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We recently stepped into Meta for Meta x Schbang, a session that brought together some big questions about where marketing is headed next.
And when we say big, we mean it.
From changing consumer behaviour and the creator economy to AI-powered creativity, WhatsApp commerce and the future of measurement, the conversations gave us plenty to think about — and even more to take back to the work we do every day.
Here’s what stayed with us.
1. How Indian Consumers Are Changing
India is no longer a market where consumers neatly fit into separate buckets of TV, digital, urban and rural.
Millennials and Gen Z now account for around 70% of consumption, while short-form video is taking up significantly more attention than television.
The bigger shift? Meta has become one of the most important everyday screens for consumers across India.
For us, that changes the way we think about building brands.
Social cannot be treated as just another channel on the media plan. It has become a space where brands are discovered, experienced, discussed and increasingly bought.
Which means the agencies building brands here need to bring creative, media and commerce closer together.
2. Creators Are Changing Brand Marketing
Creator marketing has officially moved far beyond the occasional influencer collaboration.
With 76% of Gen Z open to hearing from brands through creators and creator-led Reels influencing purchase decisions, creators are becoming an important part of how brands communicate.
But what really stood out to us was the shift from buying reach to borrowing creativity.
A creator doesn't just bring an audience.
They bring a way of speaking, storytelling and participating in culture that brands can't always manufacture themselves.
With tools like Creator Marketplace and Partnership Ads, strong creator content can also move from organic success to scaled campaigns.
For brands, the opportunity isn't just to work with creators.
It's to create with them, amplify what works and make that creativity part of the larger brand ecosystem.
3. Walk. Run. Sprint.
One framework from the session that really clicked with us was Meta's Walk → Run → Sprint approach to brand growth.
Walk is about getting the fundamentals right — Feed and Reel Ads, creative diversification and building consistent reach.
Run is where brands start creating bigger moments through tools like Meta Moment Maker, Reels Trending Ads and Partnership Ads.
And then comes Sprint — where Meta becomes much more central to the brand strategy through Meta-first creative, IP partnerships and full-funnel measurement.
It was a useful reminder that growth doesn't have to mean doing everything at once.
You get the basics right.
Then you build momentum.
Then you push the limits.
4. AI Makes Content Faster, Not Better
AI has changed how quickly we can create.
But faster creation doesn't automatically mean better advertising.
One of the most interesting discussions around AI focused on something every marketer is fighting for today:
attention.
Younger audiences may give us just a fraction of a second to earn their attention. That means every frame, every visual and every line needs to work harder.
The answer isn't necessarily one perfect creative.
It can be multiple, shorter experiences that collectively build attention.
And that's where AI gets genuinely exciting for marketers.
It can help us personalise creative, test more variations and produce content at scale.
But the idea still has to come first.
Because AI can help us make more.
It still takes people to decide what is worth making.
5. WhatsApp Is Changing Brand Conversations
WhatsApp is already deeply embedded in everyday life in India.
Now, it's becoming an increasingly important space for brands too.
With one billion people messaging businesses every week, the platform is moving beyond customer service and into discovery, consideration and conversion.
During the session, we explored tools such as Click-to-WhatsApp Ads, marketing messages and WhatsApp Flows.
And the opportunity is pretty straightforward:
Make it easier for people to move from seeing a brand to talking to a brand.
Because sometimes the distance between interest and purchase isn't another ad.
It's a conversation.
6.Measuring Campaign Effectiveness
we're often guilty of celebrating what is easiest to report.
But the real question is much harder:
What actually changed because the campaign existed?
The measurement session dug into A/B testing, Conversion Lift and Brand Lift — tools that help marketers understand incrementality and actual business impact rather than relying only on last-click attribution.
And that's a shift worth paying attention to.
Because better measurement shouldn't make creative less ambitious.
It should make the ambition more accountable.
We shouldn't just ask whether people interacted with a campaign.
We should ask whether the campaign changed behaviour, strengthened the brand or drove incremental business.
The Bigger Takeaway
Across all six sessions, one idea kept coming back:
The future of marketing isn't about one platform, one format or one technology.
It's about how all of them come together.
Consumers are changing , Creators are becoming collaborators , AI is reshaping production , WhatsApp is turning conversations into commerce.
And better measurement is making marketers answer harder questions.
For us at Schbang, that's what made Meta x Schbang particularly valuable.
It wasn't just about learning what is new.
It was about thinking about what these changes mean for the work we create next.
Because the future of advertising won't be built by technology alone.
It will be built by people who know how to use technology to make better ideas, stronger brands and work that actually matters.
And yes, we left the session with a lot of notes.
More importantly, we left with a lot more questions.
Which, honestly, is probably a pretty good sign.
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