As the marketing world undergoes rapid change—with traditional systems being reworked and technology reshaping strategy—media leaders are navigating rising complexity and making sharper decisions to stay ahead. Their instinct for timing, judgement and direction often carries the Midas touch, turning shifting signals into decisive advantage. We spoke to 10 media leads to understand how they are securing that extra edge.
‘Media is central to building brand preference’
Rajiv Dubey, VP & Head Media, Dabur India Ltd, speaks about how media strategy drives brand growth, balances traditional and digital channels, and why measurable outcomes now shape every campaign decision
Q] How is your brand leveraging emerging trends in digital, social and offline media to stay ahead in a competitive market?
We are strengthening influencer ecosystems, using first-party data more intelligently and building strong regional relevance through precise targeting. This approach helps us stay closely aligned with evolving consumer behaviour across both digital and offline touchpoints.
Q] What factors primarily influence your marketing and media spends? What is the marketing mix for Dabur?
Consumer behaviour, the stage of the brand and measurable Return on Investment (ROI) shape our media mix. Television remains important for reach, particularly in TV-heavy and rural markets. Digital now sits at the core because it enables precision targeting and commerce integration. Print is used selectively for impact, while Out-of-Home (OOH) and radio are deployed based on geography and specific campaign requirements.
Q] Which is the medium that has traditionally given you the most returns? Looking ahead, which platforms are you betting on?
Television has historically delivered strong returns given our scale and deep presence in Indian households. Looking ahead, Connected TV, retail media and commerce-led platforms are areas of increasing investment because they help connect awareness, engagement and measurable outcomes closer to the point of purchase.
Q] How media strategy today is influencing brand growth and consumer engagement differently than before?
Media is central to building brand preference and engagement. With our diverse portfolio and a strong presence in almost 80% of households in India, a sharp media strategy helps us meaningfully connect with consumers across multiple touchpoints, while driving both brand equity and measurable outcomes.
Q] Which metrics or KPIs matter most to you when evaluating media campaigns, and how do they shape future strategies?
The metrics depend on the objective of the campaign. For awareness-led initiatives, we track reach, frequency and brand lift. For digital and performance-driven work, we monitor engagement, share of search, Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and incremental sales. Increasingly, measurement informs future planning rather than being treated as a post-campaign evaluation.
Q] What are the biggest challenges and opportunities in today’s media landscape, and how does your team navigate them to deliver impactful campaigns?
The biggest opportunity lies in combining creativity with precision and strong measurement. At the same time, the key challenge is fragmentation across platforms and increasingly complex consumer journeys. Agility, clarity of objectives and a consistent test-and-learn approach help us navigate this environment effectively.
Q] What is the most innovative media plan that you have executed for Dabur, where the choice of media elevated the campaign significantly?
A standout example is our partnership with Amazon Prime shows ‘The Family Man’ and ‘Panchayat’. Being first movers allowed us to integrate the brand within highly relatable storytelling and reach deeply engaged audiences through culturally relevant narratives.
‘Media is about shaping meaningful connections’
Anjali Krishnan, Lead, Consumer Experience & Ecommerce Lead, Mondelez India, speaks about how data-led planning, AI-driven tools and emerging platforms such as commerce media and connected TV are shaping the company’s evolving media strategy and consumer engagement approach. She also discusses measurement, media mix decisions & challenges of fragmentation in today’s media landscape
Q] What factors primarily influence your marketing and media spends? What is the marketing mix for the brand: priority mediums and those that are optional?
Our media mix is largely influenced by shifts in consumer behaviour and changes in the broader landscape. We closely track evolving retail dynamics while aligning our investments with the strategic growth priorities of our brands. In terms of prioritised mediums, we have a strong presence in digital, optimising across programmatic, social media, video and commerce platforms. Television also continues to play a critical role, particularly in the CPG category, as it delivers the scale and effectiveness required for mass reach. We have also been increasing investments in influencers, as they help drive deeper engagement and advocacy. Print and outdoor are used more selectively, either to build local relevance or to amplify specific brands or campaigns. Overall, our approach is about striking the right balance between reaching consumers at scale and driving meaningful engagement while maximising the impact of our campaigns.
Q] As a media lead, how is media strategy today influencing brand growth and consumer engagement differently compared to earlier approaches?
At Mondelez, media strategy is integral to driving business growth and consumer engagement. Our approach is rooted in data-driven planning and AI-enabled tools to ensure that our media investments deliver attention, quality and efficiency across initiatives. While building reach remains an important component of media planning, we also aim to shape meaningful connections through personalised content, advocacy and contextual relevance, so consumers do not just notice our brands but actively engage with them. This helps us build long-term loyalty and strengthen brand equity.
Q] Which is the medium that has traditionally given you the most returns? Looking forward, which platform are you betting on?
Over the last five to seven years, we have consistently increased our investment in digital media and seen strong incremental returns from it. Television has remained largely stable and continues to be an effective medium for driving reach. Digital, however, plays a significant role not only in building brand purpose but also in driving incremental volumes, making it a clear priority within our media strategy. Going forward, we will also focus on Quick Commerce and Connected TV. This is a space that is growing very rapidly.
Q] Which metrics or KPIs matter most to you when evaluating media campaigns, and how do they shape future strategies?
