During festive seasons, when every brand is fighting for the spotlight, what’s your go-to trick for making a campaign stand out?

During festive clutter, my go-to trick is owning a distinctive moment. Instead of shouting louder throughout the campaign,

I create high-affinity audience moments—when intent is naturally high—and pair them with disruptive creative formats or partnerships audiences don’t expect. Think contextual targeting around micro-moments, real-time creative optimisation, and leaning on attention over mere impressions. With tons of data signals available- transactional audience, actual behavioural signals, location data, past purchase data and platforms intelligence to create meaningful contextual targeting

The magic lies in combining sharp audience insight with an execution that surprises and delights. If people talk about it, share it, or remember it beyond Diwali week—you’ve cut through the chaos and left a lasting mark.

What’s one media myth you believed early in your career and now laugh at every time you hear it?

Early in my career, I believed that if you reach everyone, you win. It’s like thinking throwing a billboard into the sky will guarantee it lands in your customer’s lap. Over time, I realised that relevance beats reach—every time. Precision targeting, contextual alignment, and timing often deliver better returns than casting the widest net. Today, I’d rather talk to the right 100,000 people than blast 10 million who scroll past. Mass reach without relevance is just expensive noise.

During festive seasons, when every brand is fighting for the spotlight, what’s your go-to trick for making a campaign stand out?

In my view, the most effective festive strategies today combine quirky, culturally relevant communication with smart media innovation. This doesn’t always require large-scale activations—sometimes, even a simple idea executed well can create significant impact. For instance, sampling through quick commerce platforms is a relatively small tactic, but when done creatively, it can deliver powerful results. The key lies in how the brand brings the idea to life—by tapping into cultural moments, integrating the product meaningfully, and prompting consumer attention in a crowded space. A recent example that stood out was Amul Butter’s Janmashtami collaboration with Zepto. The activation was simple yet effective, aligning with cultural ethos and consumer behaviour in a way that felt organic and engaging.

What’s one media myth you believed early in your career and now laugh at every time you hear it?

For a long time, I held the belief that consumer fatigue toward advertising in India was inevitable, especially as content consumption evolved. However, observing the trajectory of paid content subscriptions in the country has challenged that assumption. In a price-sensitive market like India, it’s uncertain whether even 50% of the population will ever fully embrace paid, ad-free content. What sets Indian audiences apart is their remarkable patience and ability to engage with advertising without immediately tuning out. This endurance benefits the advertising and media industry tremendously. As long as consumers continue to accept advertising as a trade-off for free content, brands and media platforms have a powerful opportunity to connect meaningfully—provided the messaging remains relevant and respectful of the viewer’s time. One can only hope this delicate balance continues, allowing both content creators and advertisers to thrive in a uniquely Indian media ecosystem.

During festive seasons, when every brand is fighting for the spotlight, what’s your go-to trick for making a campaign stand out?

When consumer attention is pulled in a dozen directions and brands are throwing everything they’ve got into the ring, standing out isn't just about being louder; it's about being sharper, smarter, and more human. Own the Moment with Hyper-Relevant Creative + Contextual Precision. To achieve it we can use a fresh, emotional hook that’s festive but real, use of contextual targeting at peak moments and interactive or AI-Driven Personalization.

What’s one media myth you believed early in your career and now laugh at every time you hear it?

“The more impressions, the better the campaign.”

I always believed that Quality trumps quantity, A thousand views from an engaged, relevant audience beats a million impressions that goes unnoticed. In the current Digital ecosystem, attention is the new currency. If no one actually noticed or cared, it never really happened. Last but not the least; measurement matters, Real KPIs are now conversions, ROAS, engagement, dwell time and not only raw reach.

During festive seasons, when every brand is fighting for the spotlight, what’s your go-to trick for making a campaign stand out?

The real secret to breaking through the festive clutter is authenticity. Consumers are quick to sense when a brand is being genuine versus when it’s just trying to sell. It all starts with a strong consumer insight and a deep understanding of audience behavior. What works for one market or target group might not resonate with another, so the "one-size-fits-all" approach is where many advertisers go wrong. By tapping into emotions with a relatable and meaningful insight, you can ensure your campaign not only resonates but also builds a lasting memory structure for your brand.

Personalization is another key ingredient. Use data to segment your audience and craft tailored communication with a clear call-to-action that aligns with your campaign objectives. When your message feels personal and relevant, it’s far more likely to cut through the noise. Finally, never underestimate the power of a great creative. A strong creative idea acts as a multiplier, amplifying the impact of your media plan. Combine this with data-driven audience insights, a sharp media deployment strategy, and you’ve got a winning formula to deliver measurable results during the festive season.

