THE ADVERTISING STRATEGY COLLECTION
Follow the value. Question the model.
The changing economics of media, agency capabilities and commercial growth.
START WITH THE QUESTION
How can a leadership team assess a changing media model?
Examine where customer decisions happen, which capabilities create value, who owns the evidence and how commercial incentives shape recommendations.
2 March 2026 · Perspective
India Read the Report. Nobody Read Between the Lines.
Anil reads an industry forecast as a warning about agency relevance in India. His argument: agencies that still depend on buying leverage and production margin need to show where their intelligence and capability create value.
23 February 2026 · Perspective
The Personalisation Paradox: Why the More You Target, the Less You Understand the Human You're Targeting
More targeting signals can create confidence without creating understanding. Anil questions whether audience models and personalisation systems reflect the people they describe or simply make an incomplete view look precise.
6 January 2026 · Perspective
The Great Rebalancing: Six Structural Rewrites That Will Define Advertising in 2026
Anil identifies six structural changes he believes could reshape advertising in 2026. The central question is where agencies, platforms and brands create defensible value as familiar forms of arbitrage come under pressure.
17 February 2025 · Perspective
The Customer Journey Is Dead. What Comes Next?
A tidy marketing funnel cannot describe every path to purchase. Anil challenges teams to account for fragmented journeys and the limits of last-click measurement.
6 January 2025 · Perspective
GenAI and the Pricing Dilemma: How Advertising Agencies Can Adapt and Lead
As generative AI reduces some production effort, agency pricing and client expectations may change. Anil explores how agencies can demonstrate value when efficiency gains put existing fee models under pressure.
13 November 2024 · Perspective
AI and Carbon Offsetting: Saving the Planet or Just a Greenwashing Trend?
Buying carbon credits can help fund climate action, but it can also become a shortcut around reducing emissions. Anil questions when offsetting represents a credible environmental response and when it risks greenwashing.
5 November 2024 · Perspective
Is Synthetic Sample worth it ?
Synthetic respondents promise speed in market research, but may reproduce bias and miss differences between real groups of people. Anil asks where simulated answers are useful and where they require validation against human evidence.
17 October 2024 · Perspective
From Samosas to Sustainability: The Real Cost of 10-Minute Deliveries
Fast delivery can create convenience while shifting costs into logistics, packaging and emissions. Anil asks whether the promise of ten-minute commerce accounts for those wider consequences.
19 September 2024 · Perspective
IQ, EQ, and Now… AQ? The New Competitive Advantage
Knowledge and emotional intelligence matter, but rapid change also rewards the ability to adapt. Anil explores adaptability as a professional capability rather than another score to collect.
31 July 2024 · Perspective
The Shift to “Permissioned Addressability’’: From Intrusion to Invitation
Anil proposes Permissioned Addressability as a way to start audience activation with the person’s permission and a clear value exchange. The framework challenges targeting models that treat access as consent.
11 July 2024 · Perspective
Does Size Matter in Advertising?
Large audience segments can look persuasive while obscuring how people were counted and whether they can actually be reached. Anil asks advertisers to examine the quality and usefulness of audience size claims.
20 June 2024 · Perspective
Collaboration and Disintermediation in the AdTech World: A Paradigm Shift
As DSPs, SSPs and publishers reconsider their roles, direct relationships may change the economics of programmatic buying. Anil explores where collaboration creates value and where intermediaries must justify their place.
6 June 2024 · Perspective
The erosion of consumer trust is the silent killer of digital advertising efficacy
Replacing cookies or rebuilding identifiers will not by itself repair people’s distrust of opaque data collection. Anil argues that advertisers need to address the relationship with consumers as well as signal loss.
3 May 2024 · Perspective
Rethinking Moment Marketing: Beyond Opportunism to Empathy and Authenticity
Fast reactions to a cultural moment can feel opportunistic when a brand lacks relevance or empathy. Anil asks when moment marketing earns attention and when it simply borrows it.
1 April 2024 · Perspective
Trapped or Transformed: The Walled Garden Dilemma
Walled gardens offer reach and convenience while concentrating control over access and evidence. Anil examines the trade-offs advertisers face when they rely on closed ecosystems.
4 December 2023 · Perspective
Beyond Buzzwords: Evolving from Digital Transformation to Organizational Renaissance
Buying new technology is easier than changing how an organisation works. Anil challenges the language of digital transformation and asks what deeper changes in people, process and purpose it conceals.
2 September 2023 · Perspective
🌟🚀 Programmatic Wars: Disintermediation or Just Industry Drama? 🌟🚀🤔🤔
Talk of disintermediation can obscure the specific economic changes in programmatic buying. Anil asks which roles are truly being bypassed and whether direct paths improve value or simply shift it.
21 June 2021 · Perspective
Open Internet Vs Walled Gardens
Anil questions the balance of advertising spend between walled gardens and the open internet. He asks brands to compare where audiences spend their time with where their budgets and measurement capabilities are concentrated.
9 December 2018 · Perspective
Programmatic in India- Where are we now in 2018?
Revisiting his earlier analysis of programmatic in India, Anil asks the industry to address practical barriers alongside its growth claims. The piece is a historical snapshot of the challenges he saw in 2018.
8 December 2018 · Perspective
What Ails Programmatic in India
Anil examines barriers holding back programmatic in India while the industry celebrates its potential. The piece argues for confronting practical buying and ecosystem problems alongside adoption claims.
12 April 2015 · Perspective
Programmatic Buying in India-The Challenges and the way out
A crowded digital supply chain creates opportunities and confusion for Indian buyers. Anil examines practical barriers in programmatic buying and the choices that might improve accountability.
5 April 2015 · Perspective
Startup valuation for dummies, how much is your company worth?
A founder with a finished product still needs to explain its value when seeking investors. This archived article introduces the questions behind startup valuation and funding discussions.
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