Brands
Product of the Year relaunches in India to police innovation claims
New logo, global muscle and consumer research power India reboot
MUMBAI: Product of the Year (POY), the global consumer-voted platform for product innovation, has relaunched in India with a refreshed identity and a sharper ambition: to become the country’s benchmark for consumer-validated innovation.
The relaunch introduces a new logo, renewed positioning and an expanded role that goes beyond an annual award. Operating in more than 40 countries, POY positions itself as an independent validation platform backed by large-scale consumer research, rather than jury-led opinion.
The POY mark has previously been carried by major global and Indian companies including Hindustan Unilever, P&G, Nestlé, ITC, Marico, Godrej, L’Oréal, Samsung, Philips, Havells, Haier, ICICI Prudential Life, Axis Max Life and Tata AIA Life Insurance.
Product of the Year global CEO Mike Nolan, said the programme was built on a simple idea: innovation must be validated by consumers, not claimed by brands. He described India as one of the world’s most dynamic innovation markets, where trust and credibility increasingly shape purchase decisions.
In India, POY will be backed by NielsenIQ as its exclusive research partner, with winners determined through independent consumer evaluation of real products and services. The platform aims to help brands move from marketing claims to evidence, particularly as categories become crowded with “new” and “improved” messaging.
Product of the Year India CEO Raj Arora, said brands are investing heavily in R&D and consumer-centric innovation, but credibility remains the missing link. The relaunched platform, he said, is designed to serve as proof: helping brands strengthen launches, support premiumisation and signal innovation maturity to leadership and trade partners.
POY is positioning itself as a brand-building and validation platform, enabling winners to leverage the recognition across retail, media, digital campaigns and consumer touchpoints.
Entries for the upcoming edition of Product of the Year India are now open, with winners earning the right to carry the globally recognised POY mark following NielsenIQ-led consumer research.
Brands
Google says Gemini AI cuts irrelevant ads by 40 percent
AI driven search and ad tools boost relevance and results for brands.
MUMBAI: In the never ending hunt for the right ad at the right moment, artificial intelligence may finally be sharpening the aim. Google says the integration of its multimodal AI models, Gemini, has reduced irrelevant advertisements across its platforms by 40 percent, as improved query understanding allows ads to match user intent more closely.
Speaking at a roundtable on Thursday, Google vice president of Global Ads Dan Taylor said the company has been steadily deploying Gemini powered upgrades to interpret complex search queries more accurately. “We have been making Gemini based improvements to query understanding at a rate of almost one launch per month over the last two years. As the models improve and our ability to deploy them improves, ad quality continues to get better,” Taylor said.
The improvements come as Google leans deeper into AI driven advertising tools. According to the company, 2025 saw a threefold increase in Gemini generated creative assets produced by advertisers using its AI powered ad solutions.
The company also highlighted how these tools are influencing marketing performance for brands in India.
Insurance marketplace Policybazaar recorded a 28 percent rise in health insurance sales while reducing cost per sale by 23 percent after adopting AI Max, a tool that interprets natural language search queries to improve ad targeting.
Meanwhile, hospitality platform OYO reported 50 percent higher return on ad spend (ROAS) and a 25 percent reduction in cost per acquisition after combining its existing search campaigns with Google’s Performance Max (PMax) advertising campaigns.
Taylor noted that evolving consumer behaviour is also reshaping how brands approach digital advertising. According to Google’s data, 86 percent of shoppers in India using Google Search said they were open to trying new brands or products, suggesting that AI driven discovery tools could increasingly influence purchase decisions.
Beyond advertising, Google is also investing in what it calls agentic commerce, an emerging model where AI agents autonomously assist users in discovering, comparing and purchasing products online.
“Our goal with agentic commerce is twofold, first, to remove the grunt work of shopping so consumers can focus on the fun parts; and second, to work hand in hand with the industry to build the foundations needed to make agentic commerce seamless and secure across the web,” Taylor said.
The push into AI enhanced advertising and commerce comes as Google’s core ads business continues to grow. The company recently reported $82.28 billion in advertising revenue, marking a 13.5 percent year on year increase.
For advertisers navigating an increasingly crowded digital landscape, Google is betting that smarter algorithms and sharper intent signals will make ads feel less like interruptions and more like timely suggestions.