We track the regular media metrics that most advertisers focus on—reach, attention, efficiency, effectiveness, Return on Investment (ROI), brand lift and sales impact. These metrics guide our investment plans and help us decide which platforms to prioritise, what formats to invest in and which partnerships to build. At the same time, we continuously optimise campaigns, learning from ongoing performance and strengthening our understanding of what works and what does not. These insights shape our future strategies. Beyond short-term performance indicators, we also track long-term measures such as brand health, consistent loyalty and sustained engagement, ensuring that we evaluate both immediate impact and long-term growth.
Q] What is the most innovative media plan that you have ever had for the brand, where the choice of media took the campaign to another level?
A standout example for us would be the Cannes-winning campaign for Cadbury 5 Star during Valentine’s Day, where we flipped expectations by inviting audiences to literally erase the day through a fictional time travel mission. The involvement of space scientist Narayanan Nambi gave the idea—which was otherwise whimsical—a strong sense of authenticity. The campaign used a mix of creators, memes and highly shareable formats amplified on social media, turning it into a cultural moment.
What truly elevated the campaign was not just the creative idea but the orchestration of media with a social-first approach. The partnerships we built with creators, the hooks used in the narrative and the earned media amplification it generated helped the campaign go far beyond a traditional media effort.
Q] What are the biggest challenges and opportunities in today’s media landscape, and how does your team navigate them to deliver impactful campaigns?
One of the biggest challenges for marketers today is the fragmentation of consumer attention driven by the proliferation of platforms. Consumers are spoilt for choice, and that has also contributed to rising media inflation. At the same time, increasing privacy regulations and evolving laws have limited the signals available on consumer behaviour across platforms. The absence of unified cross-platform measurement remains a persistent industry challenge because most systems continue to operate in silos.
At the same time, there are strong opportunities emerging. AI-driven planning and buying will play a significant role going forward, while commerce media is another major growth area. Creator and influencer ecosystems remain extremely important because they help build brand equity beyond traditional communication. Our approach is to strike a balance between proven scale mediums and emerging platforms. We ensure that data is used meaningfully and linked back to business outcomes. As an organisation, we remain agile, constantly testing and learning to understand what works and what does not, and using those insights to build stronger campaigns.
‘Media cannot fix fundamental business problems’
Harshdeep Chhabra, Global Head of Media, Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) discusses how media strategy must align with business fundamentals, how GCPL evaluates ROI across platforms, and the challenges of fragmentation and measurement in today’s media landscape
Q] You’ve been closely working with an in-house media team. How has that worked for the brand? What are the drawbacks, and where do external media agencies fit in today?
The move towards in-house media is part of a broader evolution. From a time when agencies functioned as an extension of marketing teams to today, when stronger in-house capabilities and fragmented agency structures have changed the dynamic. This shift is being driven by two key factors: concerns around the quality and intent of agency partnerships, and the growing role of technology and AI in handling operational and repeat tasks internally. That said, the core need for aligning the message and the messenger remains unchanged, and agencies continue to play a critical role, albeit a more specialised one. For us, this comes down to the ‘four Ts’: trading (better pricing); technology (enhanced tools and planning); troubleshooting (market and consumer intelligence); and talent (upskilling internal teams). While execution is increasingly handled in-house, agencies are evolving towards consultative and capability-building roles, complementing in-house teams that now drive consumer connections and deliver more accountable, business-linked media outcomes.
Q] Which is the medium that has traditionally given you the most returns? Looking forward, which platform are you betting on?
It really depends on the target group and the market. There is no single rule that says mobile, TV or Connected TV (CTV) works best across the board. The choice of medium varies based on who we are speaking to; for instance, the approach for women may differ from that for men. We do not think medium-first; we think consumer-first. Through our research and studies, we identify where we can achieve maximum reach at the lowest cost while also securing strong attention. The medium is selected based on where the consumer is most effectively reachable. In terms of emerging bets, in markets such as South Africa and Indonesia, we are investing significantly in TikTok. We see it as a high-growth platform with the potential to drive substantial impact going forward.
Q] Which metrics or KPIs matter most to you when evaluating media campaigns, and how do they shape future strategies?
The metrics that make the biggest difference to us are shifts in mind measures. We closely track movement in brand metrics in the immediate term, as they indicate whether our communication is resonating with consumers. At the same time, we also look at tangible business impact. Through controlled experiments, comparing control markets versus exposed markets, we are able to observe direct effects on business performance, often within a few months.
Q] What are the biggest challenges and opportunities in today’s media landscape, and how does your team navigate them to deliver impactful campaigns?
The scale of fragmentation we are seeing today, both in terms of platforms and content consumption, is extremely challenging. Another major issue is that measurement is all over the place right now. For example, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) suggests there are 210 million households with access to linear television, but we believe that number is overstated and closer to 150–160 million. The Indian Readership Survey (IRS) has not been conducted in the last six years. Radio does not have a robust measurement system. Digital operates within walled gardens such as Google, and these ecosystems do not speak to each other. There is no unified cross-platform measurement, and everything continues to function in silos. That, in my view, is one of the biggest challenges facing the industry today.
As a team, we conduct consumer home visits to better understand real consumption behaviour. We also work with alternate measurement partners wherever possible. However, we do have industry bodies that are meant to address these structural issues, and while efforts are being made, the representation of how media is actually consumed can certainly improve.
