One of them is trust. However, we have something that addresses the issue head-on. “Trust is no longer a soft metric in advertising — it’s the foundation on which long-term brand relationships are built. The 'State of Trust & Attention Report', created in partnership with Truecaller and VTION, gives the industry a much-needed reality check and a roadmap. If we want advertising to remain effective, we must put transparency and accountability at the centre of everything we create.” Ashish Bhushan, country head at Haymarket Media India.
After the report launch, we move into a fireside chat that gets into territory most brands are navigating—how do you plan for 2026 when everything keeps shifting? Campaign India editor Vinita Bhatia sits down with Geetanjali Chugh Kothari, chief marketing officer of Generali Central Life Insurance, for 'The Certainty of Uncertainty: Mastering 2026's Playbook'. Consumer behaviour isn't stable. Technology's moving faster than most organisations can adapt. The economic picture stays unclear. Kothari's running marketing in a category where getting timing and trust right makes or breaks campaigns, so her take on managing through all this carries weight.
The other session we've specially curated: a panel called 'The Great Agency Freeze'. Which will feature discussions on navigating churn, restructures, and the AI revolution to retain and rebuild Talent. Amanjit Singh from Kantar is moderating, and he's brought together Raj Kamble from Famous Innovations, Dheeraj Sinha who leads FCB India & South Asia, and Mohit Joshi from Havas Media Network India. These three are managing agencies through serious turbulence—senior people walking out, organisation structures getting redrawn, AI showing up in workflows before anyone's figured out the right training or process. It's messy. And because it's messy, the conversation should be honest. We're expecting some disagreement on stage, which is probably healthy given how differently shops are handling these same pressures.
The awards themselves follow—agencies getting recognized for creative work, business results, leadership, innovation. The markers that separate shops doing exceptional work from everyone else. Presenters come from major Indian brands, and winners span network agencies, independents, specialists. The diversity in who's competing reflects how fractured and competitive the landscape's become.
Post-show, there's the usual celebration and reconnection. Winners decompress. Everyone else processes. But this year feels different. The industry spent 2025 getting squeezed—budgets tighter, talent harder to keep, platforms changing rules, AI integration happening faster than most could manage. So AOY isn't just about recognition. It's also a checkpoint. One night where the people shaping South Asia's marketing ecosystem are in the same room, talking about what worked, what didn't, and what comes next.
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