Marketing

We're about to see an onslaught of consulting and IT services firms going big on working with AI platforms to deploy agents in the enterprise. And if you don’t understand why it’s happening, it’s an opportunity to reset your understanding of how the real world works. The real world will need a ton of help actually getting agents going in the enterprise. Companies deal with significant legacy tech stacks they need to modernize, data in tons of fragmented tools, knowledge that isn’t captured or digitized, and change management needed to actually utilize agents effectively. And they have to do all this while still running their business day-to-day, unlike startups, who can generally just design their organizations from the ground up to deploy agents into new workflows designed for them. This is why there is so much opportunity for companies (software or services) to actually deploy agents in specific domains and workflows. This remains a big opportunity for both existing services providers but also tons of new services startups as well. Every new technology wave produces a new era of consulting firms that can deliver on that technology. We're seeing this a ton at Box, both in partnering with new forms of technology consultancies as well as existing systems integrators that are building out all new agentic practice areas to help enterprises work with their unstructured data and agents. These service providers will have the benefit of being able to work across multiple data platforms, as well as see common practices that work or fail within an industry. This knowledge ends up being incredibly valuable right now, especially given how fast things are changing. A corollary to this is also that the forward deployed engineer (FDE) model is going to be alive and well for a long time because companies will want to have their vendor actually help drive the change management and implementation for their new workflows. There’s no shortcut to getting this work done for the enterprise, and the vendors are going to have to do a lot of this or risk low adoption. All of this type of work is going to be in high demand for quite some time, and it's incidentally another example of jobs that aren’t actually going away.

Amazon's $68 billion ad machine now has access to 190 million Netflix viewers. Here's what it means for advertisers. Amazon's ad business makes $68 billion a year. Now advertisers can target right audiences on Netflix through expanded targeting capabilities via Amazon DSP. Starting Q2 2026, brands buying ads on Netflix through Amazon's platform can now use Amazon's shopping data to target their 190+ million viewers. Think about what this means. Amazon knows what a huge chunk of U.S. households buy, browse, and search for. Netflix knows what they watch. That data is now being combined for targeting. So a skincare brand can target someone who searched for serums on Amazon - while they're watching a show on Netflix. Here's why this matters: → Netflix made $1.5 billion from ads in 2025 and is targeting $3 billion this year  → Early tests are already beating previous benchmarks → A large share of new signups now choose the ad-supported plan. Till now, streaming ads were about showing up in front of millions and hoping it works. This changes that. Now brands can connect what people watch to what they actually buy. For anyone running ads, this is worth paying attention to. Shopping and streaming just became one ecosystem. How do you think this will change the way brands plan their ad budgets?

Markiplier just broke Hollywood's playbook, and most studios still don't understand what happened. His horror film Iron Lung opened this weekend to $21M worldwide. On a $3M budget. Self-financed. Self-distributed. Virtually zero marketing spend. Let that sink in for a second. No studio backing. No bank financing. No distribution deal. He wrote it, directed it, starred in it, and released it under his own Markiplier Studios. When it came time for theatrical distribution, he didn't go hat-in-hand to distributors. His fans called theaters directly and demanded they screen it. The result? All three major US theater chains. 3,000+ venues in the US and Canada. 1,200+ screens internationally. Opening weekend? He rivaled Disney's Send Help for first place, a film with a $40M budget. He beat Melania's theatrical release as well. 7x return on budget in three days. Here's what the entertainment industry needs to reckon with: The traditional model assumes you need studios for financing, agencies for packaging, distributors for access, and massive marketing budgets for awareness. Markiplier needed none of it. He had something more valuable, a direct, loyal audience built over a decade on YouTube. This isn't a one-off anomaly. It's a preview of where entertainment is heading. MrBeast is building a content empire. Ryan Trahan just launched a feature. KSI, Logan Paul, and others are expanding into media businesses. The creator-to-studio pipeline is real, and it's accelerating. The question for traditional entertainment companies isn't whether creators can compete at the box office. Markiplier just answered that. The question is: what's your strategy when the talent doesn't need you anymore?