Q] What is the most innovative media plan that you have executed for the brand, where the choice of media took the campaign to another level?
For us, innovation in media is not about awards; it is about driving business growth. Every media plan is designed with that single objective in mind. If I had to highlight one example, I would point to the campaigns for Godrej Aer and Goodknight. In both cases, the real innovation lay in how media was deployed to unlock new pockets of reach that we had not been able to access earlier. Rather than simply amplifying communication through conventional channels, we identified underserved audiences and expanded our reach architecture strategically.
That shift in media thinking had a direct impact on business performance. By reaching consumers we were previously missing, media played a meaningful role in accelerating the overall brand journey. For us, that is the ultimate benchmark of innovation, when the choice of media does not just add visibility but tangibly contributes to growth in the marketplace.
Q] What factors primarily influence your marketing and media spends? What is the marketing mix for the brand?
We do not take a rigid stand on any particular medium. Our priority is to reach the maximum number of people at the lowest possible cost, in a way that ensures they understand and appreciate our communication. The medium is simply a means to achieve that objective. When it comes to marketing and media spends at Godrej, affordability is a key factor. Each brand operates at a different margin, and we assess what it can sustainably invest within its P&L to arrive at the right budget.
‘Media helps us stay close to what people are thinking’
Arun Mehra, Media Lead, PepsiCo India, shares insights on the advantages of relying on consumer-centric media strategy, and the need for measuring real impact beyond vanity metrics
Q] As a media lead, how is media strategy today influencing brand growth and consumer engagement differently compared to earlier approaches?
Media today does a lot more than just build reach for us—it helps us stay close to what people are actually thinking and doing. We try to keep it very consumer-centric. When you look at modern India, especially younger audiences, expectations are changing quickly. So, a big part of our job is to listen and adapt. Media helps us do that better—understanding who we need to talk to and showing up in the right moments. It’s less about talking to everyone, and more about making the interaction count.
Q] What factors primarily influence your marketing and media spends? What is the marketing mix for the brand?
For us, there isn’t one fixed way of looking at spends. It really depends on what the brand needs at that point in time and how consumers are behaving. Some platforms are always important to us, especially where people are spending the most time—like on videos or social media. Beyond that, we keep adjusting based on the role each channel plays. However, one thing we’re very conscious of is how Indian consumers are evolving. People today want products that feel aspirational, but they also want them to be accessible. As a portfolio, we’re always trying to strike that balance without losing what makes our brands distinct.
Q] Which is the medium that has traditionally given you the most returns? Looking forward, which platform are you betting on?
We do look at data and measurement closely, but we also try not to reduce everything to just one metric. Digital has definitely grown for us, simply because that’s where consumers are spending more time. But at the same time, large-scale moments and traditional formats still deliver when used well. So instead of betting on one platform, we try to stay close to where people are and how they’re engaging, and that keeps evolving.
Q] With more and more agencies becoming a part of the brand’s marketing ecosystem, what are some of the big challenges you face in co-ordination and maintaining consistency?
When you have multiple partners, things can get complicated. But honestly, it works best when everyone feels like they own the outcome. We do have structures in place, but alignment, on what we’re trying to achieve, helps. Our teams and agency partners work closely—it’s not always perfectly smooth, and that’s okay. A bit of flexibility actually helps people collaborate better.
Q] How is the brand leveraging emerging trends in digital, social, and offline media to stay ahead in a competitive market?
A big shift that we’re seeing is in what consumers expect from brands. Especially with Gen Z, there’s a clear move: they still want great taste and experience, but they’re also more aware and looking for better choices. That’s something we’re paying close attention to. From a media point of view, it just means we need to be present across the journey—from when someone discovers a product to when they actually buy it. And increasingly, those moments are coming closer together.
Q] Which metrics or KPIs matter most to you when evaluating media campaigns, and how do they shape future strategies?
We look at performance across a few things—how efficiently we’re spending, what it’s doing for the brand, and of course, the business impact. At the same time, we try to go beyond just surface numbers. It’s more useful to understand whether people are actually paying attention to and engaging with what we’re putting out. We always try to balance short-term results with long-term brand-building.
Q] What is the most innovative media plan you have ever had for the brand—where the choice of media took the campaign to another level?
The campaigns that stand out are usually the ones where everything comes together: the insight, the idea, and the way it shows up in media. Having spent close to 15 years at PepsiCo, I’ve had the chance to work on several briefs where that combination has really clicked.
What I’ve learnt over time is that innovation doesn’t sit in one place. It often comes from how media, creative and consumer understanding merge to create something fresh. We’ve had a few recent examples—‘Pepsi Anytime’, ‘Sting Sixes’, ‘Mountain Dew’, ‘Peaks of Courage’ and Lay’s ‘Mitti Ki Chitthi’, where the media wasn’t just supporting the idea, it was actually part of how people experienced it. At the end of the day, it always comes back to understanding what consumers want and finding the right way to meet them there.
Q] What are the biggest challenges and opportunities in today’s media landscape, and how does your team navigate them to deliver impactful campaigns?
One of the biggest challenges right now is just how scattered attention has become. People are everywhere, and they engage differently depending on the platform. For us, that means we have to be a lot sharper about who we’re talking to and why. We spend time understanding specific audience groups, what they care about, what they consume and then, build plans around that.
