Orbit

Notes from
our orbit.

Short reads on what's actually working in branding and social right now, written by the people doing the work. No thought leadership theatre.

How to choose a creative marketing agency in India. And when not to hire one.

Latest

Hiring an AgencyJul 30, 20269 min read

How to choose a creative marketing agency in India. And when not to hire one.

Almost every guide to picking an agency is written by an agency, so none of them tell you to walk away. Here is the honest version: the five questions that actually predict whether it works, the red flags worth leaving over, what moves the price, and the three situations where hiring anyone is the wrong call.

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AI SearchJul 11, 20266 min read

Why your organic traffic is dropping in 2026. And where it went.

Zero-click search, AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity answers: 2026 is the year Google stopped sending the click. Your rankings held. Your traffic did not. Here is what actually happened to it, and the honest playbook for getting your brand into the answers.

Paid MediaJul 11, 20266 min read

The ad platforms want to run your ads for you. Should you let them?

Meta Andromeda, Google AI Max, agentic ads that talk to your buyers, one-click Conversions API: in 2026 the platforms are doing the media buying themselves. What to hand over, what to keep, and where the humans still beat the machine.

Retail MediaJun 13, 20268 min read

Blinkit is an ad platform now. Here is who should actually pay to be on it.

Three apps will pull in roughly ₹4,900 crore in advertising revenue from Indian brands this calendar year. Every D2C founder I talk to is asking whether they should be spending on quick commerce too. The honest answer is no, for most of them. Here is the five-question test that tells you which side of the line you are on.

Influencer MarketingJun 13, 20269 min read

How much does influencer marketing cost in India? The real 2026 numbers.

Every agency answers this with "it depends" and a brochure. Here are the actual rupee figures. What creators charge per post in 2026 by tier, the five things that move the price, the hidden costs nobody quotes you, and what an agency should and should not add on top.

Social StrategyMay 25, 20266 min read

We audited 47 D2C Instagram accounts. Here is what is broken in 9 of 10.

We looked at 47 direct-to-consumer brand pages last month, picked across skincare, food, apparel and home. The same three things were broken in nine out of ten of them. None of them require more budget to fix.

Influencer MarketingMay 20, 20265 min read

The influencer marketing ROI lie. And what to actually measure.

Most influencer reports come back with a reach number, a cost per post, and a screenshot of likes. None of those tell you whether a single rupee came back. Here is what to measure instead, and how to make your agency show their work.

AI SearchMay 14, 20264 min read

Your brand isn't in ChatGPT yet. Here's how to fix that.

I asked ChatGPT for the best creative studios in Delhi last week. We were not on the list. Neither was anyone you would recognise. Here is the problem, and five things any brand can do about it this week.

Notes fromour orbit.