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  • “An award-winning piece of work is the one which actually causes a noticeable impact in consumers’ lives beyond regular consumption or transactions.” Says GM Marketing, Bharti Airtel

“An award-winning piece of work is the one which actually causes a noticeable impact in consumers’ lives beyond regular consumption or transactions.” Says GM Marketing, Bharti Airtel

We had the pleasure of interviewing Mohit Gupta, GM, Marketing for Bharti Airtel, one of the exceptional members of this year’s jury for the Festival of Media APAC Awards 2025. He reflects on his favourite media campaigns from the past year, highlights the changes he hopes to see in the media industry, and offers invaluable advice for this year’s APAC Awards applicants. His insights are sure to inspire and guide the next generation of award-worthy work.

What is your favourite media campaign of the last 12 months and why?

I have two personal favourites here, first one is the Swiggy Instamart series of campaigns talking about quick delivery of everyday essentials which was deployed at high frequency across TV & Digital touchpoints and very resonant with the campaign messaging at its core. 

The second one is the latest brand collaboration between Puma and ace Indian badminton player PV Sindhu, where the brand evolved their identity with a very smart creative play on the brand name & the sportswoman’s initials (PUMA became PVMA), and very interesting this was not just limited to regular media channels but also the brand stores saw this re-branding and become a big talking point by the sheer conversations these initiated on social platforms.

What, in your opinion, separates a good campaign from an award-winning campaign?

A good campaign is the one that’s able to drive impact on brand measures’ and business, but an award-winning piece of work for me is the one which actually causes a noticeable impact in consumers’ lives as well beyond the regular consumption/transactions.

What advice would you give to agencies or brands submitting campaigns into The Festival of Media APAC Awards programmes?

Marketers and agency partners should have acute focus on consumer insight that they tapped into while developing a media solution and how did they ensure executional excellence to drive the impact for the brand

What one thing would you like to see change in the industry over the next 12 months?

With the rising penetration of mobile devices & internet accessibility, there is a growing repository of audience interaction information, which is a very good source of understanding consumer behaviour and insighting. As marketers, we should develop the necessary capabilities to be able to harness this information and use for conceptualizing and designing campaigns in the times ahead

What emerging trends or innovations have you observed in media campaigns this year?

Use or rather over-use of AI is the most dominant trend that’s there in many media campaigns that has been observed in recent times, but in most cases, this is a over-claimed zone and not really a large scale audience/channel customized campaign based truly on AI. There is more work to be done in the area I would say to develop and execute campaigns, which truly leverage AI at scale & with a true purpose of using AI rather than just being in the buzz-trends

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