Why GCPL’s in-house media push signals a shift for brands and agencies

New Delhi: When a large advertiser starts rethinking the role of its agencies, it can be dismissed as just another efficiency exercise. 

But when one of the country’s largest advertisers says it is replacing key media functions with in-house, tech-driven systems, and backs it up with a global scale, rapid execution and hard cost savings, the entire media and marketing ecosystem should take notice. 

Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) has unveiled a three-pronged, technology-enabled media transformation that it claims is not only cutting costs but also fundamentally altering how it plans, buys and produces content. 

The pillars of this transformation are MASH, an in-house media planning platform; a centralised programmatic desk that buys across 20 markets with just three people; and a content churning ecosystem that uses automation and AI to produce short-form videos in an hour, a process that earlier took up to 15 days.

The implications are profound: reduced dependence on external agencies, lower “non-working” media costs, compressed production timelines, and a model that could challenge how creators and agencies work with brands.

MASH: From days to minutes

MASH stands for Media Allocation and Spends Harmonisation. It is GCPL’s in-house media planning tool. Chhabra, while explaining the mechanics of this in-house tool, said how they now run three times the number of campaigns per year because of MASH. 

“Back then, we were doing about 10 campaigns a year, which was a lot lighter. The process involved an infinite loop between the brand manager and the agency media planner, with multiple iterations. 

We weren’t willing to share business data, and whatever information we got came through a process that took days.”

MASH changed things for GCPL. “This shift hasn’t just saved costs; more importantly, it’s allowed us to make decisions in line with business priorities in an open, transparent way within the organisation, without worrying about what’s being shared outside. 

The best part is that we can now do all this in minutes. When I joined from the outside, MASH was already functioning at a level where advertisers could operate at that pace, and over the last two years, we’ve continued to enhance and build on it,” Chhabra said. 

Programmatic in 20 countries with just three people

Chhabra revealed how an in-house team of three people in India are deploying programmatic ads across 20 countries. The platform taps into markets like Malaysia, Maldives, UAE, Kenya, Nigeria, Oman, Costa Rica, among others. 

Comparing the before and after, Chhabra said, “Sitting in India, a three-member team is deploying programmatic across 20 countries. This is our in-house media team. Earlier, before we brought programmatic in-house, we had 16 agency people serving just one country.”

There were two key benefits that Chhabra realised. “First, it helped us bring down non-working media costs by reducing dependence on external teams. Second, because we built this with a SaaS partner, we could design it exactly the way we wanted and continuously benchmark to track where our prices stand.” 

Chhabra also stated that Indonesia, which is GCPL’s second biggest market, is the only one where the conglomerate still buys through an agency. In every other market, the programmatic media buying is centrally handled from India. 

Automated content factory

GCPL is setting up a “content factory” in South Africa that applies a manufacturing approach to brand video creation, using insights from platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest as raw material. These are aligned with brand guidelines, trending formats and real stories, then fed into an AI-driven process using JSON and Google V03 automation. 

The aim, Chhabra said, is to achieve “good, cheap and fast” content, something that earlier could only be two of the three, delivering brand-safe, high-quality videos in one hour that previously took up to 15 days. Built entirely in-house at a surprisingly low cost compared to human-led production, the model will be replicated in other markets, including India.

“I’m amazed at how inexpensive this is compared to using people to do the same work. It’s phenomenal. When we looked at the cost and applied our ‘good, cheap, and fast’ framework, it ticked all the boxes,” Chhabra said. 

Current agency dynamics

Currently, GCPL is working with a combination of their in-house tools and outsourcing of some media functions to the agencies. Chhabra shared that GCPL made a decision that certain information is safest when kept within its ecosystem, as some “secret sauce” is proprietary. 

“While the company works with multiple partners, including EssenceMediacom (India) and WPP media (Indonesia), in-housing remains critical for safeguarding sensitive know-how and maintaining control,” Chhabra said. 

He added, “It’s not that we are obsessed with in-housing. But we also don’t want to be so heavily dependent on outsourcing that it impacts both our costs and our top-line ambitions. The part that we can share, we are happy to work on with external partners.” 

The company decides what to keep in-house versus what to work on with partners based on strategic importance. For example, procurement and reservations are managed internally, while EssenceMediacom acts as a front-facing partner for certain activities. Programmatic buying is handled entirely in-house, covering 20 different countries, though the agencies supports in four key areas, which Chhabra called the four Ts. 

1. Trading: Managing buying and negotiations.
   

2. Troubleshooting: Providing competitive and consumer insights.
   

3. Talent: Helping upgrade skills, such as maximising TikTok in markets like South Africa and Indonesia.
   

4. Technology: Offering access to proprietary tools for optimisation.

In-housing in action

For now, GCPL’s media transformation is still in motion. The three systems, MASH, the central programmatic desk, and the content factory, are already delivering faster turnarounds and cost savings, but Chhabra hinted that this is only the beginning. 

More layers of automation, more integration across markets, and even more data-led decision-making are on the horizon. What’s clear is that this is not a side experiment or a passing efficiency drive. It is a deliberate, long-term move to rebuild the company’s media muscle from the inside out.

If the model delivers in India at the same scale and speed as it has in other markets, it could shift the balance of power in the media ecosystem. 

Agencies may have to rethink their core offerings, moving away from the day-to-day planning and buying that are now being automated. Creators, too, may need to reimagine their role, as brands like GCPL no longer have to rely on them for every piece of content.

The bigger question is whether GCPL’s approach will spark a trend or remain a rare competitive advantage. 

Will other advertisers follow the same path, investing in their own tech stacks and cutting back on external dependencies? Or will GCPL stand alone as a case study in how far in-housing can go?