Content has also become really important. Work that feels real, culturally relevant, and right for the platform tends to do much better. That’s where creators are also playing a big role.
‘Media is a powerful enabler of long-term brand-builing’
Anagha Bhojane, Director, Integrated Brand Experience, Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited, discusses how media strategy drives brand growth, the evolving role of consumer-first planning, and the challenges shaping India’s fragmented media landscape
Q] What primarily drives your marketing and media spend decisions today, and how would you describe the brand’s overall marketing mix?
Consumer understanding is the primary driver of our decisions across content and media. Every choice we make is centred around the consumer—their habits, preferences and the platforms they spend their time on. Rather than starting with a fixed media mix, we begin by understanding the consumer journey and then prioritise touchpoints accordingly.
Our investments evolve based on where consumers are most active. This includes increasing focus on programmatic channels, retail media and social platforms. The goal is not simply to follow trends but to ensure that our media investments are aligned with real consumer behaviour and engagement patterns.
Q] Which medium has traditionally given you the most returns? Looking ahead, which platforms are you betting on?
The media landscape in India is highly dynamic, and returns today come from multiple touchpoints rather than a single dominant medium.
Once we define the consumer, we build a content stack that is consumer-first and platform-first. This means designing communication that fits the context and format of the platform while remaining relevant to the consumer. That alignment between consumer behaviour and platform relevance ultimately drives better outcomes.
Q] How media strategy today is influencing brand growth and consumer engagement differently than before?
For us, media strategy is not just about delivering reach through predefined media vehicles. We see the media ecosystem as a powerful enabler of long-term brand-building helping drive relevance, strengthen consumer connections and fuel brand growth. Media choices today play a critical role in shaping how consistently and meaningfully a brand appears in consumers’ lives.
A key concept that guides our thinking is mental availability. When consumers think of a category, the brand that comes to mind first often wins. Our media strategy therefore focuses on ensuring the brand remains visible, relevant and contextually present in spaces where consumers engage the most.
Q] How is the brand leveraging emerging trends in digital, social and offline media to stay ahead in a competitive market?
It is critical for us to stay closely connected to what is happening in the social and digital ecosystem. Trend spotting plays an important role in our planning—whether it is emerging memes, conversations that are gaining traction or formats that are seeing increased content consumption.
We work closely with our agency partners to track these signals and decode what they mean for consumer engagement. Insights from these trends often help inform how we develop content strategies that are both timely and culturally relevant.
Q] What is the most innovative media plan you have executed where the choice of media elevated the campaign?
One example is our campaign around the Oral Health Movement. Before the launch, we began with smaller test-and-learn modules that allowed us to explore and validate different touchpoints. This helped us identify channels and opportunities that we might not have otherwise considered.
For instance, we tapped into affiliate marketing and leveraged packaging as a media asset across our brand portfolio. QR codes, integrated across TV, digital platforms, influencer content, impact properties and product packaging, drove strong engagement. The value exchange built into the campaign encouraged consumers to participate actively, while also helping us generate enriched first-party data for Colgate-Palmolive India.
Q] What are the biggest challenges and opportunities in today’s media landscape, and how does your team navigate them to deliver impactful campaigns?
One of the biggest challenges today is vernacular complexity. More than 90% of new internet users in India consume content in regional languages. The challenge is not simply about translation but capturing cultural nuance and context in communication. Another major challenge is measurement fragmentation. With the growth of Connected TV in urban homes and the widespread use of Short-Form Video (SFV) platforms in rural markets, there is no longer a single source of truth for measurement, and attribution often arrives with delays.
The attention economy today is both a challenge and an opportunity. Consumers today are exposed to a high volume of information and advertising, while the rise of quick commerce platforms has shortened the window in which brands can influence decisions. However, this also creates a unique opportunity. Platforms such as Zepto, Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart enable brands to engage consumers precisely when they are replenishing household supplies, allowing us to influence decisions at a critical moment in the purchase journey.
Q] Which metrics or KPIs matter most to you when evaluating media campaigns, and how do they shape future strategies?
We evaluate campaigns using a mix of both input and output metrics. Input metrics include measures such as reach, frequency, Video Through Rate (VTR) and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). These help us understand how efficiently media is being deployed across platforms.
Equally important are the broader outcomes. We closely track brand health indicators and business performance metrics to understand whether our media strategy is contributing to sustained brand growth. This combination of performance metrics and brand impact helps guide our future planning.
‘Media strategy acts as the connective tissue holding all consumer exposure together’
In this conversation, Riya Joseph, General Manager – Media, Britannia Industries Limited, discusses how media strategy drives brand growth; data-led planning shapes investment decisions, and how the company is experimenting with emerging media formats to deepen consumer engagement
Q] What factors primarily influence your marketing and media spends? What is the marketing mix for Britannia?
The starting point is always the brand objective, whether we are launching a new product, driving growth, or reinforcing salience. That determines the kind of reach, frequency, and media architecture required. We then consider the broader business ambition, the target audience, and the regional context, since media behaviour can vary significantly across markets. Together, these factors shape our channel selection, message tonality, and measurement KPIs. Overall, we maintain a balanced investment between traditional and digital media to ensure both scale and engagement.
Q] As a media lead, how is media strategy today influencing brand growth and consumer engagement differently compared to earlier approaches?
