In a year when marketing feels pulled in many directions at once, WPP Media’s This Year Next Year (TYNY) 2026 report argues for something simple and difficult at the same time. It says 'marketing today is not about ‘either ors’, it’s about the ‘ands’.' The future, it implies, will not belong to brands that choose between channels or strategies. It will belong to brands that connect them.
The scale of change behind that idea is visible in India’s advertising outlook. Ad spend in India is expected to grow 9.7% in 2026 to ₹2,01,891 Cr, up from ₹1,84,046 Cr in 2025. Digital advertising will account for about 68.1% of spending, and advertising now represents roughly 0.5% of India’s GDP, with growth driven by SMEs, tech and telecom, realty, education, and core sectors such as FMCG, BFSI, auto, and e-commerce.
Against this backdrop, the report also outlines ten trends that together show how marketing is moving from fragmented execution to integrated systems. It begins with technology. AI is evolving from standalone tools into interconnected agentic ecosystems, where systems collaborate across research, planning, and execution, and marketers shift from operating tools to orchestrating workflows.
Watch the conversations here:
With technology reshaping decisions, discovery is changing with it. Search is moving from keyword-based visibility to answer ownership, pushing brands to build credibility and trusted content rather than simply chase rankings. That shift flows into commerce, where personalised recommendations and quick commerce are collapsing the gap between discovery and purchase, forcing brands to rethink where demand is created and fulfilled.
To keep pace, content creation is scaling through human purpose with agentic scale. The report highlights that automation enables hyper-localised creatives across markets while human insight continues to guide cultural relevance. Influencer marketing reflects the same change, moving from mega reach to micro trust through regional creators and long-term community partnerships. Culture is the next layer. Live events, from concerts and cricket matches to festivals, are becoming social-first experiences where audience-generated content builds anticipation and demand long before and after the event. These moments now act as ongoing content engines rather than one-time sponsorships.
At the same time, micro-dramas are building habit-driven engagement among younger audiences, women’s sports are moving from niche interest to cultural mainstream, campaigns are shifting from media presence to signal-based precision, and privacy is becoming a core marketing responsibility as trust shapes long-term growth.
The 2026 outlook therefore describes an industry learning to work as one connected system, where AI, culture, commerce, creativity, and data move together, highlighting one central idea– 'Synergy is not just a metaphor, it is a mathematical necessity.'
Find the edited excerpts from the interviews below:
Ashwin Padmanabhan, Chief Operating Officer, WPP Media South Asia
Q] What are the biggest opportunities and challenges for brands in this year’s report?
One major trend we’ve seen is the move toward more accountable media and marketing investments, with commerce spends growing strongly, we project 2026 commerce spends to grow almost 24% over 2025. We are also redefining media classifications. For example, location-based media includes any media targeted at a place, online or offline. Commerce is its own category. Intelligence includes search, including AI-driven search. Similarly, TV now means linear TV plus CTV and OTT on mobile. Earlier TV evolved from terrestrial to cable to DTH, and now to the internet. The same is happening with OOH, where digital OOH is added to offline OOH. So technology is reshaping every medium within AdEx, changing how brands look at audiences, combine their own data with platform data, and target consumers intelligently. That’s the big shift.
Q] What are the key challenges, especially in measurement?
The challenge is to look at everything holistically. Consumer attention is fragmented across platforms, we don’t watch one 22-minute episode anymore; we may watch 20 reels in that time. With fragmented attention comes fragmented media presence. Brands must bring together signals from multiple platforms, combine them with first-party data, and make the right media choices. That will be the biggest challenge.
Q] Which sectors are expected to grow the most this year?
Over the past few years, SME advertisers have driven a large part of growth. India’s AdEx growth has come not just from existing brands spending more but from more advertisers entering formal advertising. We project ₹17,800 crore incremental ad spend in 2026 over 2025, of which almost ₹10,000 crore will come from SMEs. BFSI and auto will continue to grow, while CPG and FMCG will see stable growth, helped by GST rationalization and improved consumer spending.