IndiGo (InterGlobe Aviation Ltd) CRISIS WASN’T IN THE SKIES. IT WAS IN THE LEADERSHIP CABIN. Three things stood out. One: Employees were left alone to face furious customers. No leader should ever let that happen. If you don’t stand by your people in a storm, don’t expect them to stand by your customers in the sun. Customer experience collapses the moment employees feel abandoned. Two: In any crisis, honesty is the only strategy that works. This time, the communication wasn’t transparent. When leaders hide the full picture, years of goodwill can disappear overnight. A crisis can earn trust, but only if you tell the truth. Three: The belief that “we are too big to be ignored” has ended more companies than competition ever has. Customers always have a choice. And if they don’t, they will create one. We shouldn’t watch the Indigo crisis like spectators. This is a reminder for every leader to build their own crisis blueprint. Because crises will come, when they do, your response becomes your reputation. There is more to business than profits. There are people, trust, and how you show up when it matters most.

I used to think charging less would get me more clients. After my trip to the US I realised it just made them trust me less. when i was cheap, clients questioned everything. "why this approach?" "can we try something else?" "i'm not sure about this." so when i raised my rates, they trusted my decisions completely. same work. different psychology. so here's what i've basically realized about pricing: when someone sees a low price, their brain doesn't think "great deal." it thinks "what's the catch?" they start looking for problems. inexperience. desperation. corners being cut. low prices trigger fear of loss, not excitement about savings. but when they see premium pricing, something else happens. "if they can charge this much, they must deliver results." "other people are paying this, so the value must be there." "the risk of not solving this problem costs way more than the investment." premium pricing signals confidence in your work. think about it. rolex doesn't make better watches from a functionality standpoint. but the price tells you everything about what owning one means. same thing with services. a premium project isn't necessarily 10x better in execution. but the price signals experience, systems, proven results. and here's the shift that changed everything for me: i stopped anchoring clients to the price and started anchoring them to the outcome. not "this costs X" but "this will generate Y for your business, and the investment is X." when they're thinking about ROI, the price becomes secondary. your pricing isn't just a number. it's a signal to the market about who you are and what you deliver.

In a MAJOR ruling for European copyright law, the Munich Regional Court has sided with Germany’s music rights society GEMA against OpenAI, finding that the company’s ChatGPT model unlawfully used copyrighted song lyrics in its training and responses. The decision, issued this morning, marks the first major European court judgment holding an AI company liable for using protected works without a licence. I got into AI through being Director of Legal Affairs and Regulatory Compliance in IMRO, the Irish counterpart of GEMA - and I know the people in GEMA - so this is very interesting to me. The case centred on GEMA’s allegation that OpenAI trained ChatGPT on its repertoire of German song lyrics, allowing the chatbot to reproduce works by artists such as Helene Fischer and Herbert Grönemeyer. The court agreed, concluding that the model’s ability to reproduce lyrics word for word demonstrated that the works had been used in training. It ruled that OpenAI is liable for copyright infringement and prohibited ChatGPT from reproducing lyrics from GEMA-represented artists unless a licence is obtained. The court also held that the European Union’s Text and Data Mining exceptions cannot shield generative AI systems that “memorise” and reproduce copyrighted material. This reasoning undermines one of the primary legal defences AI developers have relied upon in Europe. While damages will be determined in a separate proceeding, the court’s finding of liability alone sets a powerful precedent. OpenAI has announced plans to appeal. The 42nd Civil Chamber of the Munich Regional Court had indicated its position in September, when it observed that the model’s outputs could not be explained without training on copyrighted material. The final judgment confirmed that assessment. For the wider AI sector, the ruling suggests that AI companies operating in the European Union may need explicit licences for any copyrighted content used in model training or risk litigation. The decision also has regulatory implications. It aligns with growing momentum within the EU to enforce transparency and rights-holder protections under the AI Act and the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive. The GEMA v OpenAI ruling diverges sharply from Bartz v Anthropic in the United States. In Bartz, Judge Alsup found that AI training on copyrighted material could qualify as fair use, meaning no licence is required when the use is deemed transformative and non-substitutive. He viewed training as an analytical process that teaches the model general patterns rather than reproducing expression. The Munich court took the opposite view, holding that using protected works in AI training without permission constitutes reproduction requiring a licence. This illustrates the growing divide between the U.S. model, where fair use can exempt AI developers from licensing duties, and the European approach, which treats copyright as an enforceable economic right demanding prior authorisation.

