Merging Boundaries: From Placement to Partnership

Goafest is the premier festival for advertisers, marketers, and media professionals in India, held annually in the vibrant setting of Goa. Celebrated over three days, this iconic event is a grand celebration of creativity and innovation, spotlighting the finest work in advertising and media from across India and South Asia. Hosted by the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) in collaboration with The Advertising Club, Goafest features inspiring keynote sessions, insightful panel discussions, prestigious award ceremonies, and unmatched networking opportunities.

In 2025, the festival will unfold at the luxurious Taj Cidade de Goa, offering a perfect blend of business, creativity, and coastal charm.

Day 2 saw the “Merging Boundaries: From Placement to Partnership” panel unify media giant voices from the world of marketing, entertainment, and media to discuss evolving relationships between brands and their agency partners. Kartik Sharma, Group CEO, Omnicom Media Group India, moderated the session, which was a masterclass in reimagining collaboration in an ever-breaking up and consumer-driven world.

In all, four top minds who are currently defining how brands create relevance today shared the platform with him:

Satya Raghavan, Director – Marketing Partners, Google India; Rathi Gangappa, CEO, Starcom India; Ajit Varghese, Head of Revenue – Entertainment & International, JioStar; and Shubhranshu Singh, CMO, Tata Commercial Vehicles.

Satya Raghavan set the conversation going with a blunt reality check. “It’s time we ended the chasing of leads like they’re the only measure that counts,” he stated. Short-term spikes aren’t what he’s after, said Satya the true game is brand longevity. He encouraged agencies to raise their game fewer order-takers, more strategic provocateurs. “Marketing is not rocket science,” he smiled, “it’s optimism laced with common sense.” He was a firm believer in storytelling as the best way to break through clutter and establish human connection in a cacophonous digital world.

Rathi Gangappa grabbed the baton and ran with it, reframing media buying as media bonding. “It’s no longer about putting ads on it’s about making emotional connections,” she described. The agency today, she insisted, needs to be a glue bridging, effortlessly, the gaps between story, media, influencers, and brand allegiance to deliver a lasting consumer journey.

Ajit Varghese honed in on content being the new currency of trust. “Authentic brand partnerships are not transactional they are anchored in collective insights, creativity, and a shared objective: ROI,” he pointed out. OTT platforms, he further said, are goldmines for addressable storytelling. “It’s not what medium you’re with, but how clever you are with it,” he emphasized, pointing to YouTube’s power to induce search behavior and drive brand discovery as an example of smart media use.

Concurrently, Shubhranshu Singh introduced a down-to-earth, no-nonsense perspective from the commercial vehicle space. “No one partner can do it all,” he bluntly stated. “Agencies today aren’t just creatives they’re facilitators of scale, speed, and specialist thinking.” For him, the contemporary agency is less of a vendor and more of a critical addition to the brand’s operational strength.

Together, the panel sketched a future in which brand-agency partnerships are not transactional they are transformational. As the lines blur between placement, planning, and partnership, the call to action was unmistakable: it’s time for brands to move beyond co-creation, strategic connectivity, and long-term value to vanity metrics.

At Goafest 2025, this session left with a lasting impression one that real influence resides not in placements, but in partnerships that truly speak.