Great creativity gets attention. Effective creativity drives growth.
At MMA SMARTIES India, Kantar was right at the heart of conversations about how brands can achieve both.
A highlight was Soumya Mohanty being introduced as a co-founding member of the new MMA India Creative Council, alongside senior marketing leaders. The Council will help advance the industry conversation around making creativity more effective, measurable and impactful, with Kantar and LINK bringing our expertise in creative effectiveness to the table.
She also represented us at the closed-door MMA x ASCI x Kantar Creative Leadership Dialogue, ‘Can Creativity Be Effective Without Trust?’, where senior marketers and agency leaders explored the relationship between creative courage, consumer trust and business impact.
For us, that’s what meaningful industry engagement looks like: not simply being part of the room, but helping shape the conversations that matter and building stronger connections with the marketing community.
Here’s to creativity that doesn’t just stand out, but works.
Can a campaign look great on paper and still generate little real 'attention'?
In my contribution to MMA Global’s Beyond Reach report, I explore how media planning lens needs to evolve with changing landscape & how attention adds another layer of commercial discipline.
Products can be copied.Content can be generated.Distribution can be bought. Technology is available to everyone.
So what still builds a lasting brand advantage?
That's the question I explored with Naiyya Saggi at SMARTIES Unplugged, in our fireside chat on "Building the Brand Moat: Creativity, Technology & Effectiveness." The full conversation is now live on MMA APAC YouTube channel.
From BabyChakra to EDT, Naiyya has built around community, consumer insight, trust and technology. Two things she said have stayed with me.
1. Personalise the journey, not just the message.
At EDT and with Luma, personalisation isn't something added on at the end. It shapes the whole experience a customer goes through. When the brand feels like it was built around you, it's very hard for a competitor to copy that relationship.
2. Bravery is a strategy.
Naiyya and her team have made bold choices that are rewriting the codes of their category. Most brands follow the category codes. Brands that last are brave enough to rewrite them. Copying a product is easy. Copying the conviction behind it is much harder.
A few more ideas from our conversation:
#Trust is a business asset. It shows up when customers come back, recommend you and forgive you.
#Technology makes an idea bigger. It doesn't make it distinctive. It should scale an idea without flattening the brand.
#Reach is not the scoreboard. Look at retention, pricing power, customer value and growth.
#AI is everywhere, so it isn't the advantage on its own. As a SMARTIES juror, I see AI in almost every entry now. As execution gets easier, the edge moves to insight, judgment, taste and courage.
My takeaway: a campaign can win you a quarter. A brand that is personal, trusted and brave enough to redefine its category can win you a decade.
Thank you, Naiyya, for a candid and generous conversation, and to MMA IndiaMoneka Khurana and the SMARTIES team for hosting it.
To watch the full session link in the first comment.
Which brand do you think has been brave enough to rewrite its category's rules?
Amazing to see the pictures and have heard great feedback about the event. Congratulations Ranjana K.and the MMA India team for such an insightful event.
There’s so much conversation around AI today, but I think we learn the most when we share what we’re actually doing with it.
Really glad we could share our experience, and I hope it gives fellow marketers some ideas and inspiration to explore how AI can make a difference in their own work.
We’re all learning as we go, and the more we share, the more we learn from each other!
The panelists unpacked why scaling AI successfully requires far more than technology alone – demanding clear business strategy, mature digital capabilities and an unwavering focus on human insight to drive real impact. Thanks to MMA India for a fantastic event.
Hi Lloyd,Thank you so much for being such a wonderful partner throughout SMARTIES Unplugged and the Leadership Roundtable.We truly appreciated the opportunity to be part of the conversation and connect with the industry in a meaningful way. Thank you to you and the team for a well-executed event and a seamless experience throughout.
Looking forward to the event report and future opportunities to work together.
Moneka and MMA India team are bringing important conversations around AI and marketing to the forefront. So much to learn from the work happening across the industry!
Can a regular commute become a media moment for brands? Uber Advertising surely thinks so.
The newly launched mobility platform in India believes that where consumers are going can matter as much as who they are. However, when does contextual relevance step into the realm of intrusive targeting?
During a fireside chat at MMA India SMARTIES Unplugged 2026, Uber Advertising’s head, Arpit Tyagi, discussed the promise of reaching consumers at the right moment, and the responsibility to ensure advertising doesn’t compromise the ride. Read more on Campaign India.
