Growth will come from commerce, content & brands converging as a system: Agchbayar

At the launch of the dentsu–e4m Digital Advertising Report 2026 on February 2, Amarsanaa Agchbayar, CEO, Dentsu Data Artist Mongol LLC and Executive Director, Data & AI Solution Center, Dentsu Digital Inc., took a long-view of India’s media and advertising evolution, framing the report’s 10th edition as both a milestone and a strategic pause.

Calling the moment “far more consequential than we had ever imagined”, Agchbayar positioned the report not as a reflection on short-term trends, but as a lens to understand the forces that will define the next 10 years of media and advertising in India.

“Digital media landscape has become something far more consequential than we had ever imagined and that makes this 10th edition not just an anniversary but a natural moment to step back and look forward… not at the trends for the next year but at the forces that will shape the next decade,” he said.

He underlined the scale and resilience of India’s advertising industry, noting that it has grown into a Rs 1.2 lakh crore market today, more than double its size a decade ago. However, Agchbayar stressed that scale alone does not explain the industry’s transformation.

“Advertising in India has moved from being a business multiplier to now becoming a cultural and economic force,” he said, adding that media today actively shapes aspirations, behaviours and belief systems, a responsibility that goes well beyond amplification.

Within this broader growth story, digital advertising has expanded at an entirely different pace. Over the past decade, the digital advertising market has grown 12-fold to approximately Rs 72,000 crore, while its share of total ad spends has increased five times.

Yet, Agchbayar argued that the real shift is psychological rather than numerical. “Digital has crossed a psychological threshold. It is no longer a channel, it is no longer a format, it is no longer even a sector. Digital is now the default state,” he said.

According to him, the rise of retail media, online video and creator ecosystems signals a phase of maturity rather than experimentation. As media reaches this stage, the next phase of growth will not be driven by scale alone, but by quality.

“The next decade will not be defined by more media but it will be defined by better media,” he said, pointing to visible structural shifts underway, including movement from reach to attention, targeting to trust, personalization to empathy, and platforms to ecosystems. These shifts, he emphasised, are structural and irreversible.

Setting the framework for the dentsu–e4m Digital Advertising Report 2026, Agchbayar introduced the report’s core thesis as “the next 10”, not as isolated trends but as interconnected forces shaping how media will be created, monetised, experienced and governed in India.

Rather than detailing each individually, he framed the future as “three acts of the next decade”.

The first act, he explained, focuses on how media creates value. Retail media and commerce-driven storytelling are emerging as the third pillar of advertising, alongside traditional brand and performance advertising. Subscription models are being reworked as consumers increasingly demand clarity and value. Simultaneously, brands are transforming themselves into content studios, IP owners and community builders.

“The signal is clear here. In the next decade growth will come from commerce, content and brands converging as a system,” Agchbayar said, adding that this growth will be driven by integration, not interruption.

The second act centres on how media builds meaning. Agchbayar pointed to a creative renaissance underway in India, powered by demographic shifts, regional voices, women-led narratives and Gen Z expectations. Purposeled storytelling, he noted, is evolving beyond statements to participation.

Attention itself, he said, is becoming the most valuable currency in media, measured not just in time spent but in cultural and emotional impact. “In the next decade the strongest brands will not chase culture rather they will participate in it and help shape it,” he observed.

The third and most consequential act, according to Agchbayar, is how media governs itself. At this level of maturity, trust becomes central to omnichannel presence, with consistency, transparency and consent no longer optional. Personalisation, too, is shifting into empathy, as media systems begin to understand context, intent and emotions rather than just identity.

Artificial intelligence, he said, is moving beyond media optimisation to decision-making at scale. As media becomes more intelligent and autonomous, it also becomes experiential, with immersive and spatial formats redefining how consumers experience culture, content and commerce.

Agchbayar highlighted India’s unique advantage at this juncture, citing its digital public infrastructure, growing AI capabilities and deep cultural diversity. “India can now lead the world in building a self-governing, ethical and a human-centric media ecosystem,” he said.

Summing up the report’s worldview, he identified three defining truths for the decade ahead: attention as the new currency, trust as the new scale, and culture as India’s greatest global advantage.

“The media of the next decade will not just grow businesses but it will shape how India sees the world and how India is seen by the world,” he concluded.