Tag: Marketing

The Meme, The Celebrity & Brandcasting

ncy of the digital era, while celebrities increasingly function as continuous generators of shareable cultural moments. But where do brands fit into this ecosystem? Can brands themselves become celebrities? And does a large follower base necessarily translate into true influence or virality? This column explores the evolving relationship between memes, celebrity and brands, arguing that the future lies not in chasing random virality but in what might be called “brandcasting” — the transformation of brands into sustained cultural presences that entertain, inform and emotionally engage audiences.

Market Modelling in a Siloed World

Over the past few decades, the influence of the Internet, digital media and e-commerce has had a huge impact on consumer marketing and shaken up the traditional structure and dynamics of the world’s advertising and market research agencies. While AI will further accelerate the change, in my MxMIndia column this fortnight, I outline the blossoming opportunity for a new kind of marketing services agency.

The Diffusion of AI, 3 years later: Why Users are the Real Operant Resources

Time moves fast. AI seems to move faster. Three years after I first wrote about the Diffusion of AI, a revisit reveals that it has moved from the challenging “chasm” phase to storming through the world like a “tornado”. In this fortnight’s MxMIndia column, while marvelling at its speed, I find that AI is an ecosystem that needs to share its bounty with the users, unlike the creators of social media platforms, who only harvest their attention and engagement. The best catalysts for harnessing AI’s full potential are its users, provided AI platforms treat them as partners and co-creators.

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.