Programmatic Asia Symposium & Awards 2026 Brings India’s Marketing Leaders Together to Define the Next Era of Programmatic
If there was one recurring theme at the 5th edition of the Programmatic Asia Symposium, it was this: the industry has entered a phase where simply adopting new technology is no longer enough. The real questions are now about accountability, outcomes, and the role marketers continue to play in an increasingly automated ecosystem.
Held on 31st July 2026 at the Jio World Convention Centre, Mumbai, the symposium brought together senior marketers, agency leaders, technology experts, and media professionals for an afternoon of discussions that reflected where programmatic advertising is headed- and where it still has work to do.
The event was made possible with the support of our Knowledge Partner, Havas Media Network India, and our Associate Sponsors- AdSynergix, DGTOOHL, and AdaxxPro (powered by AdCounty Media India Ltd.)– whose partnership helped bring this edition of the symposium to life.
Opening the event, Rahul Puri, Founder & Editor, Agency Reporter, set the tone by speaking about how conversations around programmatic have evolved. The focus, he noted, has shifted from automation for automation’s sake to understanding whether technology is actually delivering better business outcomes.
That shift was evident throughout the day.
The first panel, provocatively titled “We have automated everything and understood nothing,” challenged one of the industry’s biggest assumptions—that more automation automatically leads to better marketing. Jyoti Patankar, Vice President Marketing, Desai Foods Pvt Ltd – Mother’s Recipe; Aditya Sharma, CEO & CTO, AdSynergix; Pankaj Mishra, Head Digital & Fintech, UTI Mutual Fund; and Kumar Prashant, Head, Marketing, Avaada Electro, debated whether marketers have become overly dependent on dashboards while losing sight of consumer understanding, business context, and strategic thinking. Moderated by Rahul Puri, Founder & Editor, Agency Reporter, the discussion steered away from easy conclusions, instead highlighting the complexity of balancing efficiency with meaningful decision-making.
The conversations became even more grounded during the first fireside chat, “What Actually Happened When We Tried It.” Rather than speaking in hypotheticals, Supratik Sengupta, Head – Marketing, LupinLife Consumer Healthcare; Somnath Mukherjee, Head of Programmatic & Performance Marketing, Vibrant Advertising; and Rohan Chincholi, Chief Digital Officer, Havas Media India, reflected on their own experiences implementing AI-driven and programmatic initiatives. The emphasis remained firmly on practical lessons- what worked, what didn’t, and what organisations often underestimate when deploying new technologies.
Following the networking break, attention turned to one of the most pressing questions facing media planners today: where is the next wave of investment actually going?
The second panel, “Where the Budget Is Going — Retail Media, App, pDOOH & the Channels Winning Performance in 2026,” explored the growing influence of commerce media, mobile apps, programmatic digital out-of-home, and evolving performance channels. Moderated by Anuj Bhandari, Founder & Principal Strategist, DGTOOHL, the session featured Amruta Pawar, General Manager – Digital Marketing & Brand Strategy, Hafele India; Shalini Kumar, Head – Consumer Experience, Kenvue; Dolly Davda, Head of Marketing, BookMyShow; Vibha S C, Programmatic Consultant & pDOOH Lead, Google; and Ashok Shinde, Managing Partner – Strategy, PivotRoots. Rather than chasing the next trend, the panel focused on how marketers are making increasingly nuanced budget decisions in a fragmented media landscape, where proving incremental business value matters more than ever.
The final fireside conversation, “When the Algorithm Runs the Campaign, What Is Left for the Marketer?”, brought together Nupur Gurbaxani, Head – Brand & Innovation, Sanofi Consumer Healthcare India, and Amandeep Malhari, Head of Marketing, JK Maxx Paints. The session explored the rise of agentic AI in performance and programmatic advertising, examining how increasing algorithm-led campaign decisions are reshaping media planning, accountability, and the evolving role of marketers in an AI-driven ecosystem.
The conversations did not end with the final session.
This year’s event also marked another milestone with the launch of the Programmatic Asia Awards 2026, the platform’s inaugural awards programme dedicated entirely to excellence in programmatic advertising.
A total of 115 awards were presented across campaigns, agencies, brands, publishers, technology platforms, and individual leadership categories. More than simply recognising innovation, the awards celebrated work that demonstrated measurable business impact- highlighting organisations that proved data-driven advertising can deliver outcomes that extend well beyond media metrics.
The complete list of winners can be found here: https://agencyreporter.com/pasmum26/
Across every session, one idea surfaced repeatedly: programmatic advertising is no longer just a specialist discipline operating in the background of media planning. It has become central to how brands think about commerce, customer experience, measurement, AI, and business growth itself.
That perhaps explains why the conversations throughout the day felt less like predictions about the future and more like discussions about decisions marketers are already making today.
As the fifth edition concluded, Programmatic Asia Symposium once again served not simply as a conference, but as a meeting point for an industry trying to define what the next chapter of programmatic advertising should look like.
