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Yahoo! Big idea chair receives strong response from agencies
NEW DELHI: Yahoo! Big Idea Chair Award received 183 entries that streamed from various agencies across categories depicting the best creative work in digital advertising.
The awards were judged for all three categories – Integrated awards: Yahoo! Big Idea Chair, Best Digital Brand Solution; Display Awards: Best Rich Media Ad, Best Engagement Ad, Best Mobile Solution; Search Awards: Best Creative Search Awards.
The Big Idea Chair jury panel comprising 10 eminent people from advertising, creative and media fraternity convened the Jury day mid-October 2010 by shortlisting the winners for digital work submitted for the awards.
The award ceremony will be held on 1 December in Mumbai.
Members of the jury panel consist of Mayank Pareek, Head Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki India Limited; Max Hegerman, President Tribal DDB India; Kunal Jeswani, Country Head, Ogilvy One; Karl Gomes, Digital Strategist & Co founder AgencyDigi; Rajaram Narayanan, Vice President Unilever, Lakme and Haircare; Arun Tadanki, Managing Director, Yahoo! India; Alok Bharadwaj, Senior VP, Canon India; Anil Nair, Managing Partner, Digital Law & Kenneth; and Carlton D‘Silva, Creative Director, Hungama Digital.
Commenting on the importance of digital marketing, Bharadwaj said: “Digital marketing is an integral part of our world now. Both as a marketer as well as a consumer, the impact of digital marketing for brand and every business is enormous and is only increasing every year. In the current times with the kind of demographics changes in India, digital marketing impact is only going to increase.”
Gomes said, “I think to run a successful brand campaign, you have got to follow your consumers and if they are on digital, which they increasingly are getting, then you got to be there. In my view, the Yahoo Big Idea Chair is a brilliant platform, because we have a got a very good jury and we have got some really good campaigns that we are looking at. We have a long way to go in the digital space but this will definitely bring us there sooner.”
“Yahoo!’s Traveling Big Idea Chair” traversed top 20 agencies across Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore where it stayed for two days in each agency including R K Swamy, Ogilvy, Interactive Avenues, Mudra, Webchutney, Group M, Law and Kenneth, FCB Ulka, Group M, Law and Kenneth, FCB Ulka, Starcom, JWT and Interactive Avenues.
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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.
