As 2025 pushed India’s PR industry closer to the boardroom, agencies were forced to choose between scale without substance and strategic relevance with impact. For Zeno India, the year marked a decisive pivot from rebuilding to acceleration. From rebuilding foundations to scaling impact, the firm sharpened its identity as an earned-first communications partner, blending creativity, intelligence, and strategy. As part of Adgully’s annual REWIND 2025 series, we spoke to Abhishek Gulyani, Managing Director – India and Head of Corporate Affairs, Asia Pacific, ZENO Group, who reflects on a year defined by sharper positioning, talent-led investments and intelligence-driven communications. He unpacks how Zeno strengthened its earned-first proposition, delivered strong new-business momentum, and aligned itself with a broader industry shift where reputation, data and strategic counsel have become business-critical. How would you describe the year 2025 for your organization, and were there any standout moments that defined it? 2025 was a defining year for Zeno India, a year of transformation translating into accelerated growth. Over the past 6 months (we follow July 1-June 30), we moved decisively from rebuilding foundations to scaling impact. We made significant investments in talent, especially across creative, digital, data and senior media advisory, opened a new office and have designed ourselves for collaboration across teams in APAC and the world, content creation, and embedded intelligence-led thinking deeper into our work. The most defining outcome of these efforts has been performance: increased new business, with double digit margin growth and a 70%-win ratio, which reflects strong client confidence in our evolved offering. More importantly, along with our strong client centric 2025 helped us sharpen who we are: a modern, earned-first communications partner that blends creativity, intelligence, and strategic counsel. That clarity of purpose has been the standout moment for us. When you look at the broader PR and communications industry, what defined this year for the industry? 2025 marked a clear inflection point for the PR industry in India. This was the year when communications firmly moved closer to the C-suite. Reputation, trust, policy, culture, and values became business-critical conversations, not just communication mandates. Another defining shift was the industry’s accelerated move toward data, AI, and insight-led storytelling. Clients increasingly expect PR partners to bring intelligence, not just execution. Creativity, too, evolved — from tactical ideas to culturally relevant, earned-first platforms that drive participation. At the same time, the industry began questioning traditional, media-heavy business models and exploring higher-value advisory, creative and intelligence-led offerings. That mindset shift will define the next phase of growth. Still, I feel as an industry a lot more can be done in building growth culture, talent and data-led communications. Which big new clients did you onboard this year, and what made those wins special? This year has been good for us with record wins. What stood out about our new client wins in 2025 was both the sectors and the scope of work. We onboarded several clients across B2B technology — particularly data centres and AI — business consulting, B2B healthcare and education, consumer tech, lifestyle sectors that demand deep domain understanding and strategic maturity. These wins were especially meaningful because clients chose us for high-value capabilities — including analyst relations, creative and digital solutions, and strategic media and crisis advisory — rather than only traditional media engagement. In many cases, we were brought in to help shape category narratives, influence ecosystem stakeholders, and drive long-term reputation outcomes. In parallel, our strong focus on partnership and outcomes led to organic expansion within existing clients, reinforcing the trust they place in Zeno as a long-term growth partner. Together, these wins underscore a clear shift in how clients view PR — not as a service provider, but as a strategic advisor. How has the role of PR evolved — has it shifted from just managing images to creating deeper, more authentic engagement? Absolutely. PR today is far less about managing perception and far more about building belief and authentic storytelling. Audiences are more informed, skeptical, and values-driven than ever before. They don’t just want to hear what brands say, they want to understand what brands stand for and how they behave. This has shifted PR from image management to authentic engagement, narrative stewardship, and trust-building. Modern PR sits at the intersection of data, creativity, culture, and conscience. It involves listening as much as speaking, using intelligence to shape narratives, and helping brands show up consistently across stakeholders. This evolution is both exciting and essential for the future relevance of our industry. I feel Zeno is rightly placed to meet that requirement if clients. For clients too, it is not large teams but agile teams with the right knowledge and execution capabilities that will make a difference in the future.
