Storyboard18 presents FAST FIVE
We bring you top five news updates from the world of advertising, marketing, and business of brands.
Gaming, toys, D2C among sectors most exposed as Gen Alpha targeting shifts away from behavioural data
Gaming, toys, D2C brands, quick-commerce and food-delivery adjacent categories could be among the hardest hit as advertising to younger audiences moves away from behavioural targeting and in-app tracking COO and Co-founder of TheBlurr
Edtech and app-based subscription businesses could also face pressure, particularly where their customer acquisition funnels have historically relied on behavioural signals, retargeting and lookalike audiences.
“Gaming, toy, D2C and quick-commerce or food-delivery adjacent categories that leaned hardest on retargeting and lookalike audiences of minors will be hit the hardest. Edtech and app-based subscription businesses will also take a hit since their funnels were built on behavioural signals and in-app tracking,” Menon told Storyboard18.
1.65 lakh creators, 50,000 advertisers: Amazon scales creator commerce with Creator Connections
Creator marketing is moving deeper into the transaction funnel. Amazon’s latest move in India brings brand campaigns, creator discovery and affiliate-led conversions into the same ecosystem, as the e-commerce major launches Creator Connections, a programme designed to connect eligible creators with relevant brand campaigns and reward performance through clicks and conversions.
The programme is being introduced in a phased manner, beginning with Amazon’s most engaged creators, while 50,000 advertisers are set to participate at launch. For creators, the proposition is relatively direct: campaigns are recommended based on their profile, audience and content, while creators can also browse campaigns that match their interests, participate through their affiliate links and earn from eligible engagement and conversions.
From pack to ad: Should HFSS warnings follow food brands everywhere?
The next time a consumer picks up a packaged food product, the most important message on the front may not be the brand name, the flavour or the health claim. It could be a red hexagon warning that the product is high in sugar, salt or saturated fat.
But there is a question that comes before the packet reaches the supermarket shelf: What if the consumer has already been persuaded to buy it?
That is the regulatory gap now coming into sharper focus as the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) proposes red, hexagonal front-of-pack warning labels for packaged foods high in specified nutrients of concern, including added sugar, added saturated fat and salt.
Rs20 paywalls to Rs15 lakh shows: Inside India’s microdrama economics
India’s increasingly crowded microdrama market may be attracting broadcasters, OTT platforms, startups and even commerce companies, but the economics of the format are still being worked out.
Sabarish Venkat, CEO of Kadhai Shorts says the industry is currently spending anywhere between ₹10 lakh and ₹20 lakh to produce a microdrama series, with around ₹15 lakh emerging as a reasonable average benchmark.
For Kadhai Shorts, which currently charges users ₹20 to unlock a series after the first five episodes, that would translate into roughly 75,000 paying users for a ₹15 lakh title to recover its production cost alone.
The platform, however, is not yet optimising for revenue.
Non-FCT business now makes up a third of Red FM’s revenue: Nisha Naryanan
Every festive quarter, Indian advertising reduces itself to a familiar arithmetic. Brands chase eyeballs, mediums chase brands, and somewhere in that chase, one of the country’s oldest mass mediums has quietly stopped playing by the old rules. For an industry that built its balance sheet on selling airtime by the second, the more revealing story this season is not how many people are tuning in, but how much of the business no longer depends on tuning in at all.
That tension sits at the centre of a conversation with Nisha Narayanan, Director & COO of Red FM, one of the country’s largest radio networks with 68 stations on air in 67 cities. On one side of her business sits FCT, or Free Commercial Time, the conventional ad slots that have historically been radio’s bread and butter.
Catch Storyboard18’s top stories, features, videos and more from the brand marketing ecosystem and subscribe to our newsletter for all the insights, news, views and analyses.
Follow Storyboard18 on Google for the latest and breaking special coverage and industry updates, along with in-depth coverage of digital media and brand and marketing news. Stay informed with the latest perspectives only on Storyboard18.
Tags
First Published onSeptember 8, 2026, 17:06:02 IST
SPOTLIGHT
Special CoverageStoryboard18 crosses 1 million monthly active users, marking a new milestone in its growth journeyRead More
SEE ALL
SAC 2026: Swiggy, Nestlé, HDFC, Flipkart, Puma, Lahori Zeera shine | Why Piyush Pandey remains India’s creative North Star
Storyboard18 brings you top five news updates from the world of advertising, marketing, and business of brands.
