Speakers:
- Raj Kamble – Founder & CCO, Famous Innovations
- Gaurav Ramdev – CMO – India & South Asia, Visa
- Ajay Kakar – Head – Corporate Branding, Adani Group
- Chandan Mendiratta – Chief Brand Officer, Zepto
- Harsh Deep Chhabra – Global Head – Media, Godrej Consumer Products Limited
Moderator: Rohit Ohri – Founder, Ohriginal
Highlights:
Harsh Deep Chhabra
- Godrej Consumer Products scaled from being among the top 20 advertisers to one of India’s top 4 advertisers
- Advertising investments increased significantly, with campaigns rising from around 10 to nearly 30 per month
- In-housing became important because business data, growth KPIs and strategic insights are deeply integrated internally
- The focus is not on awards, but on marketplace growth, brand visibility and shareholder value
- Strong emphasis on aligning marketing efforts with business outcomes and sales impact
- Brands need teams that are closest to the business and understand growth priorities deeply
Gaurav Ramdev
- In-housing is driven by the need for speed, agility and cultural relevance
- Modern brands need to react to culture and consumer behaviour in real time
- Long-term strategic campaigns and fast-moving daily content now coexist together
- Consistency at scale remains important while adapting locally and responding quickly to trends
- The future operating model will be a hybrid between traditional agencies and agile in-house systems
Raj Kamble
- The biggest difference between agencies and in-house teams is culture
- Agencies bring outside perspective, debate, challenge and creative friction
- Many brands build in-house teams primarily for cost efficiency and tighter control
- Agencies often lose relevance when they fail to stay deeply connected to the client’s daily business realities
- Creative excellence thrives when brands and agencies work as true partners rather than competitors
- Strong agency culture encourages disagreement, experimentation and bold thinking
Chandan Mendiratta
- Zepto’s in-house model is built for agility and real-time cultural relevance
- Social media comments and consumer behaviour directly inspire campaigns within minutes
- Brand culture cannot be outsourced and needs internal ownership
- Zepto operates like a content creator brand, creating highly frequent and trend-driven campaigns
- The brand celebrates multiple cultural moments and micro-occasions to stay relevant daily
- The company created nearly 30 films in around three and a half months through its in-house setup
- In-house teams help maintain consistency across design, PR, communication and branding
Ajay Kakar
- The relationship between brands and agencies should function like a strong partnership built on mutual value
- Brands move work in-house when agencies fail to meet expectations around speed, relevance or execution
- The advertising industry must focus more on conversations and audience relevance rather than only impressions and reach
- Agencies and brands need more transparent collaboration instead of operating competitively
- If agencies fail to evolve with new tools, technologies and business expectations, clients will adopt those capabilities internally
- The future depends on understanding each other’s roles better and building complementary strengths