Warner Bros. Discovery is officially splitting into two companies. And the move may reshape the entertainment landscape as we know it. Announced today, WBD will separate into: 🎬 WBD Streaming & Studios – Max, HBO, Warner Bros. Pictures, DC, and content production. 📺 WBD Global Networks – CNN, Discovery, TNT Sports, and other linear TV assets. David Zaslav will lead the Streaming & Studios entity, while CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels takes over Global Networks. This isn’t just operational restructuring—it’s a signal of strategic discipline. In a media world demanding agility and specialization, WBD is choosing focus over entanglement. For years, media conglomerates tried to be everything at once. Today’s move suggests the next era belongs to leaner, purpose-built organizations: one built for growth, another for value extraction. 🔍 Key implications: ⌙ Investor signaling: The market rewarded the move immediately. WBD stock jumped on the clarity and perceived unlock of future deal potential. ⌙ Deal logic accelerant: Each company now has clearer financials and objectives, making it easier to explore mergers, content alliances, or targeted asset sales. ⌙ Creative empowerment: The Streaming & Studios entity can now prioritize storytelling and platform scale without the drag of managing linear economics. Expect more risk-taking, franchise building, and talent-led bets. ⌙ Global strategy divergence: WBD Global Networks, still strong internationally, may double down on licensing and local partnerships, while Streaming leans further into global IP as a differentiator. This also raises bigger questions about how legacy assets are valued. Linear TV isn’t dead—but it’s no longer the center of the media equation. This move implicitly reframes cable and broadcast as supporting players in a world increasingly dominated by platforms, brands, and data-rich direct-to-consumer models. 📈 In short: WBD didn’t just split its balance sheet—it split its future. One side is now primed to scale storytelling in a streaming-first world. The other is free to optimize legacy economics without pretending it’s still the future. This may be WBD’s most forward-looking move since the merger. The media chessboard just changed.

We talk a lot about how brands can connect to women. But here’s where I think the conversation goes wrong: Women are not one group of like-minded consumers. The category of “women” comprises 4 billion people with different preferences, professions, purchasing habits, and personal lives. So how can brands connect with women? Authenticity. I'm talking about the kind of authenticity that comes from truly understanding, representing, and serving the people your brand reaches. Why does this matter? Let's look at the numbers first:  • Women are overseeing $32 trillion in spending globally.  • By 2028, 75% of discretionary spending will be controlled by women. These aren't just statistics—they're a wake-up call for brands trying to connect with women. Brands historically miss the mark when they focus on women as "consumers," rather than as people. Take Dove's work with the CROWN Act, a movement and legislation aimed at prohibiting race-based hair discrimination in workplaces and schools. By bringing attention to how women of color—particularly Black women—have historically been told how to wear their hair at work, Dove drove meaningful change that extended far beyond marketing. The result for Dove (and its parent company Unilever) hasn't just been products sold, but actual legislative change—all because they stood for something that impacts the day-to-day life of their consumers. The key to the consumer paradigm: You cannot effectively serve women if you don't represent them at every level of your organization. Women continue to hold relatively few leadership positions in industries primarily serving women. The fashion and beauty industries, for example, are dominated by male leadership. When brands get it right, it shows. A few examples? FERRAGAMO appointed a female CEO back in 1960—long before it was trending—and that commitment to women in leadership has been woven into their DNA ever since. It’s not a campaign. It’s who they are. Or formula company Bobbie, which doesn’t just have consumers, they have devoted brand ambassadors, families, and loyal subscribers. True representation isn't about optics—it's about women making decisions at all levels—from product development to marketing to the C-suite. Maybe we need to retire the word "consumer" altogether. Because if we're talking about real, authentic connections, shouldn't we instead be focusing on people as human beings. It's no longer about thinking what you “should” create to get them to buy—it's about genuinely making that woman’s life better because you know exactly who she is. And your company’s leadership reflects that. 

