is staying aligned with changing consumer expectations,” he said.
He pointed to how advertising narratives have evolved from traditional depictions of gender roles to more shared responsibilities reflecting a broader societal shift. “Earlier, it was fine to show one person doing the household work. Today, that may not land well. Consumers expect brands to reflect reality,” Bhasin observed.
He also highlighted internal debates where campaigns that may be legally permissible are still rejected for being culturally insensitive, noting that responsible advertising often requires asking uncomfortable questions before the public does.
If compliance is the baseline, reputation is the battlefield.
Bhasin noted that reputational risk has become a far greater concern than legal exposure, particularly in an era where campaigns can be dissected within hours online. “Earlier, a controversial ad might invite a newspaper editorial. Today, within hours, you’re at the centre of a storm,” he said.
Brands, he added, now evaluate campaigns through a dual lens legal viability and reputational vulnerability with the latter often proving more decisive.
From a healthcare perspective, Satish Sahoo of Cipla Health underscored the complexity of operating within fragmented yet stringent regulatory frameworks, spanning drugs, food, cosmetics and Ayush. “Anything under a drug licence is the most tightly regulated,” he said, adding that this necessitates proactive, not reactive, compliance.
He shared an example from the oral rehydration salts (ORS) category, where Cipla resisted the temptation to position products aggressively despite competitive pressure. “Our product is WHO compliant, and our communication reflects that. We chose not to blur the lines, even if others did,” he noted.
The long term payoff, he suggested, lies in credibility built over consistency, not quick wins.
Yet, as Harsha N of National Law School of India University pointed out, even perfect compliance does not guarantee trust. Drawing from historical and modern examples from exaggerated product claims in the 1800s to contemporary environmental and health advertising, he argued that legal frameworks often lag behind consumer expectations. “A brand can be fully compliant and still be perceived as misleading,” he said, citing instances where fine print disclosures fail to reach or convince the average consumer. He added that larger companies carry a disproportionate responsibility to set ethical benchmarks, even in areas where the law remains silent.
The conversation also turned to digital advertising, where the challenge extends beyond content to how ads are experienced. From algorithmic targeting to personalised messaging, brands now operate in an environment where regulation struggles to keep pace with technology.
Sahoo noted that social media has amplified awareness, with influencers and consumers increasingly scrutinising product claims and calling out inconsistencies. “Awareness has gone up dramatically. People are questioning what goes into products and what brands are saying,” he said.
The role of self regulatory bodies such as Advertising Standards Council of India also came under the spotlight.
Harsha acknowledged that while SROs play a crucial role, they are not immune to criticism, particularly around perceived conflicts of interest and enforcement gaps. “SROs have a higher threshold of responsibility not just to interpret the law, but to anticipate societal expectations,” he said.
He added that failures in self regulation often push the burden back onto government intervention, underscoring the need for stronger, more proactive oversight.
One of the more nuanced debates centred on whether building trust comes at a cost. While Sahoo acknowledged that quality and compliance can increase costs, he argued that companies must absorb them as part of their long term strategy.
Bhasin, however, framed the challenge differently not as cost, but as competitiveness in a market where not all players play by the same rules. “The real tension is when others cut corners and you choose not to,” he said.
The panel concluded with a call to embed trust into business metrics.
Sahoo suggested that organisations must go beyond revenue targets to include consumer equity and trust based KPIs, ensuring that ethical considerations are not sidelined in the pursuit of growth. “Trust sounds abstract, but it can translate into measurable consumer equity,” he said.
As the discussion wrapped up, one message stood out: the rules of advertising are being rewritten not just by regulators, but by consumers themselves. In an ecosystem where attention is fleeting and scepticism is high, brands that merely comply may survive, but those that build trust are the ones that endure.