At Britannia, media strategy is an integral part of the brand’s larger marketing design. It is not a one-size-fits-all function, but a context-driven enabler of growth. The role of media differs from brand to brand depending on its maturity, objectives and the kind of consumer engagement it needs. For some brands, media helps sustain long-term awareness and salience. For others, particularly those in high-growth phases or entering new spaces, media becomes a critical driver of rapid reach, penetration, and trial. When we are building newer innovations or formats, the media approach becomes sharper and more focused, anchored to specific audience cohorts or geographies, where adoption needs to be seeded. Regardless of where a brand sits on its growth curve, media strategy acts as the connective tissue holding all consumer exposure together.
Q] How is the brand leveraging emerging trends in digital, social and offline media to stay ahead in a competitive market?
We actively leverage evolving platform trends to create richer consumer experiences—with Artificial Intelligence (AI), mixed reality, and voice technology playing an increasingly important role. Initiatives like Britannia A-Eye transform smartphones into smart shopping assistants, enabling visually impaired shoppers to scan shelves, identify products, and access voice-based information such as pricing and nutritional details. We also view packaging as a personal consumer touchpoint, which is why we often reimagine packs as mediums for storytelling and engagement rather than just functionality. Our generative AI work continues through BourbonIT, where users can convert regular recipes into Bourbon recipes; its latest version allows consumers to scan a Bourbon pack and speak in any of seven Indian languages—Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, and Kannada—to receive instant, structured recipes.
Our packs also act as entry points into immersive brand worlds through campaigns such as ‘HungryForGold’, ‘50-50 Chief Selector’, ‘Milk Bikis Adengappa’, and the Treat Croissant speech-based AR filter. On social media, we tap into cultural trends aligned with brand purpose. For instance, we launched the Good Day Flavours of Equality Pride Pack during the pride month with creators such as Trinetra Haldar, Sushant Divgikar, and Param Sahib. We also collaborated with Yashraj Mukhate on a chai anthem that reinforced Good Day’s association with tea by introducing the idea of ‘taking a bite’ of chai. Offline engagement remains equally important, particularly for Gen Z audiences who value phygital experiences.
Q] Which is the medium that has traditionally given you the most returns? Looking forward, which platform are you betting on?
Our decisions are guided by a Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM) framework built on more than five years of rolling historical data, which is periodically refreshed. While Return on Investment (ROI) varies by brand and market, television continues to deliver strong outcomes for many of our core categories. At the same time, social media has emerged as a versatile platform, offering massive reach, deeper engagement, and measurable conversions. What makes social particularly effective is its ability to deliver across the full marketing funnel, from building awareness to driving action.
Q] Which metrics or KPIs matter most to you when evaluating media campaigns, and how do they shape future strategies?
Beyond business metrics, brand indicators such as awareness, consideration, and creative recall play a crucial role in evaluating campaign effectiveness. We place significant emphasis on ROI modelling. With the support of our in-house analytics team, we measure both the short-term and long-term contributions of each medium and campaign through econometric models and MMM frameworks.
Q] What is the most innovative media plan that you have executed for Britannia where the choice of media elevated the campaign?
To spotlight Britannia’s continued commitment to sustainable practices, we allowed nature to take the lead in this campaign highlighting our Environmental, Social and Governance initiatives over the years. ‘Nature Shapes Britannia’ was an OOH series that stood out because the billboards were designed to literally take the shape of the trees surrounding them. We specifically selected OOH sites naturally covered by trees, and each billboard carried a message about Britannia’s progress in sustainability, from plastic neutrality and waste management to circularity, water stewardship, and energy efficiency. It served as a reminder that the right media choice can significantly elevate storytelling.
This initiative championed women entrepreneurs by inviting them to pitch their business ideas, with Britannia Marie Gold awarding a `10,000 grant to the winners along with mentorship support. After a successful regional run on Zee Bangla, we scaled the format nationally through an eight-episode multilingual series on JioHotstar. The property reached 12 million women across our core markets.
‘Media is no longer just a communication channel; it is a growth engine’
Ankit Desai, Head – Media & Digital Marketing (India & Global Centre of Excellence), Marico Limited, speaks about how media strategy today goes beyond visibility to become a measurable growth engine—shaping consumer behaviour, brand salience, and business outcomes in an increasingly fragmented media ecosystem
Q] As a media lead, how is media strategy today influencing brand growth and consumer engagement differently compared to earlier approaches?
Media is no longer just a communication channel; it is a growth engine for the business. At Marico, we see media strategy as a central lever for building penetration, reinforcing mental availability, and shaping spontaneous consumer choice—all of which are critical drivers of long-term FMCG growth. In fast-moving categories, media goes beyond visibility; it designs and encodes memory structures that influence behaviour at the moment of decision.
Today’s consumer journeys are fragmented across TV, digital video, social platforms, creator networks, and retail ecosystems. Our strategy focuses on achieving incremental reach and high-quality attention across these touchpoints, ensuring that every investment strengthens brand salience and conversion. This outcome-oriented approach keeps investments resilient, measurable, and directly linked to growth metrics.
Q] What factors primarily influence your marketing and media spends? What is the marketing mix for Marico?