Imagine a world where technology doesn’t just support us—it redefines how we work, connect, and grow. That’s the future we’re preparing for at Kotak Mahindra Bank. Over the past month, I’ve had the incredible opportunity to lead three intensive training sessions focused on Generative AI and its game-changing potential. These weren’t just sessions—they were a bold step toward equipping our teams for the careers of tomorrow. As the pace of change accelerates, we’re not just keeping up; we’re setting the stage for what’s next. Why This Matters: The Context of Change The workplace is evolving faster than ever. A fascinating article published by The Times Of India on May 15, 2025, titled "The Hottest Jobs, 5 Yrs From Now? The Answers Will Surprise You," spotlighted industries poised for explosive growth by 2030—think Banking, AgriTech, Space Tech, and beyond. The piece predicts a surge in demand for roles like AI specialists, data scientists, and sustainability officers. This echoes the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2025, which forecasts 170 million new jobs worldwide by 2030, fueled by technology and a renewed focus on human skills like creativity and adaptability. These trends aren’t distant possibilities—they’re unfolding now. And at Kotak Mahindra Bank, we’re determined to lead the charge. Voices from the Top: What Industry Leaders Are Saying Global visionaries are sounding the alarm—and the opportunity: Elon Musk envisions a world with billions of humanoid robots and 50% of miles driven autonomously within five years. Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai shared that AI already generates 20-30% of code at Microsoft and Google, with full automation on the horizon. Bill Gates is betting big on robotic surgery, signaling AI’s expanding role in healthcare. Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder who predicted social media’s rise in 1997, now forecasts that traditional 9-to-5 jobs will vanish by 2034, replaced by a thriving gig economy. These statements aren’t just headlines—they’re a roadmap. The message is clear: adapt, upskill, and innovate—or risk being left behind. Looking Ahead: Your Role in the Future The next five years will be a defining chapter for careers everywhere. Whether you’re in banking, tech, or any field, the opportunity is yours to seize. Let’s make the next five years a launchpad for growth—for our careers, our communities, and our world. At Kotak, we’re proud to be pioneers in this journey, blending innovation with purpose to create a brighter tomorrow. Join us in embracing the future—it’s ours to shape. Together, let’s turn possibilities into realities. #FutureOfWork #AI #CareerDevelopment #OneKotak #BankingForTomorrow #Banker

Brad Pitt’s new F1 film is a masterclass in how brands can show up in culture. A $300 million budget. Real F1 tracks. And luxury brands fighting to sponsor a team that doesn’t even exist. It’s entertainment, sport and marketing all blending together... and it’s re-writing the playbook for how brands embed themselves into culture. Here’s what makes it stand out: • A fictional F1 team, APXGP, filmed during real Grand Prix weekends. • Brad Pitt, trained in a modified F2 car, driving alongside actual F1 drivers. • Lewis Hamilton co-producing to capture the authentic essence of the racing world. • Real brands like Mercedes-Benz AG, SharkNinja, IWC Schaffhausen and Tommy Hilfiger actively sponsoring a fictional team. • Actual drivers, including Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz, making cameo appearances. • All set for release in cinemas June 2025, followed by streaming on Apple TV+. This isn’t just clever product placement, it’s narrative integration at its best. Real brands woven into a fictional story, filmed in real-time at actual events. And it’s a glimpse of where brand marketing is heading. The film isn’t even out yet, and here we are talking about the brands already. That’s how you build long-term equity. This is the new standard in marketing: • Culture first, commerce second. • Stories over traditional advertising. • Integration, not interruption. If your brand isn’t part of the stories people care about, good luck buying their attention. Learn from this. Build worlds people want to be part of. Create stories they’d miss if they disappeared. And find ways to turn up in that culture and be part of the narrative. Rather than looking for ways to interrupt them.