Seven in 10 Indians now scroll past digital ads as fatigue soars: Report

Mumbai: Seven in ten Indian consumers are mentally tuning out digital advertisements by skipping, muting, or ignoring them altogether, as fatigue mounts, according to a new India-focused research report. 

India now ranks third globally in ad fatigue, behind only the US and Australia, according to the report titled ‘The Untapped Opportunity of Omnichannel’ prepared by The Trade Desk, a US-based tech platform that allows advertisers to buy digital ad space.

It is not the volume of ads that’s causing this fatigue, but their inability to strike a chord and connect with consumers. Indian users spend nearly nine hours a day across more than five media channels, from OTT and CTV (connected TV) to mobile, display, audio, and gaming, but most ad campaigns still run on fewer than three platforms, often with little coordination. The same creatives are shown repeatedly on one channel, while others remain underused or poorly timed, the report said.

“This is not a media saturation problem, it’s a planning problem,” Tejinder Gill, managing director, The Trade Desk India, told Mint on the eve of the report release. “Most marketers are still executing multichannel campaigns in silos. Omnichannel isn’t just about presence across media, it’s about precision, sequencing and connection.”

The report argues that traditional multichannel campaigns, while broader in reach, often lead to messaging gaps, duplicated exposure, and wasted media spend. In contrast, omnichannel campaigns – those that coordinate media and creative across multiple channels with unified buying and frequency control – are shown to be 2.2 times less fatiguing and 1.5 times more persuasive. When five or more channels are orchestrated together, return on investment (ROI) improves by as much as 77%, and cost per acquisition drops by up to 30%.

Two in three Indian consumers say they feel more positive about a brand when they see a consistent message across channels. About 70% are more likely to remember brands that advertise this way.

Mindsets, Moments and Media

The study introduces a framework called “Mindsets, Moments and Media,” aimed at helping brands design campaigns aligned with the way consumers move through their day. For example, a podcast during a morning commute might catch a user in a “get in the zone” mindset. At lunchtime, the same user might be looking to “help me decide,” and by evening, shift to a “develop my interests” mindset while watching a cooking show or OTT content.

The goal is not just to reach users where they are—but to meet them with messages that match their mental state, context, and channel of choice.

One example cited in the report is a campaign by a leading alco-bev brand that used a combination of digital, out-of-home, video, and display ads to reach nightlife-goers. Using behaviour and location data, the brand re-targeted users with creatives tailored to different moments and channels. The campaign led to over two million store visits, and users exposed to all three touchpoints converted 57% faster than those who saw ads on just one.

Digital audio is one of the most underused formats despite high engagement. While 75% of Gen Z streams music and 59% of millennials report increased podcast listening, marketers remain hesitant to allocate meaningful budgets. Yet, 86% of audio listening involves moderate to high attention, and 66% of listeners recall audio ads, according to the report.

CTV and OTT adoption is also rising in cities beyond metros. About 72% of Indian users now watch ad-supported streaming content, and 73% say they’ve discovered new brands while doing so. Two-thirds trust ads on CTV/OTT platforms, with the younger audiences in particular perceiving them as more premium than social media formats.

Despite these behavioural shifts, most marketers are still using fragmented tools and operating within siloed structures. Many media, creative, and data teams work on different timelines and priorities, making it difficult to build consistent, sequenced storytelling across touchpoints, Gill said.

He said that the real challenge is not just infrastructure, but mindset. “You don’t have to overhaul your entire media strategy overnight. Even connecting two platforms and running a small pilot can make a difference. The key is getting teams to collaborate and move toward audience-first planning, not channel-first execution.”

With audiences becoming harder to track and easier to lose, the report warns that disconnected media buying will only amplify fatigue and reduce returns. As attention splinters and expectations rise, brands will need to build connected experiences, or risk being scrolled past, skipped, or forgotten.