In short, the magic lies in balancing authenticity, personalization, and creativity—all backed by data and a clear strategy. That’s how you stand out in the festive frenzy and make a meaningful impact.

What’s one media myth you believed early in your career and now laugh at every time you hear it?

Back in the early days of digital marketing, I used to believe that "You need huge budgets for a campaign to make an impact, and the higher the impressions, the better the outcomes." It felt like the golden rule—spend big, reach more people, and success would automatically follow.

Looking back now, I can’t help but laugh at how wrong that turned out to be. Over time, I realized that it’s not about how much you spend or how many people see your ad—it’s about how well you connect with the right audience. A smaller, well-targeted campaign with meaningful engagement can outperform a big-budget campaign that’s just chasing vanity metrics like impressions.

The truth is, digital marketing has always been about smart strategy over big spending. Creativity, personalization, and relevance can make even a modest budget work wonders.

During festive seasons, when every brand is fighting for the spotlight, what’s your go-to trick for making a campaign stand out?

Our secret to cutting through festive chaos is simple: deep consumer understanding. We start by analyzing market surveys and feedback to identify what consumers truly want to see during this season. Based on these insights, we craft creative, emotionally resonant campaigns that speak directly to their needs and aspirations. Rather than adding to the clutter, we focus on exponential thinking in creative execution and strategic placement, ensuring maximum impact where it matters most. This approach allows us to leave a lasting impression, building not just visibility but also a strong emotional connection during the most competitive festive period.

What’s one media myth you believed early in your career and now laugh at every time you hear it?

Earlier, I believed the myth that bigger budgets guarantee bigger results. Today, I know success isn’t about how much you spend but how wisely you spend it. Real impact comes from precision, not excess—choosing the right audience, leveraging consumer insights, and executing strong on-ground plans. We focus on strategic budget allocation and maximizing ROI, ensuring every rupee works hard. Add product quality and a solid distribution network, and you realize that smart execution, not blind spending, drives sustainable growth. Big ad spends alone can’t build brands—strategy and planning do.

During festive seasons, when every brand is fighting for the spotlight, what’s your go-to trick for making a campaign stand out?

During festive seasons, consumers are bombarded with ads, so to make a campaign stand out I focus on three things: Platform strategy, Relevant Content and Engagement led contests.

a. On platform level, I choose platforms carefully to ensure there’s minimal duplication across them. By phasing out the campaign smartly, I make sure that wherever it runs, audience overlap is minimized and reach is maximized.

b. The campaign content should resonate with both the brand and the festive spirit. When consumers connect emotionally with the messaging, it creates stronger recall.

c. Running contests or festive-led engagements works well since consumers are actively looking for offers and freebies during this period.

At the same time, I closely monitor uplift in brand queries, social listening tools to understand the buzz around the brand, and of course, sales numbers.

What’s one media myth you believed early in your career and now laugh at every time you hear it?

One media myth I believed early in my career was that “a brand can’t be built only through digital.” Back then, digital was seen mainly as a channel for clicks and impressions, not as a serious brand building medium. Today, I can’t help but smile when I hear this because I’ve witnessed countless examples that prove otherwise. In fact, even iQOO, a handset brand I personally worked on, was born and scaled almost entirely through digital by leveraging storytelling, content, communities, and precision targeting. Digital doesn’t just support brand building but it can actually be the primary driver.

During festive seasons, when every brand is fighting for the spotlight, what’s your go-to trick for making a campaign stand out?

My go-to trick is storytelling rooted in cultural insight, amplified by precision targeting. Rather than chasing noise, I create campaigns that resonate emotionally with the audience and leverage data to deliver them at the right moment, on the right platform. Personalization at scale—like dynamic creatives adapting to audience segments—helps us stand out. Pairing this with high-impact formats (CTV, influencer collaborations, interactive ads) ensures relevance and memorability. The secret? Relevance beats reach when everyone is screaming for attention.

What’s one media myth you believed early in your career and now laugh at every time you hear it?

Early in my career, I believed “more budget equals guaranteed success.” I laugh at it now because I’ve seen low-budget campaigns outperform multimillion-dollar ones through creativity, audience insight, and smart media choices. Success isn’t about who shouts the loudest but who speaks the most meaningfully to the right audience. This realization reshaped my approach—optimizing every rupee for impact, not just scale. Today, I champion strategy over spend, knowing that innovation often thrives within constraints.

During festive seasons, when every brand is fighting for the spotlight, what’s your go-to trick for making a campaign stand out?

