Brand Marketing
FMCG firms cut senior roles by 32%; Total headcount shrinks 9.26% in FY25
GCPL’s Harshdeep Chhabra on launching AI-led content factory, BARC reform, and why TV still reigns in India
From in-housing media planning to launching an AI-led content factory, GCPL is betting on data partnerships, attentive reach, and cultural insight to power its brand growth, while pushing for updated industry measurement systems.
"...that’s probably one of the reasons and probably one of the key reasons that an independent (ad agency) would lose out as compared to a larger organization,” Chhabra noted.
While in FY25 overall FMCG company Godrej Consumer Products increased its ad spends by 2.47%, in the June quarter it had trimmed consolidated ad spends by 5.15%. For the quarter, the Good Knight and HIT brand maker scaled up its expenses by 13.4%. However, it reduced its advertisement and promotional expenses significantly. Its ad expenditure declined by 5.15% to Rs 313.83 crore while on standalone basis, the company reduced adex by 10.11% to Rs 231.62 crore in Q1 FY26.
During a recently held media roundtable, Harshdeep Chhabra, Global Media Head of Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL), laid out the company’s evolving marketing playbook, rooted in first principles, built for global scale, and sharply attuned to India’s unique consumer culture.
Responding to Storyboard18 on the Q1 ad spend dip, Chhabra said, "...simply because we have to reach the maximum number of people at the minimum cost, and we will continue to do so wherever we see the awareness-to-trial ratio working for us. At some point, we corrected where our ratios were, and now we are investing enough and more behind our brands.'
He further pointed out that GCPL remains number three advertiser on television and among the top five advertisers in the country. "We have consistently invested in our brands and will continue to do so, but in a way that ensures the lowest possible cost per attentive reach."
As the media ecosystem evolves, with more in-housing allowing the company to control costs, and as new partner ecosystems come in through various negotiations, Chabbra emphasised, "We are focusing on making bigger investments with fewer, more strategic partners to enable better quality conversations.
This combination of factors is what drives the so-called “R” number. But the number I’d encourage you to ask about is whether our reach has dropped compared to last year- and the answer is no. If I’m able to deliver more reach than my competition, and more than what I was delivering three, six, or twelve months ago, that’s what matters to us."
Chabbra further pointed out that in India, GCPL’s advertiser ranking has risen from 17th in 2021 to 5th in 2023 across all media categories. Ad spends have grown 2.5x in two years, in line with business growth.
On linear TV, GCPL is now the third-largest advertiser, holding 5% of GRPs, the only Indian-origin brand in the top five. “This is significant because Indian companies often think BTL-first, while multinationals invest heavily in brand building,” he noted.
Over the last three to four years, especially since Sudhir Sitapati’s arrival, GCPL has sharpened its focus on brand investment, Chhabra shared. “At the end of the day, that’s what FMCG is about. Anyone can make a soap at home, but for it to be branded and sell as a top product requires branding.”
In-Housing and AI Integration
GCPL has in-housed media planning via MASH (Media Allocation and Spends Harmonization), tripling campaigns, cutting costs, and aligning with business priorities.
A three-member programmatic team now runs operations across 20 countries, replacing 16 agency staff who handled just one.
The group has also set up an AI lab at the Godrej Group level and is launching an AI-led content factory, starting in South Africa, to produce influencer-style creative in hours instead of weeks.
Chhabra believes AI will evolve from artificial intelligence to imitation to imagination, eventually producing fully virtual brand ambassadors.
The executive also highlighted how he thinks India is a ripe environment for a platform like TikTok to come back into India. "...TikTok has disrupted Indonesia for us, TikTok has disrupted South Africa. For us, we are doing a lot of work with them in the United States. It's a ripe environment for someone TikTok like to come back into India.
..What we are looking at is whether we should be using TikTok a lot more, because we believe that that's one part that we're sitting out of India tend to be blind towards. We tend to understand Meta, YouTube, TV, but we don't quite get TikTok.
That's one place where we as a channel, we may not have done enough investments, but fortunately we have some realization around it."
First-Party Data Economics
Chhabra was candid about the ROI challenge of first-party data in FMCG.
“Unless the average order value is upwards of Rs 500 or Rs 600, it doesn’t make sense, you lose so much on logistics and investment. At our scale, with our audiences, first-party or second-party data doesn’t make sense. If we were selling Mercedes cars, fine. But we’re selling Rs 10 soaps.”
He predicts an ‘every-party’ data model, with multiple partnerships making data acquisition viable at scale.
TV’s Enduring Value and BARC’s Limits
Despite the growth of digital, linear TV remains GCPL’s cheapest, safest, and most scalable medium.
“97% of India is still a single-TV-household market… culturally, India will continue this way,” Chhabra said, stressing that TV minutes consumed have stayed constant even if total viewers have dipped.
BARC remains valuable, he said, despite the challenges. “One of the largest measurement systems in the world...but its 2018 base data needs updating. We’re pushing for updated, transparent measurement,” he added.
Platform Choices and Festive Strategy
CTV already claims 80–85% of GCPL’s internet investments, with regional growth seen as the “big unlock.”
Print retains value for credibility and reach, though it’s more expensive than TV or digital. FM radio is absent from GCPL’s national plan, though local activations are being explored, Chabbra shared during the roundtable.
Sharing his festive media buying, he highlighted how the plan follows the principle of maximum reach at lowest cost.
"This year, the only big-ticket investment is in Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, chosen for its promotional push and favourable price."
For Chhabra, awards don’t define success, growth does. “GCPL’s India top-line has grown nearly 60% in five years, that’s our true award.”
As he put it, the company’s guiding question is not just “What will change?” but “What will not change?”—and in India’s media landscape, that still includes a powerful role for TV, sharper consumer localization, and relentless investment in brand building.
Among the major shifts GCPL is preparing for includes:
- From reach to attentive reach: Measuring eyes-on-screen in real homes using AI.
- From mass to hyperlocal and hyperpersonal: Using the GAGA model (Geography, Age, Gender, Affinity).
- From fragmented supply to consolidated partnerships: Predicting a “3+1” platform ecosystem, with possible Doordarshan resurgence.
- From Hindi-first to local dialects: Adapting content to micro-markets.
- From traditional buying to programmatic reservation: Developing cross-platform inventory procurement tech.
Building a Future-Fit Media Function
GCPL’s global media team vision is clear: future-fit media solutions for attributable business and brand growth. It rests on four pillars—delivering both short-term and long-term growth, attributing growth to media actions, finding media-driven solutions beyond creative or retail drivers, and staying ready for the next five years.
The company’s Marketing First Principles, from “every buyer matters” to “brand building drives higher growth than promotions”, translate into Media First Principles: maximising reach, ensuring continuity year-round, building distinctive brand assets, and prioritising brand building over short-term discounts.
Further, GCPL mandates every team member to spend 10 days per quarter in the market, meeting consumers at home, in shops, and with local media owners. “This often challenges assumptions from Excel data,” Chhabra said, citing examples from Odisha and Maharashtra where language and affluence patterns reshaped media strategy.
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