India, June 30 -- Everybody wants to own the media, and the country's fastest-growing new-age consumer brands are no exception.

Faced with rising customer acquisition costs, ad fatigue and diminishing returns from performance marketing, brands are increasingly asking a simple question: why keep renting attention when you can own it?

Historically, this strategy has played out through acquisitions. Mensa Brands' (now BRND.ME) acquisition of MensXP, iDiva and Hypp, Nykaa's Little Black Book, and Honasa's buying of Momspresso are some of the key examples, which weren't merely inorganic expansion moves aimed at boosting revenue but bets to own consumer attention and build direct relationships with audiences.

Several digital-first consumer b...