Multi-channel presence and timing. Also, this is the time to focus on high attention formats, time it in a manner that the brand’s mental availability is formed when festive kicks in, not necessarily plan close to the purchase days. In a nutshell, quality reach with attention and timing

What’s one media myth you believed early in your career and now laugh at every time you hear it?

That TV and Print are dying!

During festive seasons, when every brand is fighting for the spotlight, what’s your go-to trick for making a campaign stand out?

The way to cut through chaos and still make an impact comes down to three things largely:

Ultimately, impact isn’t about shouting louder—it’s about being creative, relevant, and consistently present in the right moments.

What’s one media myth you believed early in your career and now laugh at every time you hear it?

Early in my career, we believed the myth that “high reach automatically creates impact.” Today, we know reach without relevance is just clutter. Real impact comes from engaging creatively, reaching the right audience at the right time and with building the right frequency that ultimately drives recall and impact. There is no one universal truth but a complex equation that needs to be custom made for every brand / brief.

During festive seasons, when every brand is fighting for the spotlight, what’s your go-to trick for making a campaign stand out?

During Diwali, generic mass messaging often gets lost in the noise. Instead, the key is to reach users when they are most receptive—whether they’re browsing home decor, watching sweet-making videos, or planning their gifting list. This hyper-relevance makes your brand stand out.

Enhance this approach with dynamic creative optimization (DCO)—deploying a single campaign across hundreds of variations tailored to a user’s mood, context, or location. This personalization significantly boosts engagement and effectiveness.

Traditional banners or in-feed ads simply blend into the clutter during festive seasons. To truly capture attention, invest in contextual disruption through high-impact placements that break patterns and create memorable brand moments.

What’s one media myth you believed early in your career and now laugh at every time you hear it?

"More impressions automatically mean more success."

Early in my career, I was fixated on CPMs, impression counts, and reach. When a campaign hit 50 million impressions within budget, it felt like a major win. The underlying assumption was simple: the more eyes on the ad, the better the outcome. Looking back, I now laugh at this mindset. Impressions alone are like handing out flyers in a crowded mall—you might be seen, but are you meaningful? Are you memorable? Are you actually moving people to take action?

In reality:

• A significant portion of those impressions were non-viewable or generated by bots.

• Many ads were served to irrelevant audiences.

• Some users were bombarded with the same ad repeatedly, leading to fatigue rather than impact.

• Most importantly, we rarely asked, “Did this campaign drive brand lift, engagement, or business results?”

My perspective evolved through exposure to brand lift studies, attention metrics, multitouch attribution (MTA), and privacy-safe clean-room data. Today, I firmly believe that 1,000 meaningful, emotionally resonant impressions far outweigh 1 million hollow views.

During festive seasons, when every brand is fighting for the spotlight, what’s your go-to trick for making a campaign stand out?

Festive clutter is unavoidable, so the trick is not to be louder but to be sharper. I focus on building relevance through contextual storytelling—using cultural insights, real-time moments, and audience-first creative. Instead of spreading too thin across every platform, I double down on 1–2 high-impact channels where the message can land with scale and clarity. Strong creatives amplified with smart audience targeting cut through the chaos. At the end of the day, authenticity and simplicity win more attention than flashy noise.

What’s one media myth you believed early in your career and now laugh at every time you hear it?

Early on, I believed the myth that “digital guarantees instant results.” It sounded great—that campaigns would magically deliver overnight. Over time, I’ve realized building brand love and consumer trust is a marathon, not a sprint. Performance may spike, but sustainable impact comes from consistent messaging, creative excellence, and a smart media mix. Whenever I hear someone say “just put it online and it’ll work,” I smile—it reminds me how far the industry (and I) have evolved in our understanding of digital.

During festive seasons, when every brand is fighting for the spotlight, what’s your go-to trick for making a campaign stand out?

Well, a magician never reveals his tricks — but in truth, there isn’t one. Today, nothing is truly organic, yet you never know what will blow up. In this uncertainty, my go-to is ensuring every campaign stays true to the brand’s tone of voice and core value. Campaigns that re-instill trust in the product and deepen brand equity stand out more than those chasing fleeting trends or throwing money at attention. Authenticity and consistency cut through chaos far better than gimmicks.

What’s one media myth you believed early in your career and now laugh at every time you hear it?

The bigger the budget – the better the campaign! Everyone working in the media at some time or the other has thought this and have always chased the biggest campaign they could work on. However this is far from the truth, with today's fragmented market and short attention spans, its smart strategy, not spend size, that wins. A sharply targeted and creative low budget campaign can very easily outperform a big budget - spray and pray campaign. While a big budget helps spread your message, it doesn’t dictate your campaign quality.