AD Agencies
WPP and InMobi Group enter into a multi-year strategic partnership to co-build unique benefits for marketers
Bangalore: WPP and InMobi Group have entered into a long-term strategic partnership to build unique benefits for marketers. Leveraging the best of expertise from InMobi Group and WPP agencies, including GroupM and Kantar, the partnership aims to simplify complexity for Indian marketers.
The collaboration between WPP and InMobi Group will enable brands to create personalized consumer experiences at scale. Through this partnership, brands will be able to translate up-to-the-moment insights into timely marketing action.
WPP will provide in-depth expertise and a creative approach through four pillars – content, media, data and research. WPP’s GroupM will provide data-driven marketing and media planning with end-to-end audience insights integration and will also be sharing its unique engagement approach for in-app mobile content marketing. This partnership will also benefit from Kantar’s research insights, including recommendations that combine delivery, engagement and impact measures through media.
InMobi Group will provide deep, mobile-first expertise across marketing software and media, data and consumer platforms. As a result of this partnership, brands will gain insights on and access to 200+ million mobile users in India through the InMobi Marketing Cloud, the only mobile platform to synthesize adtech and martech platforms. The InMobi Marketing Cloud includes Pulse, the world's leading mobile research platform and InMobi DSP, its in-app programmatic buying platform. Through Glance, the world's first screen-zero platform, brands will be able to reach more than 36 million Indian smartphone users on their lock screen.
CVL Srinivas, WPP country manager for India, said: "WPP's partnership with InMobi will simplify marketing processes for businesses. We recognize the challenges associated with managing and translating data insights into timely and relevant brand activity. Today's consumers are inundated with brand messages and we want to enable marketers to cut through the noise to provide their consumers with meaningful connections."
"User journeys in a mobile-first world have become increasingly complex, and brands need an end-to-end solution that helps them to uncover and drive insights into action seamlessly," said Naveen Tewari, Founder & CEO of InMobi Group. "InMobi and WPP's strengths in technology and marketing expertise mean that we are best positioned to take the guesswork out of complex data and provide integrated solutions for brands to help them drive real connections with consumers."
“WPP and InMobi have had a long-standing successful relationship,” said Abhay Singhal, Co-founder of InMobi Group and CEO of InMobi Marketing Cloud. “We are thrilled with the evolution of this relationship into a strategic arrangement. We hope to co-create value for the entire ecosystem through innovation that leverages data, technology, media, and content.”
India represents one of the largest and fastest-growing consumer markets globally. WPP and InMobi Group's partnership will see both companies co-building more innovative mobile-first products for the future, to help position businesses ahead of the marketing curve.
AD Agencies
AdTrust Summit 2026 to examine trust, AI and Gen Alpha in advertising
Two-day summit in Mumbai to explore ethics, regulation and the future of advertising trust
MUMBAI:Â At a time when advertising is navigating a delicate trust deficit, the Advertising Standards Council of India is preparing to bring the industry to the table. On 17 and 18 March, the body will host the inaugural AdTrust Summit 2026 in Mumbai, a two-day gathering designed to spark conversation around responsibility, regulation and credibility in modern advertising.
The summit, to be held at the Jio World Convention Centre in Bandra Kurla Complex, will bring together leaders from advertising, media, technology and policy to examine how brands can build trust in a marketplace increasingly shaped by algorithms, influencers and artificial intelligence.
In an age of deepfakes, dark patterns and blurred lines between content and commerce, the question is no longer just how brands capture attention, but whether audiences believe what they see. The AdTrust Summit aims to unpack that challenge.
Day one will turn its attention to the youngest digital natives. Titled Decoding Gen Alpha, the session will unveil ‘What the Sigma?’, a study by ASCI and Futurebrands Consulting that explores how children growing up in a hyper-digital environment encounter advertising and commercial messaging.
The report presentation will be delivered by Santosh Desai, founder and director at Think9 Consumer Technologies and a social commentator known for his insights into consumer behaviour. The discussion that follows will attempt to decode how Gen Alpha consumes media, interacts with brands and navigates the growing overlap between entertainment and marketing.
In a move that mirrors the subject itself, two Gen Alpha students will also join the conversation, offering a rare perspective from the generation advertisers are trying to understand.
The second panel of the day will shift the focus from observation to implication, asking what the report’s findings mean for brands, agencies and society. Speakers include Karthik Srinivasan, communications strategy consultant; Preeti Vyas, president at Mythik; and Abigail Dias, associate president planning at Ogilvy. The session will be moderated by Sonali Krishna, editor at ET Brand Equity.
Day two moves from insight to regulation. Under the theme From Compliance to Trust, ASCI will release its Ad Law Compendium, a comprehensive guide to India’s advertising regulations.
The day will open with a keynote by Sudhanshu Vats, chairman at ASCI and managing director at Pidilite Industries, followed by a chief guest address by Sanjay Jaju, secretary at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Legal experts from Khaitan & Co., including Haigreve Khaitan, senior partner, and Tanu Banerjee, partner, will present an overview of the current advertising law landscape in India and examine whether existing frameworks are equipped to deal with emerging technologies and formats.
Subsequent panels will explore issues increasingly shaping the industry’s ethical compass. Conversations will range from the limits of persuasive design and the rise of dark patterns, to the growing scrutiny brands face from digital creators and consumer watchdogs.
One session will also feature Revant Himatsingka, widely known online as the Food Pharmer, whose critiques of packaged food brands have sparked debate around transparency and corporate accountability.
Later discussions will turn toward media literacy among Gen Alpha, asking how children can be equipped to navigate a digital world where gaming, content and commerce are becoming indistinguishable.
The summit will conclude with a final panel on the future of advertising, bringing together voices from agencies, legal circles and technology platforms to discuss how innovation, intelligence and integrity can coexist.
For an industry built on persuasion, trust has always been its quiet currency. But as audiences grow more sceptical and digital ecosystems more complex, that currency is under pressure.
Events like the AdTrust Summit suggest the advertising world knows it cannot afford to take credibility for granted. The real challenge now is turning conversation into commitment.