At Marico, marketing and media investments are outcome-led rather than channel-led. Our spends are shaped by penetration ambitions—how we reach new consumers and expand category entry points—along with category and competitive dynamics such as elasticity, competitive noise, and emerging consumption trends. We prioritise platforms and formats that deliver both salience and measurable business impact, while carefully balancing long-term brand equity with short-term demand activation. This ensures that every rupee invested is directly tied to growth outcomes, rather than just impressions or reach.
Q] Which is the medium that has traditionally given you the most returns? Looking forward, which platform are you betting on?
Television continues to be the most efficient mass-reach medium for driving penetration and mental availability in India, particularly for mass brands. Its scale, consistency, and ability to reinforce category entry points make it the backbone of brand salience. However, for more premium brands, digital is increasingly emerging as a strong alternative to television, offering precision targeting, engagement-led optimisation, and culturally relevant storytelling.
Looking ahead, our focus is on building a hybrid, outcome-oriented reach architecture. Digital video offers precision reach and attention efficiency, making it highly relevant for premium brand narratives. Retail media ecosystems enable full-funnel influence—from awareness to conversion—across both mass and niche categories, while creator networks provide trusted, community-based distribution that strengthens cultural relevance and engagement. In short, while television anchors mass salience, digital acts as the premium and precision engine, helping brands drive relevance, engagement, and conversion in a fragmented attention landscape.
Q] Which metrics or KPIs matter most to you when evaluating media campaigns, and how do they shape future strategies?
Our evaluation of media campaigns goes far beyond surface-level metrics. The measures that guide our decisions are those directly linked to growth, brand salience, and consumer behaviour. These metrics create a causal feedback loop where insights from each campaign inform audience segmentation, content optimisation, and media mix allocation.
This approach helps us identify what truly drives both brand and performance outcomes, ensuring that every rupee invested contributes meaningfully to growth.
Q] What are the biggest challenges and opportunities in today’s media landscape, and how does your team navigate them to deliver impactful campaigns?
The media landscape today is both more complex and more exciting than ever. Attention is fragmented, costs are rising, and privacy-led signal loss is changing the way brands reach consumers — yet these very challenges are also driving innovation. At Marico, we address this complexity by combining strategic in-house control with specialist agency expertise.
By leveraging AI, advanced media capabilities, and creator ecosystems, we aim to deliver campaigns that are both coherent and high-impact. Ultimately, our focus is on turning complexity into a connected growth system, ensuring that every media investment strengthens brand salience, deepens consumer engagement, and delivers measurable business results.
Q] What is the most innovative media plan that you have executed for Marico, where the choice of media took the campaign to another level?
One of our recent campaigns for Parachute Advansed Gold, themed #NariyalKaafiHai, was anchored in a sharp cultural insight: while Holi is a joyful celebration, it is also a ‘torture occasion’ for hair, making oiling almost a ritualised necessity. We paired this with another powerful insight — that music is the engine of every Holi celebration — and built a unified media architecture around it.
A creator-led music track became the core asset, amplified through a high-impact digital music video crafted by creators, alongside social formats such as memes and UGC that provided surround coverage. The real breakthrough was placing the song at the centre of Holi celebrations. Through a playlist block, every major Holi playlist on the day began with the ‘Nariyal Kaafi Hai’ soundtrack. This allowed the brand to enter the festival not as an advertisement, but as an organic part of the cultural celebration, turning a functional hair-care need into a moment of salience, relevance, and participation.
‘Media today is no longer just about delivering impressions; it’s about delivering experiences’
Sonam Pradhan, Head, Media and Digital Marketing (South Asia), Kellanova (Kellogg’s), discusses how media strategy is evolving from a distribution channel into a growth engine that blends storytelling, commerce, and data-driven decision-making to further brand relevance and category expansion
Q] How is the brand leveraging emerging trends in digital, social and offline media to stay ahead in a competitive market?
We are consciously embracing trends that blend data, creativity and culture. This includes AI-driven contextual video planning, creator-led storytelling designed for micro-moments, and purpose-led narratives around sustainability and nutrition across social platforms. At the same time, retail media and commerce integrations are helping close the loop between awareness and purchase. Our approach is to experiment quickly, learn faster and scale what works.
Q] What factors primarily influence your marketing and media spends? What is the marketing mix for your brand?
Our marketing mix is guided by three core factors: the business objective—focus could be penetration or premiumisation; the audience mindset—such as family households versus individual snacking moments; and ROI visibility in terms of reach, frequency, and cost efficiency. Television continues to drive mass reach and trust, while digital leads precision, performance, and relevance among younger audiences. Within digital, our spends are increasingly focused on video ecosystems such as YouTube and OTT platforms, alongside search-driven performance. Influencer collaborations and retail media are also emerging as strong growth-drivers., Experiential, radio and print are deployed selectively depending on brand needs and geography.
Q] Which medium has usually delivered the most returns? Looking ahead, which platforms are you betting on?
Historically, television has delivered the strongest ROI in driving household penetration, especially for legacy brands like Corn Flakes. However, the future clearly lies in the convergence of digital video and commerce. We are betting strongly on shoppable video ecosystems, retail media partnerships, and AI-driven content targeting which brings consumer intent closer to the point of purchase.
Q] As a media lead, today, how differently is media strategy influencing the brand’s growth and helping consumers engage with it as compared to earlier?
