Dentsu’s Harsha Razdan on when advertising starts feeling transactional and why

India’s advertising industry grew 8.3% in 2025, pushing the market past Rs 1.21 lakh crore despite macroeconomic uncertainty. According to the dentsu Digital Advertising Report 2026, the market is projected to cross Rs 1.30 lakh crore in 2026 and Rs 1.40 lakh crore by 2027.

But this is more than a growth story. It marks a shift in power.

Digital now commands nearly 60% of total ad spends, a leap from barely double digits a decade ago (12% in 2016). By 2027, it is expected to command 70% of the advertising pie. Traditional media still carries weight, but budgets are steadily flowing toward performance-led, digital-first ecosystems. The centre of gravity has moved. And with it, the way advertising is being planned.

The growth is not uniform across formats.  Social media commands the largest share of digital ad spends at 29%. Online video follows closely with 28% (₹20,004 crore), supported by the explosive growth of short-form content, OTT platforms and mobile-first video consumption.

Paid search contributes 23% (₹16,581 crore), while display banners account for 16%, anchored in retargeting and broad-reach visibility.

The structure of digital is evolving from banner-heavy ecosystems to video-first, intent-rich and commerce-enabled environments.

Harsha Razdan, CEO, South Asia, dentsu, believes the industry’s biggest misstep is confusing measurement with meaning.

“We have started mistaking what we can measure for what truly matters.”

As digital expands, optimisation has become embedded in the DNA of media planning. Dashboards are sharper, attribution models are more sophisticated, and performance is visible in real time.

But Razdan believes that somewhere in this evolution, the metric became the mission.

“Somewhere along the way, optimisation became the goal. We plan for impressions, clicks and dashboards but not always for impact. Scale does not automatically create meaning. When plans become too channel-led, advertising starts feeling transactional. It performs, but it does not always resonate.”

The consequence, he argues, is subtle but significant. Campaigns deliver numbers, but not always memory. Efficiency rises, but differentiation blurs. 

In response, the industry has begun searching for a new proxy for effectiveness.

The attention illusion

If metrics have become the mission, the industry’s growing obsession with ‘attention’ risks becoming the next shorthand. Razdan cautions against reducing it to another dashboard number.

“Attention is not a score. It is a signal. It is that moment when someone pauses instead of scrolling, when something feels compelling enough to stay with. If we reduce it to a single number, we risk missing the point.”

Real attention, he explains, reveals itself across multiple signals, time spent, depth of interaction, repeat visits and contextual fit. But measurement alone is not enough.

“More importantly, it should link back to outcomes. Does it build memory? Does it improve trust? Does it change behavior? If attention does not connect to long-term brand impact, it becomes just another metric in a crowded dashboard.”

That risk is compounded by the way platforms are built.

“Algorithms tend to reward what performs quickly. And over time, that can lead to similar formats, similar hooks, similar messages. It’s efficient but it can flatten distinctiveness. Optimisation helps scale. But culture builds identity. Brands that stand out will be the ones that use data to sharpen relevance, not to remove personality.”

Programmatic advertising already accounts for 42% of digital display spends. As automation deepens, the risk Razdan flags becomes sharper that when delivery systems are increasingly AI-driven, the differentiator cannot be optimisation alone, it has to be creative and cultural sharpness.

The pressure to perform

If algorithms create the risk of sameness, commercial realities amplify it further.

Razdan says, “The pressure today is not just about performance. It is about balance. Brands are expected to deliver short-term results, especially in search, social and retail media, while also standing out in feeds that look increasingly similar. That’s not easy.”

The competitive intensity is visible across categories. The report highlights that categories like telecom, e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, and FMCG now allocate the largest share of their media budgets to digital, reflecting the need for precise targeting, measurable outcomes and always-on consumer engagement. 

These sectors rely heavily on performance-led campaigns, regional digital content and commerce-linked journeys, making digital their dominant investment channel. 

