MAM
Umanshi Marketing announces ambitious growth plans on fifth anniversary
Mumbai: Umanshi Marketing, a full-service marketing and PR agency known for ROI-driven solutions reveals ambitious plans on its fifth anniversary. Umanshi has demonstrated rapid growth with a remarkable 34 per cent CAGR in the past five years. Going forward, the agency aims to double its team size and physical presence while focusing on tripling its revenues and expanding service capabilities.
Umanshi Marketing, the brainchild of IIMB alumna, Tamanna Gupta, was formed with the vision to democratise marketing for small businesses. As an outsourced marketing team, Umanshi offers comprehensive solutions including brand strategy, public relations, social media management, full-funnel marketing and website development. Speaking about her vision and the winning features of the agency that helped it grow consistently, Umanshi Marketing founder and director Tamanna Gupta said, “In our early years of working with start-ups & small businesses, we realised the significance of identifying their core business challenges and designing solutions to make a real difference to their universe. We do not chase superficial metrics like the number of followers or share of voice. This remains our mantra even today as we work with prominent brands across sectors. And as we continue to focus on purpose-driven growth, we aim to triple our revenues and double our team size in the next 5 years. We are also looking at establishing our physical offices in Gurgaon, Bangalore and Hyderabad to stay closer to our clients.”
Apart from their business-centric strategies, another key differentiator that has fuelled the organic growth of Umanshi is the hands-on approach of its leadership team and their investment in customer success. They work as in-house CMOs gunning to achieve the business goals of the client. Their case studies are a testament to this approach. One such success story is that of the transformation of an insurtech firm’s sales strategy across channels driving a 125 per cent revenue increase leading to its acquisition. For a D2C startup in a new category, Umanshi helped them revive dormant customers digitally, resulting in a phenomenal 520 per cent boost in customer lifetime value.
Another success story for Umanshi boasts of their expertise in the employer branding segment. The agency’s PR campaign helped a Polish IT giant to register a 500 per cent increase in hiring applications and a 280 per cent increase in acceptance of offer letters in under two months.
Looking ahead, Umanshi isn’t just driven by growth but by purpose. Speaking about what excites her the most as a marketing professional, Ms Gupta added, “While scaling up to serve industry giants, Umanshi will continue to stay true to its commitment to help small businesses, especially start-up and second or third gen run, ensuring brilliant ideas and innovations aren’t stifled by lack of marketing muscle. We are excited to leverage our expertise to empower the next generation of small businesses and passionate entrepreneurs.”
Umanshi’s portfolio boasts of over 120 clients across 55 sectors. It has doubled its team size and established itself as a prominent player in the industry with a proven record for ROI-driven strategies and flawless execution. Its client repertoire includes brands such as Liladhar Pasoo Group, Farmdidi, Ionage Technologies, KLT Automotive, SOUL, Flexibees, Mapro, SME Corner, Celcius Logistics, ForMen, Lingaro and Apeiro Energy. Additionally, the agency has been instrumental in nurturing and guiding more than 165 early-stage startups through various incubators and accelerators such as AIC ISB, IIT Bombay SINE, IIMB NSRCEL, Upaya, World Resources Institute and others.
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.
