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.
