Marketing, as an industry, has always had a flair for drama. Every few years, it declares something dead, crowns something else the future, and collectively chases the next big acronym with almost cinematic urgency. And yet, beneath all that noise, the real shifts tend to happen far more quietly, less as disruption, more as evolution finally catching up with intent.
That’s exactly where the conversation with Muralidhar Thyagarajan has begun, not with grand predictions, but with a steady dismantling of them.
Because if there is one thread that has consistently run through his perspective, it’s this: nothing in media has truly arrived overnight. It has simply reached a point where it can finally work.
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“The way I see it is, whether data comes into play or media comes into play, there is this mix which is very important,” he said. “Over a period, we have spoken about all this, but now it is at a stage where it can go live. It can be deployed.”
What has changed isn’t the existence of AI, but its readiness. The shift has been subtle, yet definitive, moving from theoretical promise to actual application.
“It’s more an evolving trend,” he said, almost deliberately underplaying the scale of transformation.
And yet, that understatement carries weight. Because in an ecosystem that once experimented with AI, it has now started building with it.
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For Thyagarajan, the idea of a singular “killer pitch” has already become outdated.
“Every client has its own different objective,” he said. “Some may look at measurement, some may look at data infusion, some may look at how we are bringing technology, some may look at AI.” Instead of pushing a fixed narrative, the approach has become far more responsive, almost diagnostic. “We understand the brief, we understand the client, and then we give them a solution,” he said.
And increasingly, that solution has been anchored in convergence. “Today the most exciting stuff is the measurement which is coming into play because all media are converging together,” he said. “That’s where the game is today.”
Even the shift toward platforms like WPP Open hasn’t replaced people, it has simply expanded what they can do. “What WPP Open will do is bring seamless transition between multiple verticals and functions,” he said. “But the person who is required to do that is continuing to remain the same.” The result is not a replacement, but a blend. “It’s a mixed universe,” he said. “It’s not a one-way approach.”
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Few ideas have been repeated as often as the “decline” of traditional media. Thyagarajan has reframed that entirely. “It is not declining, it is the way we look at it,” he said. “It’s a distribution platform change.” The shift, in his view, has less to do with formats dying and more to do with audiences moving. “News consumption on mobile is obviously very high,” he said. “But the same brands also have a digital platform as much as the physical newspaper.”
What emerges is not replacement, but coexistence, an overlap driven by behavior. “In fact, if you see the last two years, print has started growing back,” he said. “There is a credibility factor that is added.”
And importantly, this growth has moved beyond recovery narratives. “It’s a transition,” he said. “From where it was to where it went, and how it continues to grow.” That lens, of evolution over extinction, quietly reframes how media is valued today.
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At the center of it all lies a deceptively simple idea. “Every media is a trigger point for the demand,” he said. Not channels competing, but channels contributing. “Whether it is TV, digital or e-commerce, we look at it as a demand trigger,” he said. “Which media gives demand trigger, we weigh them more.”
That thinking extends seamlessly into commerce, particularly the rapid rise of quick commerce. “I think it is currently what is happening,” he said. “It will continue to exist, it will continue to grow.” And more importantly, it will expand beyond its current boundaries. “The categories will grow. It will go beyond the current number of cities,” he said. “That is going to be the way of living.”
But as systems become smarter, the question of trust has inevitably followed. “Publishers are giving consent as a clear message in the right way,” he said. “That is a very clear foundation.”
Which brings the conversation back to something far more fundamental than technology or platforms, delivery. “By the end of the day, they don’t really care if it is a different name,” he said. “For them, what matters is the delivery.”
The equation, in the end, has remained unchanged. “Till I deliver them, they are going to be happy. The day I don’t deliver, they are not going to be happy,” he said.
And perhaps that’s what makes the entire evolution feel less chaotic than it appears. Beneath the noise, beneath the shifts, beneath the endless reinvention, the core has stayed exactly the same.
