MAM
Skip Maurice
MUMBAI: Recording a holiday message for his employees is a tradition for Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Lévy. And complying with the tradition, that’s just what he did this year too… ’cept this year’s holiday greeting video from Lévy found a wider audience amongst netizens, with its witty take on skippable advertisement.
To the television audience, advertisement breaks are an excuse to flip through channels and look for a different entertaining program. When Video On Demand (VOD) platforms gained traction amongst digital audience, the ‘Skip Ad’ feature soon became a popular one, with YouTube taking the lead.
Being an advertising agency itself, it is ironic how the company’s CEO took to ‘Skippable Ads’ to deliver his message to employees. The idea was to bank on everyone’s habit of skipping ads to go to the content and do exactly the opposite! Confused? Don’t be… Read on…
“Times are too tough to play around so don’t expect anything funny or any technological tricks. I’ve long suspected that only a handful of you are actually paying attention to what I have to say. Although it’s often tempting to skip the ads and get to the content, this time you should be glad to skip me and watch some ads,” says a poker faced Lévy in a YouTube video.
However, 28 seconds into the video the humour quotient is just about to hit the roof as instead of the traditional ‘Skip Ad’ button that one is used to seeing on the video screen, there’s a… wait for it… ‘Skip Maurice’ button! However, this is “just a ploy” as Lévy continues his speech while crashing each ad spot and it must be said that for a septuagenarian, he totally rocks and how!
Should you choose not to skip Maurice, he’ll continue his address from behind his desk. But if you’re the inquisitive kind (like us) then you would’ve definitely ‘skipped Maurice.’
And therein lies all the fun! Watch him play cameo, especially in a shampoo advertisement, which adds to the comic relief of the entire concept. From spoon feeding yoghurt to a woman, washing his shirt, starring in a shampoo commercial a la L’Oreal (touché), cleaning his teeth in a toothpaste ad to appearing inside a sink for a liquid cleanser ad, Lévy enthrals the audience while also highlighting the company’s plans to enhance the power of one in the coming year.
In this 2:55 minute video titled ‘The Skippable Wishes,’ Lévy takes us through the agency’s benchmarks in 2015, through a series of advertisement, which he spontaneously crashes in.
“2015 has been a kind of bumpy ride. It’s been kind of tough for us. Nevertheless, we’ve fared pretty well in some of our operations and the most difficult part is behind us. More importantly, we have set ourselves up for a promising future,” he starts, as he talks about the company’s expectation from their Sapient acquisition, the “media palooza of which we have won more than we have lost,” the Cannes Lions wins and the highlights of the agency’s San Francisco seminar.
It must be added here that Publicis recently lost Procter & Gamble’s media planning and buying account in North America to Omnicom as well as the L’Oréal media account in North America to WPP. Hence, for Lévy to say that 2015 has been a “bumpy ride,” would be nothing but an understatement.
But these losses aside, Lévy goes on to say that 2016 will be a great year and that the agency has all the ingredients for it. “We will leverage the power of one across the group and our teams are excited about it. 2016 will the year of no silo, no solo, no bozo,” he says emphasising that there will be more transparency within the different departments and implementation of united effort within the company.
“All the group’s leadership is in line and is already putting this into action. We have seen the fruit of this approach through the outstanding creative achievements and campaigns. I’m counting on you. I can’t wait to fast forward to 2016 to show our clients the potential of the transformed Publicis Group and the power of one,” he says.
As was reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, Publicis recently undertook a major client-centric restructuring for 2016, wherein the agency will be breaking down its disciplines into four distinct ‘solution hubs’ with each client that will be led by a chief client officer. And that’s exactly what Lévy speaks about here.
He concludes the video by dedicating his wishes to the victims of Paris terrorist attacks on 13 November.
At the time of filing this report, the video on Publicis’ website was almost nearing 50,000 hits. If innovation and disruption is the name of the game, then this latest salvo from the agency’s CEO himself wins it hands down.
PS: There’s a strategically placed coffee mug on his desk, which says, “Yes I am the BOSS!”
Well, Mr Lévy, after watching this video, we have absolutely no doubts about that!
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
