BW Marketing World unveils Brandcraft Conference 2026; Power Brands Awards to follow

Brand building is no longer confined to advertising. With AI changing how consumers discover and evaluate brands, creators influencing cultural conversations, and commerce increasingly becoming part of the media ecosystem, marketers are navigating a landscape where the old distinctions between brand, content, technology and performance are becoming harder to sustain.

BW Marketing World, in association with BW Businessworld, will examine this changing marketing landscape at the inaugural edition of Brandcraft Conference 2026. The conference will bring together senior marketers, brand leaders, media strategists and business heads to discuss what it takes to build brands that remain relevant while delivering tangible business outcomes.

For marketers, the challenge is becoming twofold. While technology is making content creation, personalisation and optimisation faster, fragmented attention is making it harder for brands to build lasting salience. The question, therefore, is moving beyond how quickly brands can respond to consumers to how effectively they can create meaning, preference and trust.

A CMO Line-up Across Categories
The conference will bring perspectives from marketers across categories, including Himanshu Khanna, Group CMO, CKA Birla Group; Shivam Ranjan, Head Marketing - APAC, Motorola Mobility; Gaurav Ramdev, CMO, Visa; Abhinav Sinha, CMO, Renault India; Debasree Dasgupta, CMO, Pernod Ricard; Rajat Abbi, CMO, Schneider Electric; Tushar Malhotra, Head - Marketing, Bisleri; Zeenah Vilcassim, Global CMO, Daily Objects; Nitin Malhotra, CMO, Livpure India;  Nikita Malhotra, Head - Digital & Retail Marketing, Woodland; Sujatha V Kumar, CMO – ex Visa, Coca-Cola and Google; and Abhinav Iyer, SGM - Marketing, Muthoot Finance, among others.

The conversations will span AI-led marketing, personalisation, fragmented media and creator ecosystems, while also examining the growing intersection of brand building with commerce and technology.

The timing is significant for the industry. As marketers gain access to more tools, platforms and consumer data, the definition of effective brand building is itself being questioned. Shorter attention cycles and pressure for measurable returns are pushing CMOs to balance long-term brand equity with immediate commercial performance.

The Power Brands
The conference will culminate in the Power Brands of India Awards, which will recognise organisations and leaders demonstrating excellence in brand building, innovation, consumer trust and market leadership. The awards will also focus on D2C brands that are using digital-first models, innovation and consumer engagement to build businesses and accelerate growth.

At its core, Brandcraft Conference 2026 will explore a question increasingly relevant to the marketing industry: when technology can accelerate execution and consumers can move seamlessly between content, culture and commerce, what separates a brand that gets noticed from one that gets remembered?