The FMCG segment continues to dominate India’s digital media landscape, contributing 32% (₹23,243 crore), driven by high-frequency consumption categories and always-on digital engagement. E-commerce follows with 22% (₹15,836 crore), reflecting its scale, aggressive acquisition cycles and deep integration of performance marketing. Other growth-driving sectors include consumer durables, automotive and pharmaceuticals, all of which are accelerating digital adoption through targeted communication and richer product-discovery experiences.

With digital-native sectors scaling rapidly, the performance pressure is structural, not cyclical.

He explains that what needs to change is the intent behind the plan. While AI can help optimise delivery, it cannot decide why a brand should matter.

“That still requires judgement, creativity, and cultural understanding. Efficiency is important. But effectiveness is built on relevance.”

The challenge, however, is intensifying in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Digital-first sectors are competing within the same attention economy, chasing the same consumer signals. At the same time, expectations around omnichannel consistency, first-party data and accountability have increased.

The telecom sector allocates 29% each to social media and online video, balancing high-impact storytelling with continuous engagement for plans, bundles and service updates. E-commerce directs 38% of its budget to paid search and 30% to social media, reflecting its need to capture high-intent shoppers while stimulating discovery through influencer and content-led demand.

The pharmaceutical sector, with 42% spends on paid search, relies on search-driven accuracy to reach users with condition-specific queries while operating within stringent compliance frameworks.

FMCG, dedicating 45% to online video and 30% to social media, prioritises reach, visual storytelling and regional penetration across high-frequency categories.These mixes reflect each sector’s consumer journey: telecom and FMCG focus on broad reach and visual impact; e-commerce and pharma prioritise precision and intent capture; and social media remains central across categories for personalisation, community influence and rapid optimisation.

“As digital grows, so does accountability. And so does the need for clearer thinking.”

That clearer thinking, he argues, must also extend to channel choices.

Rediscovering balance

Recalibration does not mean abandoning legacy channels. Traditional media, Razdan suggests, should not be relegated to the margins of a digital-first plan.

“Traditional media should not be treated as an afterthought. OOH, cinema, print and experiential formats create presence in a way digital sometimes can not. In a scrolling world, physical spaces create pause. And as digital OOH networks expand, these channels are becoming smarter and more connected. Digital drives precision. Traditional builds stature. When planned together, they don’t compete - they compound impact.”

Yet even as planners rethink balance, commerce is accelerating faster than ever.

Commerce at the speed of culture

Everything can be optimised now, yet clarity of intent feels harder to hold onto. This tension sharpens further in commerce-led spaces.

By the end of 2025, advertising spends on e-retail platforms reached ₹17,601 crore, contributing 24.58% to total digital media spends. This represents a 55.86% growth over 2024, driven by expanding marketplace inventories, richer first-party data environments, and rising investments in performance-led commerce advertising across categories.

The report suggests that retail media will become a core advertising pillar over the next decade, as unified platforms combine storytelling and transaction. But the strategic question remains: does commerce-led planning risk diluting brand distinctiveness?

“If brands treat retail media purely as a discount or performance channel, they may win the click but lose the brand,” says Razdan.

Retail media compresses the path to purchase. Quick commerce compresses it further.

Discovery, decision and delivery can now occur within minutes, shrinking the gap between exposure and transaction. Planning, he argues, must become more moment-led and contextual.

“Moving fast shouldn’t mean sounding the same as everyone else.”

As advertising becomes more measurable, more immediate and more transactional, the instinct will be to optimise harder and move faster. Yet scale by itself will not determine what the next phase of growth looks like. If anything, the real transformation underway is quieter, a shift not simply from traditional to digital, or from storytelling to commerce, but from volume to value.

The market is headed toward ₹1.40 lakh crore. What will separate brands then isn’t how much they measure, but how selectively they act, because endurance won’t come from chasing every signal, but from deciding which ones truly matter.