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2026: The Year Of...: When data, AI and trust will reshape advertising, says Lalatendu Das of Publicis Media
After a year of double-digit growth and capability expansion, Publicis Media South Asia CEO Lalatendu Das outlines why 2026 will mark a decisive shift for brands, from agentic AI adoption and data governance to authenticity-led influence.
As digital, commerce and influence go mainstream, Lalatendu Das explains why 2026 will be a reset year for how brands build relevance, trust and effectiveness.
As India’s media and advertising ecosystem matures into a more data-backed, programmatic and biddable marketplace, 2025 stood out as a year of transition rather than disruption. Digital, eCommerce, social and influencer marketing moved firmly into the mainstream, while CTV, OTT and emerging formats like micro-dramas opened up new storytelling possibilities for brands.
For Lalatendu Das, CEO of Publicis Media South Asia, these shifts coincided with a strong year of business momentum. The network posted double-digit growth, scaled its Connected Media proposition to a 580-million-strong audience graph, and invested aggressively in leadership and talent—laying the groundwork for long-term transformation. Under his leadership, the company expanded its client footprint, launched Spark Foundry India as its fourth media brand, and doubled down on future-facing capabilities spanning data, commerce, influence and CRM.
Yet, Das believes the real inflection point lies ahead.
In his view, 2026 will be the year when AI adoption becomes practical rather than performative, data privacy becomes a boardroom priority, and brands are forced to cut through advertising clutter by choosing authenticity and community over mass awareness.
Edited excerpts:
What were the key achievements for you and your teams in 2025?
2025 has been a seminal year for Publicis Media India as it continues its strong growth trajectory, solidifying its position amongst the top two players in the Indian media landscape. From a business standpoint, we delivered strong double-digit revenue growth. More importantly, we significantly expanded our client footprint, attracting best-in-class talent and investing in future-facing capabilities.
Even as we grow, we continue to prioritise client centricity and provide personalised senior leadership support to our clients.
In line with this philosophy, we launched our fourth media brand in the country, Spark Foundry India. We also invested in building future-facing capabilities. Publicis Connected Identity forms the core of our Connected Media proposition, and we have now scaled this to a ~580 Mn audience graph in India. Connected Media brings a holistic approach to brand building by marrying Media with eCommerce, Social/Influence and CRM. While we have traditionally been strong in core media and eCommerce, this year we accelerated our growth by scaling social/influence and CRM capabilities.
Lastly, we continue to attract and retain top-tier talent. This year, both Starcom India and Zenith India were recognised as a ‘Great Place to Work’. We onboarded senior leaders such as Ravi Bhaya, Diwakar Chandani, Radhika Subberwal, Saurabh Bhatnagar to strengthen our new business growth, influencer and strategy functions. At the same time, senior leaders like Rathi Gangappa, Jai Lala, Niti Kumar and Gautam Surath took on expanded mandates.
What defining trends stood out for you in 2025?
2025 was a challenging year in many ways. Global geopolitical uncertainty, US tariffs and the broader rebalancing of the global supply chains dampened business sentiments in the first half. However, GST reforms and favourable monetary policies helped strengthen the sentiment in the last quarter. Consumer spending revived, and ad spend picked up as well. From a media perspective, digital and e-commerce spending continued to rise. Social and Influence made rapid strides and became a mainstream lever.
As a result, advertisers are looking to balance PESO (paid, earned, owned and shared) media to drive effectiveness.
CTV and OTT continue to gain premium viewership, creating new opportunities for innovative content integration. Micro-dramas as an advertising medium also gained visibility.
Overall, the Indian media landscape is maturing rapidly, becoming more data-backed, programmatic and biddable.
How did the rise of AI and generative AI impact your industry this year?
AI is widely regarded as the next big shift in our industry. In 2025, we saw the application of AI in multiple aspects of advertising, from creative personalisation, content production at scale, to consumer research, competitive analysis, data interpretation and media optimisation.
Publicis Media India, we take a long-term view of AI. We believe it will not only unlock efficiency but also drive significant effectiveness in the way we partner with our clients. To this end, we have initiated focused projects to re-imagine end-to-end business processes through an agentic-AI approach and to upskill our talent for the AI age.
We are highly optimistic about the transformation AI will bring to our business and the industry as a whole.
What disruptive trends will take the spotlight in 2026?
Looking forward to 2026, three disruptive trends stand out:
AI adoption at scale: Beyond the hype, AI will mature and push brands to re-imagine core business processes. Agentic AI will see deeper and more practical applications across advertising workflows.
Data and privacy: With the DPDP Act notified in November 2025 and consent-management frameworks expected within 12 months, brands will accelerate data-modernisation and governance initiatives.
Authenticity over general awareness: With an oversupply of advertising competing for attention, authenticity will become a crucial lever for salience. Brands will increasingly rely on regional influencers with deeply engaged communities.
What is your New Year’s resolution/s on a professional and personal front?
Personally, I am not a fan of New Year’s resolutions. I find the whole idea of waiting for the calendar year to change before acting on something you believe in rather perplexing. I prefer to start whenever I am convinced of an idea.
That said, I do have goals for 2026. Professionally, my goal is to continue to scale Publicis Media India by providing unmatched value to clients. On the personal front, I aim to raise my chess ELO score to above 1,600.
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