Karaoke marketing, potted plants and what’s wrong with modern marketing

Marketing’s enduring job, Shubhranshu Singh argues, is to create memorable positive meaning. In Episode 35 of The Indian AdGeek, he joins Vishal Mehra to ask what happens when that patient work collides with shorter attention cycles, borrowed formulas and machine-mediated consumption.

His idea of “karaoke marketing” challenges brands that sing someone else’s hit rather than develop a voice rooted in their own category and culture. “Potted plant marketing” describes another short-term habit: successive managers replace initiatives before they can develop lasting roots. Both point to the need for continuity, creative conviction and a clearer understanding of how brands grow.

The discussion turns to marketing leadership and the agency business. Singh argues that CMOs must speak the language of revenue, pricing, penetration and value creation. He questions performative pitches and buying agency time, while acknowledging the limits of agency control and proposing linked outcome scorecards that connect communications to business results.

AI agents, Google and Meta complicate those relationships by taking on creative, targeting, buying and measurement functions. Connected TV offers new possibilities, but Singh asks whether creative thinking has kept pace with the technology. His experience across FMCG, sports and automotive marketing grounds a discussion of culture, community and the different rhythms of brand building.

The conversation closes with the people and conditions that make creative work possible. Singh sees a future with room for specialist boutiques alongside giant scaled processing organisations, and argues for human understanding, honest questions and stronger creative relationships as execution becomes more automated.