All through December 2024, Manifest is running its year-ender series in which advertising, marketing and media leaders will be sharing their thoughts on the biggest development of the year along with a manifestation for 2025.

We continue our series with Bhawika Chhabra, managing director, Toaster India.

The biggest development in the advertising, media and marketing space according to you in 2024 was...

Undoubtedly, it's the year of AI, but we have a long way to go, While AI tools have exploded in popularity and accessibility, we're still in the early stages of truly integrating them into the marketing ecosystem. The real transformation will come when AI is not just a tool, but a fundamental part of how we approach marketing strategy - as brands are we responding to consumers fast enough - are we really taking personalisation to the next level - are we optimising the laborious creative process while protecting the core of human creativity.

One thing you're manifesting for yourself and for the industry you operate in for 2025?

Most advertising today is riding on a trend or is focusing on short term impact - but at the cost of long term brand building. We need to always think brand-first even for the timely interventions that we need to ride on. That’s what will give each brand a distinct and unique tone of its own. So I am manifesting long term client-agency partnerships to create long term brand thinking.