Advertising
From Pink Slips to Silent Sidelining: Inside adland’s layoff and anxiety crisis
CCI scrutiny on ad agencies stretches to mid-2026 | Bail for Saumya Rathore | How India’s ad monetisation changed in 2025
Storyboard18 brings you top five news updates from the world of advertising, marketing, and business of brands.
The investigation has gathered momentum through 2025, witnessing both enforcement action and courtroom challenges.
Storyboard18 presents FAST FIVE ⬇
We bring you top five news updates from the world of advertising, marketing, and business of brands.
Media cartel probe: DG report likely by mid-2026 as ad agencies face prolonged CCI scrutiny
Legal experts tracking the case point out that the DG’s investigation will focus on internal communications, WhatsApp chats, coordinated rate cards, meeting records and agreements that could indicate collusion.
Mega deals from Netflix to JioHotstar fuel $144 billion media and entertainment M&A in 2025
Despite tariff shocks, geopolitical unease and a renewed India-Pakistan standoff, 2025 did not turn into the year of retreat many dealmakers had feared. Instead, mergers and acquisitions pushed forward, driven by a handful of outsized transactions that reshaped industries even as uncertainty lingered in the background.
Globally, M&A activity rebounded sharply. Bain & Company estimated the deal value reached $4.8 trillion in 2025--a 36% increase from the previous years. In India, companies announced nearly 650 transactions, lifting disclosed deal value beyond $70 billion--a sign that corporate India remained willing to bet on scale, consolidation and long-term growth despite near-term volatility.
ED vs WinZO: Bail for Saumya Rathore on gender grounds; Paavan Nanda’s plea rejected
Allowing Rathore’s bail plea, the sessions court held that she was entitled to the benefit of the proviso to Section 45 of the PMLA, which exempts women from the law’s otherwise stringent “twin conditions” for bail.
How India’s ad monetisation model was rewritten in 2025
If there was one thing that became clear in India’s advertising business in 2025, it was that the way money is made from media no longer looks the way it used to. According to industry experts, monetisation has shifted decisively toward digital, retail media and connected TV, even as television and print steadied themselves and reworked pricing and inventory in response to new realities.
What really changed, however, was not just where the money went, but what advertisers now expect in return.
How 2025 exposed true scale of Ad Fraud and what brands must fix in 2026
From AI-powered bots and deepfake ads to hidden mobile app schemes and CTV manipulation, ad fraud in 2025 moved beyond clicks and impressions, forcing Indian brands to rethink accountability, governance, and full-funnel trust ahead of 2026.
Catch Storyboard18’s top stories, features, videos and more from the brand marketing ecosystem and subscribe to our newsletter for all the insights, news, views and analyses.
SPOTLIGHT
From purpose-driven work and narrative-rich brand films to AI-enabled ideas and creator-led collaborations, the awards reflect the full spectrum of modern creativity.
Read More“Confusion creates opportunity for agile players,” Sir Martin Sorrell on industry consolidation
Looking ahead to the close of 2025 and into 2026, Sorrell sees technology platforms as the clear winners. He described them as “nation states in their own right”, with market capitalisations that exceed the GDPs of many countries.