Media today is no longer just about delivering impressions—it’s about delivering experiences. At Kellanova, media strategy acts as a growth lever that connects the brand’s purpose to consumers’ daily lives—from driving breakfast occasions with relevance to inspiring category expansion through contextual storytelling. We use media as a growth-multiplier, whether it is for increasing brand salience through emerging touchpoints like Connected TV, or to drive new-to-category recruitment via influencer ecosystems and commerce signals.
Q] Which metrics or KPIs matter most to you when evaluating media campaigns, and how do they shape future strategies?
Our key metrics span both media delivery and business impact. On the awareness side, we track reach 1+ and 5+ weekly to measure efficiency, along with CPT, CPM, and VCPM for cost optimisation. For consideration, engagement rates and brand search uplift are critical indicators, while sales lift and ROI help evaluate campaign outcomes. We monitor both media and business effectiveness through integrated dashboards, using them not just for post-evaluation, but as forward-looking learning tools that inform future strategy.
Q] What is the most innovative media plan you have executed, where the choice of media took the campaign to another level?
One standout example was the ‘Pringles Duck Lips Challenge’, where we blended meme culture with influencer virality and user-generated content to deliver over 270 million reach with a 6.5% engagement rate. Another example is the ‘Kajol & Tanuja Breakfast Film’ for Muesli 12-in-1, where we created pre-buzz through Bollywood editorial seeding, followed by contextual video amplification and influencer-led conversations around the theme of “Breakfast with legacy.” In both cases, the choice of media did not merely support the idea — it became the idea itself.
Q] What are the biggest challenges and opportunities in today’s media landscape, and how does your team navigate them to deliver impactful campaigns?
The biggest challenge today is the fragmentation of audiences, attention spans, and attribution models. At the same time, the greatest opportunity lies in integration—connecting storytelling with commerce and creativity with data. Our focus is on building future-ready frameworks through AI-aided planning, privacy-safe measurement systems, and predictive modelling.
‘Engagement is not about being everywhere, but about being relevant’
Shuchi Singhal, Vice President – Media, Emami Limited, on how disciplined media strategy, contextual relevance, and integrated measurement drive brand growth and consumer engagement. She discusses media mix decisions, evolving platforms,and navigating fragmentation in today’s media landscape
Q] As a media lead, how is media strategy today influencing brand growth and consumer engagement differently compared to earlier approaches?
Media strategy influences growth by bringing discipline and intent to how a brand shows up in consumers’ lives. In a fragmented ecosystem—something we deal with every day—engagement is not about being everywhere, but about being relevant where it truly matters. When media is planned with a clear understanding of consumer context and business objectives, it becomes a powerful lever to build trust, drive consideration, and ultimately accelerate growth. The real impact comes from aligning media choices with the role each touchpoint plays in the consumer journey.
Q] What factors primarily influence your marketing and media spends? What is the marketing mix for the brand?
Emami operates across diverse categories—from beauty and personal care to health and wellness and everyday food essentials. As a result, our marketing and media spends are shaped by a combination of business objectives, category dynamics, and the role each brand needs to play at a given time. In our experience, what works best is not a pre-fixed budget allocation, but a contextual approach driven by the brand’s growth stage, competitive intensity, and evolving consumer behaviour.
In terms of mix, priority mediums are those that deliver scale, credibility, and consistent presence, while also allowing room for contextual and audience-led engagement. Mass media continues to play a critical role in building reach and trust, while digital enables sharper targeting, personalisation, and measurement across the funnel. Other platforms are evaluated based on the specific role they can play in delivering incremental impact.
Q] How is the brand leveraging emerging trends in digital, social and offline media to stay ahead in a competitive market?
We approach emerging trends with a clear lens of relevance and scalability. In digital and social, the focus is on using data and evolving content formats that allow us to be contextually present and culturally relevant while staying true to the brand’s core narrative. Social platforms, in particular, enable faster engagement cycles and real-time feedback, which helps refine both messaging and media choices. Digital media is also evolving through better use of context and innovation in formats, enabling more immersive and memorable brand experiences.
The common thread across all channels is intentional integration—ensuring that each touchpoint plays a clearly defined role in the consumer journey.
Q] Which is the medium that has traditionally given you the most returns? Looking forward, which platform are you betting on?
Traditionally, channels that deliver sustained reach and frequency have played a significant role in driving brand growth by building salience and trust over time. What we have seen work best is when these platforms are complemented by more targeted, data-led channels that help convert intent into action.
Looking ahead, the focus is less on betting on a single platform or medium and more on strengthening the overall ecosystem around addressability, measurement, and contextual relevance.
Q] What is the most innovative media plan that you have ever had for the brand, where the choice of media took the campaign to another level?
There is an old adage: the medium is the message. In our experience, the most effective media innovations are not about novelty, but about reimagining the role of media within the idea itself. One such instance was when the media plan was designed as an extension of the consumer insight—aligning formats, contexts, triggers, and timing in a way that amplified the creative idea rather than merely displaying it.
By mapping the consumer journey more sharply and identifying moments where the brand could add relevance, the choice of media elevated the campaign beyond reach and frequency. The result was stronger engagement and recall, driven by media and creative working together as one integrated solution. For us, innovation works best when it enhances meaning and effectiveness, not when it exists for its own sake.
Q] Which metrics or KPIs matter most to you when evaluating media campaigns, and how do they shape future strategies?
