Marketing in 2026: An Age of Shared Agency

As years go, 2025 will probably be remembered in the short term as an “annus horribulus” given its geopolitics and the overall state of the world. However, over the longer arc of history, it will probably be remembered as part of the beginning of the age of AI. In my MxMIndia column this fortnight, I look forward to 2026 in the light of the longer frame.

From Recall to Rasa: Toward a New Theory of Advertising

Over my four decades in advertising, the last decades have seen the most change. The mean constraints of performance marketing, the obscurities of Big Data and soon the uncharted territory of AI. To regain its mojo, advertising needs to be more creative — not less —more in touch with the human side of the consumer, and move towards realising its potential as an art form. This fortnight, my MxMIndia column cloaks this thought in the form of a new theory of advertising. Sort of.

How Marketing Can Be the Hero and not the Handmaiden to The Anti-Heroes Of The Digital Age

Once in a while comes along a book or a body of thought that impacts one highly because it is both revolutionary in its newness while at the same time being resonant with one’s deepest notions of self and society. This post is the result of one such book that has crystalized in me a marketing project of global scope and deep societal impact that I hope to evangelize over the coming years. Write to me if you want to join in this nascent effort

The True Promise of AI in Marketing

The True Promise of AI in Marketing
I believe the use of analytic and AI in marketing till date has not just been sub-optimal but in the wrong direction. This post briefly points out a new direction