Circles By VDO.AI: A Must-Read Digital Magazine For Marketing Leaders

Reading Time: 4 minutes

The debut edition of Circles by VDO.AI is here, a first-of-its-kind magazine that explores the evolution of marketing through the lens of those shaping it every day.

At the front & center of this edition is, Karan Kumar, CMO at Hero Realty, who believes that marketing today demands more than just creative flair, it calls for cultural fluency, strategic clarity, and measurable accountability. In his cover story, he takes us inside his brand strategy stack where insight is translated into consistent, compelling action. From building resonance that lasts to creating systems that scale, Karan shares why brand thinking today must be rooted in conviction not campaigns, and how marketers who deeply understand culture are the ones driving real impact.

Featuring stories and perspectives from some of the industry’s best, this edition unpacks how consumer behavior, brand storytelling, and marketing mindsets have transformed and what it takes to stay relevant in the years to come. Highlights of the Circles include:

Marketing with a Head and a Heart

What happens when you trade rulebooks for real conversations? Ankita Tuli, GM – Brand and Marketing at Magicpin, reveals how marketing can be both fast-moving and deeply human. In this candid conversation, she opens up about the evolving landscape of brand-building, balancing data and creativity, and why empathy is a superpower for the next generation of marketers.

Where Brand Meets Bottom Line

When creativity and commerce live in silos, brand building, and business outcomes both take a hit. Sonam Pradhan, Head Media & Digital Marketing South Asia at Kellanova, explores what it really takes to align media, messaging, and metrics at scale to move hearts and the needle, simultaneously.

The Currency That is Brand Trust

In this fireside chat, Priyank Pant, SVP & Head of Brand Marketing at Paisabazaar, cuts through the jargon to talk about how to be the “brand next door,” the link between consumer truths and brand honesty, and why, in the era of data and dashboards, storytelling still trumps all.

AI, Intuition, and the New Marketing Mindset

As AI takes on a bigger role in marketing, Aabhina urges leaders to treat it not as an autopilot, but as an ally, one that enhances human creativity and demands responsible use. Complementing this, Megha highlights the growing power of intangibles- belief, experience, and perception, especially in B2B marketing, where outcomes often matter more than offerings. Together, their pieces reflect a new era of marketing: one where automation meets awareness.

Experts: Aabhina Suresh Khare, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer, Bajaj Capital
Megha Agarwal, CMO, Table Space

Trust: The Currency You Can’t Afford to Lose

Trust isn’t a static asset; it’s a fragile, living currency. Animesh explores how trust is built (and broken) through everyday decisions, and why brands must move beyond assumptions to earn genuine loyalty across consumers, partners, and teams.

Expert: Animesh Misra, Head of Marketing, Microtek International

The Empathy Economy: From Care to Conversion

Marketing that solves, supports, and serves, Imran suggests that healthcare brands must move beyond episodic campaigns to create ecosystems rooted in real needs. Bhavna draws parallels in hospitality, where today’s travelers crave experiences that feel personal, not transactional. Both voices advocate for marketing that starts with understanding and ends with loyalty.

Experts: Imran Banat, Digital Marketing Manager, Dr.Reddy’s Laboratories Bhavna Mishra Nanda, Marketing Director, Holiday Inn Express

Rethinking Performance in the Attention Age

As performance marketing hits a credibility wall, Himanshu decodes how brands can stay real in a Gen Z-led market that sees through pretense. Meanwhile, Varun explores how content has evolved into a decision-driving strategist, one that guides users from swipe to sale. Their combined message? Real wins. And performance without authenticity is just noise.

Experts: Himanshu Sirohi, Head – Digital Marketing & Credit Cards Business, Apollo 24|7
Varun Shah, Senior Marketing Manager (Lead), Mahindra Holidays & Resorts

Trend Watch

Earning Your Seat at the Table

Drawing from military strategy, fan culture, and permission-based marketing, Jahan Nagrolwala, AVP Strategy & Planning, Havas India, makes a compelling case for resonance over reach. He urges brands to stop interrupting and start integrating, embedding themselves within communities to earn relevance, not just visibility, truly.

The Attention Rebellion

As brands chase views, consumers are starving for substance. Keren Benjamin Dias, Lead – Research & Strategy, White River Media, explores the growing resistance to empty metrics and reframes attention as a relationship, not a resource. In her view, earning attention in 2025 means creating value, not volume.

Achieving Full-Funnel Performance Through CTV

Bhairavi Rangarajan, Head of Digital Marketing & MarComm, Kohler India, spotlights Connected TV as more than a top-funnel awareness tool. From immersive storytelling to leveraging first-party insights and qualitative measurement, she shares how CTV can deliver performance across every stage of the consumer journey.

Advertainment 2.0: ‘Stop-My-Binge’ Worthy Ads

In this future-facing column, Sushant Pathak, Group CMO at Stonex India, sheds light on the evolution of advertainment in a world of skip buttons and scroll fatigue. From branded series to shoppable CTV, he explores how brands can captivate audiences through emotion-led storytelling, interactivity, and human-first design.

Featured Stories

From trust to technology, adaptability to authenticity, this edition of Circles brings together powerful narratives that reflect the evolving heartbeat of marketing.

In The Age of Adaptive Ads, Vikram Garga (Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Morde Foods), Driv Vohra (Head of Digital Marketing, Kellanova), and Dhruval Doshi (Head of Digital Marketing, Tata EV) unpack how automation, personalization, and real-time design are reshaping advertising in an attention-deficit era.

Subha Natarajan (President of Marketing and Communication, Acres Club), Animesh Misra (Head of Marketing, Microtek International), and Nitin Garg (Head of Marketing, Credgenics) dive into the Geography Behind Marketing, exploring how regional nuance is no longer a side note but central to crafting campaigns that truly resonate.

In Earning Loyalty in the Experience Economy, Gaurav Sinha (Head of Marketing, Audi India) and Vikram Singh (Digital Marketing Head, ITC Hotels) share why today’s brands must move beyond products to deliver emotional value and lasting memories.

In The Chase for the Next Billion Consumers, Gen Z emerges as India’s most influential and fast-evolving consumer force, digitally native, authenticity-obsessed, and constantly shifting. This feature brings together marketing leaders who reflect on what it truly takes to engage this generation in real time, across platforms and touchpoints. Featuring insights from: Jitendra Choudhary (Head of D2C at Anveshan), Arjit Sachdeva (Co-founder and CTO at VDO.AI), Anuj Somani (Senior Marketing Manager at Volvo), Nikita Malhotra (Head of Digital, Woodland), Varun Sethuraman (Business Head, South Asia Region, At Nestle), and Sneha Jha (Head of Media and CLM at KFC).

Ready to Dive In?

From emerging signals to deep shifts, Circles brings together the voices and visions redefining marketing today. Moreover, whether you’re refining your strategy or challenging the status quo, this edition offers fresh perspective and direction.

Download now and step into the circle.