Q] The report mentions Q-commerce growth alongside offline retail activations. How are both growing together?
Last year we saw offline retail rebound, festive apparel sales, store expansions, and premium shopping spaces in smaller towns. Consumers go to stores not just to buy but for experience, supported by higher disposable income after income tax and GST rationalization. Quick commerce, on the other hand, grew from convenience and limited SKUs delivered quickly. Now use cases are expanding. Large marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart are launching quick commerce, while players like Blinkit are expanding SKUs, you can even buy appliances, though delivery may take longer. So there’s convergence between platforms. Offline retail is about experience; quick commerce is about convenience. They serve different consumer needs and can grow together.
Upali Nag, President- Strategy, WPP Media South Asia
Q] What is the biggest mistake brands still make in performance measurement?
I wouldn’t call it a mistake but an evolution brands need. As agencies, it’s our job to guide them on reading media and performance correctly. Over-focusing on performance or putting all money in the bottom funnel is not right, because you stop building and nurturing the funnel for future conversion. Performance should be measured in totality. Also, channels shouldn’t be viewed in silos- SEO, performance marketing, CRO, creative, everything must work together. Brands need to combine all inputs and see a unified view of outcomes. Avoid siloed thinking and look at media efforts and results holistically.
Q] From the TYNY 2026 report, what is one blunt truth brands should know?
I wouldn’t call it a blunt truth, but the key message is synergy. While the report spoke about 10 trends, among many others, the most important point is that brands shouldn’t act on any trend in isolation. Growth happens when trends are orchestrated together, and that’s how media dollars are spent effectively. Many trends will keep coming, but success depends on how brands drive synergy and leverage them together.
Q] Many brands follow a 360-degree approach across digital, TV, OOH and you have also spoken about synergy. How is measurement done in such campaigns?
There’s a difference between 360 and synergy. Being present on TV, print, OOH, and influencers is 360. Synergy happens when there’s a relationship between them. The bedrock is data, connecting what a consumer searches, watches, or shops, and crafting contextual messaging across touchpoints. For measurement, individual systems already exist, TV and print have their own metrics. Marketers use both top-down and bottom-up methods. One way is econometric modelling to link spend on different media to sales, market share, or awareness. Another is data clean rooms, where campaign data and first-party data come together to track attribution. Depending on the campaign, metrics can include recall, outputs, lead indicators, and lag indicators, all combined to define an overall measurement system.
Gurpreet Singh, Head of Performance, WPP Media
Q] This year’s report talks about shifting media investments. How should brands rethink performance and budgets?
Media investment has always shifted; what's new is that brands now demand clear outcomes for every penny spent. Reach and frequency remain the base, but brands are becoming more outcome-driven across all media. That’s why we’re moving from mega stars to micro-influencers, to stay relevant and link every dollar, whether top or bottom funnel, to an outcome-based model. Performance doesn’t mean shifting all money to the bottom funnel, because audience churn continues at the top. Diversification simply means finding more relevant audiences and innovative ideas to drive better business results.
Q] Which mediums will see the most investment this year?
Google and Meta remain the first choice for performance media, but we’re also seeing strong growth in DV360, programmatic buying, and innovative solutions beyond them. They’re adding automation for outcome-based campaigns, while standalone partners and tech platforms, including Apple’s programmatic performance tools are also driving spend. So it’s less about which medium gets more investment and more about which becomes more innovative. At WPP, we build audience cohorts tailored to each brand, what works for real estate won’t work for banking. Google and Meta may stay at the forefront, but innovation from tech partners will ultimately drive optimized performance across channels.
Q] You spoke about trust, and the report says privacy will be a core marketing responsibility. How will attribution models change in India under tighter data norms?
With tighter norms, major platforms like Google and Meta already made changes 3–4 years ago in how audiences are uploaded and used. Brands must take proper consent and provide easy opt-out options. These systems already exist, and brands are preparing. From an attribution standpoint, multiple models are available, and last-click attribution is still widely followed. Even if DPDP comes, I don’t expect huge changes immediately.
