Khemka said brands need to complement conventional media measures with business metrics such as consumer lifetime value, brand-funnel performance, loyalty, incremental sales and market penetration. He said the focus should increasingly move from measuring outputs to assessing outcomes and understanding the business impact of media investments.
“Traditional metrics like reach, CPM, impressions, I am not sure if they are guaranteeing growth,” Khemka said, pointing to the increasingly different media habits of consumers.
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He also highlighted attribution as a continuing challenge for marketers, saying brands generally know that their marketing and media investments are working but may find it difficult to determine how much of the impact can be attributed to different elements of a campaign.
Khemka said the industry also needs greater integration across creative, media, data and technology. “You have to ensure that all four of them are speaking to each other and there is a holistic solution that you are doing and presenting to a client,” he said.
He said the shift would require brands and agencies to move away from siloed execution towards unified strategies supported by dynamic personalisation. Understanding consumers and identifying the right cohorts, he added, is becoming increasingly important as media consumption fragments across platforms and formats.Khemka said WPP is bringing these capabilities together through its One WPP solution, which incorporates technology, data, creative and media, along with agentic solutions being developed for clients. He described the approach as covering the journey from understanding audiences and planning through activation and measurement.
On India’s wider media landscape, Khemka said the market remains distinctive because multiple media continue to grow, although the rate of growth and relevance of individual media can differ depending on the brand. He pointed to television, newsprint, cinema, radio, outdoor and digital as parts of India’s evolving media ecosystem.
He also said television penetration in India continues to have headroom for growth, with consumers accessing television content through linear TV, connected TV and other modes. The growth of connected TV is increasingly being seen in rural India, which he linked to first-time television buyers opting for connected sets.
Separately, WPP Media’s mid-year forecast projects India’s advertising market to grow 8.8% in 2026 to $22.5 billion, despite macroeconomic pressures including energy disruptions, inflation and currency pressures.