Bata puts 45 percent of spends on digital, exits retainer creative

Bata India put 45 percent of its spends on digital in 2026, up from 35 percent in 2025, with some quarters reaching 65 percent, Storyboard18 reported on 21 August 2026. Connected TV takes 45 percent of the video advertising budget. Influencer marketing accounts for 10 to 15 percent of the marketing budget. The festive season is about 35 percent of the annual marketing budget.

The production model has changed. Bata has largely exited its retainer creative agencies and now runs most production through AI, via a partnership with Zocket. Badri Beriwal, CSO and CBD at Bata India, said “Any creative that you see going out in the last three months has largely been generated through AI.”

Two details get lost in the headline. Bata exited retainer creative agencies, not agencies. It still brings agencies in selectively for strategic campaigns, and Zenith continues to handle media planning and buying. On the retail side, Bata has about 2,000 physical stores, with more than 1,000 activated for Myntra Now.

What survived says more than what went

We are an agency, so we will be straight about this. Production is the first part of agency work that AI takes, because volume creative is a repeatable brief with a measurable output. Strategy and media buying survived here because both carry accountability a model cannot hold. Someone has to own the number at the end of the quarter.

The practical move for a brand is to stop buying agency scope as one bundle. Price production per asset, or bring it in house with a tool and a template library. Pay separately for strategy and for media, and judge those two on business outcomes rather than deliverable counts. If your current agency cannot tell you which of the three it is actually being paid for, have that conversation before the festive brief goes out, because festive is when a bundled retainer hides the most.