Written by Aditya Meherchandani, Avinash Kourani, Lazmi Malaviya, Hitarth Jain, Sanika Singh, Megh Thekdi, Sahil Kamdar, Aashna Gohel.

At FOBA, eight passionate students from the Faculty of Business Administration, GLS University, had the exciting opportunity to attend the Brand Summit 2025 held by the Ahmedabad Management Association, on Saturday 15th February, 2025.  The theme of the summit was “Managing Brand – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” was organised by Zydus Cadilla Healthcare and AMA Centre for Marketing Management. This enriching experience was made possible by the dedicated efforts of the FOBA marketing department, who ensured that our students could engage with top industry leaders and gain firsthand insights into the dynamic world of branding. Their journey at the summit not only deepened their understanding of digital storytelling, innovative advertising strategies, and consumer behavior but also highlighted the importance of merging academic learning with real-world industry practices.

Key Takeaways from the Brand Summit 2025 at AMA Ahmedabad

It was an eye-opening experience to attend the Brand Summit 2025 at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA), where industry captains, marketers, and entrepreneurs came together to focus on branding, advertising, and consumer behavior in today’s changing world. The summit offered invaluable insights into major branding strategies, digitalization, and the expanding role of storytelling and influencers.

 Key Lessons from the Summit

The most useful insight we got from Prof. Vijayalaxmi of IIM Ahmedabad was Cialdini's principle of  influence in branding and marketing. These factors tell us a lot about how the marketers and brand makers usually think and we hope that we can incorporate these principles in our future.

Mr Neeraj, Executive Vice President  & Strategy Man at Ogilvy rightly defined strategies as choices we have to make and not the differentiation. Advertisement is not strategy it is the output of strategy and strategy means sacrifice. Sacrifices i.e. we cannot showcase everything and have to sacrifice some things to make our advertisement stand out more. The case studies shown by him were very interesting and gave us so much to think about and the best out of various cases were of Maaza & Heinz. These two studies were the best example of how to grab the perfect opportunities. And also the moment marketing strategy used by Heinz was something we've never heard of. The super bowl ad of just a QR floating on a blank screen was kind of amusing and very different. 

In the panel discussion about in-film advertising with Ms. Khushboo, founder of Zero Gravity Communication & Mr. Abhishek Jain,  Producer & Director they rightly said that if the incorporation of products in the movie is not subtle the audience would think the advert is forced and might ruin the audience's experience.

The panel discussion of Mr. Trilok Sanghani, Mr. Devang Bhatt, and Mr. Jay Thadeshwar was eye-opening where we got to know how we can overcome negative comments and we got to know about their journey, and the Devang Bhatt interview experience with Sunita Williams was very exciting and humorous but at the same time helped us to know how to handle a situation right at that point.

The last session of Rj Archana of radio MyFM was very energetic like her charisma. She told us about her journey from RJ to influencer during covid time. She also helped us understand how a person can become a successful influencer with great content and consistency and gave insightful answers to all the questions

 Final Thoughts

The AMA Ahmedabad Brand Summit 2025 offered invaluable insights into branding, consumer psychology, and strategic planning.  Key takeaways emphasized the long-term value of authenticity, consistency, and a thorough understanding of consumer behavior.  Brands leveraging compelling narratives, digital innovation, and robust strategic implementation are best positioned for competitive differentiation and market success.

This blog post shares the personal opinions and insights of students who attended the AMA Brand Summit with Professors Dr. Belur Baxi and Dr. Sonal Gogri. The summit provided an experiential, active, and collaborative learning opportunity, enriching their Marketing Management studies.