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GroupM, Yahoo! ink branded content deal
MUMBAI: WPP’s GroupM Entertainment and online major Yahoo! have announced a partnership to help marketers creatively incorporate their brands into original online programming. The programmes will appear exclusively throughout Yahoo!’s network of media properties including news, sports, finance and entertainment. |
GroupM Entertainment Worldwide CEO Peter Tortorici says, “Marketers need big, ground-breaking ideas that engage and delight consumers, and this partnership with Yahoo! will enable them to create unique high value relationships.” GroupM Entertainment and Yahoo! will work together to identify advertisers, develop creative concepts that map media content with an advertiser’s messaging, and produce the content for each programme. Yahoo! will also promote these branded programmes to targeted audiences in channels across its network. Yahoo! senior VP, North American revenue and market development Joanne Bradford says, “Yahoo! has a keen understanding of what makes our audience click, and this partnership will help advertisers develop deeper connections with our users. “Furthermore, Yahoo! can continue to build on its successful portfolio of the Internet’s most-watched original programming by tapping into GroupM’s incredible creative development talent.”GroupM’s director of digital assets Margaret Clerkin will assist Tortorici in overseeing the company’s involvement, and Erika Nardini, Yahoo!’s vice president of packaging, will be the representative from Yahoo!. Both GroupM Entertainment and Yahoo! have experience creating and distributing programming that provides proven return on investment for their clients. For example, Yahoo’s TechTicker with Scottrade as the advertiser averages more than 350,000 streams per day. Another Yahoo! show, Sports Minute was developed for client Dunkin’ Donuts and averages 175,000 streams per day. GroupM Entertainment unit Mindshare Entertainment, meanwhile, created In the Motherhood. This is a series of original webisodes for Mindshare clients Sprint and Unilever’s Suave that was later picked up by ABC Television and developed into the first ever prime time situation comedy to be spun off from an online series developed by a media services agency. |
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