The most important metrics are those that connect media activity to real business impact. While platform-level metrics help assess efficiency, our primary focus is on indicators of brand health and growth—such as reach quality, effective frequency, consideration uplift, and sales or demand proxies.
Learning is equally critical. We analyse patterns across campaigns rather than viewing results in isolation, using measurement to understand what drives incremental impact across touchpoints. These insights inform future strategies—from optimising the media mix to refining audiences, and sharpening the role each channel plays within the funnel.
Q] What are the biggest challenges and opportunities in today’s media landscape, and how does your team navigate them to deliver impactful campaigns?
The biggest challenge in today’s media landscape is fragmentation—of audiences, platforms, and, most importantly, attention. This makes consistency harder to maintain while also demanding faster decision-making and greater accountability for effectiveness.
We navigate this complexity by staying anchored to clear objectives, fostering close collaboration with partners, and building strong learning loops within the team. This helps us cut through the noise and deliver campaigns that are impactful, sustainable, and scalable.
‘Media strategy is less about where we appear and more about how we show up’
Gaurav Soni, Head of Media, Perfetti Van Melle, discusses how media strategy functions as a growth engine for the company’s brands; the role of integrated platforms; and how data, technology and cultural insight shape engagement in a fragmented media landscape
Q] As a media lead, how is media strategy today influencing brand growth and consumer engagement differently compared to earlier approaches?
At Perfetti Van Melle, we view media strategy not merely as a distribution layer, but as a growth engine aligned with business objectives and consumer truth. Today, media is about driving engagement, not just visibility—a belief reflected in our campaign and platform choices. From Centerfruit’s culturally rooted activation at the Mahakumbh and the ‘Metro Mein Laplap’ engagement at the Delhi Metro, to Happydent’s participative ‘Chamking Gum’ experiences through AI booths and immersive cinema installations at Ambience Mall, Gurugram, the focus has been on meaningful participation. For me, media strategy is less about where we appear and more about why and how we show up.
Q] How is the brand leveraging emerging trends in digital, social and offline media to stay ahead in a competitive market?
We begin by grounding ideas in consumer insight and mapping them against emerging trends and audience behaviour. When these insights align with the brand’s role, they lead to clutter-breaking ideas that travel seamlessly across platforms. For example, Centerfresh’s overthinking insight evolved into an integrated ecosystem across TV, digital, and social, making the idea contextual and highly shareable, while ‘Mentos Zindagi’ leveraged short-form content and experiential platforms such as live events to remain culturally relevant with younger audiences.
Our GenAI-led technology initiatives in rural India have helped extend brand relevance at scale. Offline integrations continue to anchor digital conversations—Happydent’s cinema collaborations and Centerfruit’s Delhi Metro partnership embedded the brands into everyday environments, while podcast integrations such as Lallantop enabled more contextual engagement.
Q] What factors primarily influence your marketing and media spends? What is the marketing mix for the brand: priority mediums and those that are optional?
Media investments are guided by the year’s business objectives, the brand’s current scale, and what is required for its next phase of growth. As brands evolve, so do their media needs. Each medium earns its role based on the outcome the brand is aiming to achieve. While mass media remains effective for building reach and mental availability, digital and social platforms help drive relevance and engagement. Ultimately, the focus is not on prioritising channels but on aligning every media decision with the brand’s growth objective—starting with clear outcomes and letting media choices follow.
Q] Which is the medium that has traditionally given you the most returns? Looking forward, which platform are you betting on?
I strongly believe in the concept of orchestration. Instead of placing all bets on a single platform. The focus should be on how different media can be leveraged together as an ecosystem. The future lies in planning where TV, digital, social, and on-ground experiences reinforce each other rather than operating in silos. This approach is especially important for our brands, which cater to a young, culturally active audience. Their media behaviours know no boundaries; they follow trends on social media, engage with interactive and experiential formats, and move seamlessly between online and offline environments.
Q] Which metrics or KPIs matter most to you when evaluating media campaigns, and how do they shape future strategies?
While reach and efficiency remain important, they are not the only metrics we follow to measure success. We focus equally on effectiveness—the quality of attention a campaign delivers, its impact on brand health metrics, and how well the storytelling resonates with consumers. Beyond media metrics, we analyse business outcomes and consumer behaviour to understand what truly drove impact. The best KPIs are those that help us learn what worked, what did not, and why—enabling us to shape future strategy rather than simply validate past success. Good KPIs, in my view, are enablers of better decision-making and sharper strategy, not just better reporting.
Q] What is the most innovative media plan that you have ever had for the brand?
One of the most innovative campaigns—and one that holds particular importance for me—was Centerfruit’s AI-tech initiative to engage with audiences by converting feature phones into smartphones without internet, where the media platform itself became the idea. The objective was to widen reach and engagement among audiences with limited access to smartphones and the internet, while bringing the ‘Kaisi Jeebh Laplapayee’ platform to life in a culturally relevant way.
Instead of relying on conventional digital formats, we engaged consumers on basic feature phones through voice-based GenAI—with no apps, data, or device barriers. A simple phone call became an interactive and playful brand experience in vernacular languages, enabling rich two-way engagement at scale. The selection of media fundamentally transformed access and participation, which was reflected in the uplift in brand metrics and incremental business growth in focus districts. It demonstrated how intent-driven media choices can elevate the consumer experience in a meaningful way.
