Ad Campaigns

Business Ad Usual! Ogilvy’s homemade experiment during lockdown

Published

6 years ago

April 7, 2020

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: The ongoing 21-day lockdown in the wake of n-COVID19 in the country has posed unprecedented challenges for the ad world. With entire companies forced to work from home and shoots halted, it has become quite difficult to conceive new video campaigns, at a time when content consumption is at a record-high. However, even in this crisis, creative agencies have found a way to create ads that can lift people’s spirits.

One such agency is Ogilvy. Under the expert leadership of chief creative officer worldwide and executive chairman India Piyush Pandey, Ogilvy has managed to set a new creative standard.

In the past week, two brands, Asian Paints and Tata Sky, launched new video campaigns, using montages of recorded phone videos set beautifully on a lyrical voiceover, both creatively managed by Ogilvy. While the core concept and process remained almost similar for both the stories, each shared a different message and gave a different feel.

Ogilvy India CCO Sukesh Nayak tells Indiantelevision.com, “I generally feel a brand, in a way, has a role to play during the time of crisis. It has happened with both the brands – Tata Sky as well as Asian Paints. One needs to ask themselves what they can do, what they can offer.

At the end of the day, consumers are your guide. Ads are created for them. Today we all are at very challenging times in our lives. Everybody is struggling with their own fear, anxiety, and pressure. So, yes as an advertiser I have many ideas to execute.”

Elaborating more on Tata Sky’s “Ghar Baithe Kuch Seekhein campaign”, he shares, “My constant thinking is what I can do to make your job easier. Hence, we came across the idea of freeing up the services. Tata Sky is doing its bit to entertain and engage subscribers while they stay at home. We looked at the positive side of this nationwide lockdown. You can learn so many new things in this 21-day lockdown period and this is how the brand came up with this unique idea. So, Tata Sky has given free access to content that will include value-added services for the entire family.”

Tata Sky chief communication officer Anurag Kumar adds, “The starting point of the campaign was that we were not looking for a creative video, which is high on production value. In fact, we were looking for authentic communication and empathy towards the consumers.”

For Asian Paints, the revival of its “Har Ghar Chup Chap Se Kuch Kehta Hai” campaign was meant to give the audience a reason to smile, appreciate what they have in these tough times, and lead richer lives at homes, reveals Asian Paints MD & CEO Amit Syngle.

He says, “In current uncertain and trying times, we endeavoured to capture glimpses of moments people are spending at home and memories that are being created in the process. The campaign weaves in various stories, memories, and interactions that are relatable as people are doing the very same things at home now.”

For Syngle, the campaign was conceptually different from what the brand has used earlier. “The purpose of this campaign is centred on the well-being of our consumers. Amidst the challenging times we are facing today, Asian Paints, through this light-hearted take, inspires people to stay at home and stay safe during the lockdown period.”

For Kumar, an additional learning was the whole process that was taken into account to create the campaign. “From start to finish, the campaign was executed in 72-hours. The whole process of briefing and discussion, which earlier would have taken months, was done away with. All the discussions happened on calls and WhatsApp messages and not even a single person in the entire chain, including the director and actors, stepped out of the house.”

He also notes that the campaign cost dropped down to about one-third to one-fifth of what it usually takes to produce video ads.

Highlighting more about the collaborative process, Nayak notes, “The agency and the brand were truly finding the relationship and partnership during this time. There was no brief given but it was a collaborative effort. These kinds of things are happening every day. Brands need to get connected with the agency while the agency has given a clear brief to respective teams. One good thing that we did is we talked to each other a lot. We communicated on a regular basis. We made points to discuss things. We made a list of things that are troubling our consumers and what an agency and a brand can do for them. I keep myself in the consumer’s shoes. It helps in ideation.”

Nayak thinks that more brands and agencies should come onboard to work on campaigns like these. “We are working with lots of partners across the country. I am personally happy to see my team and clients working like this to create magic. I think other brands should also do this because joy should be copied.”

But given the speed and financial benefits, can such campaigns become a norm for the industry?

Kumar doesn’t think so. According to him, after the lockdown is lifted, such campaigns can be executed on special occasions but it will not become a norm.

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Ad Campaigns

Amazon Ads maps 2026 as AI and streaming rewrite ad playbooks

Published

1 month ago

January 15, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

NATIONAL: Amazon Ads has laid out a sharply tech-led vision for the advertising industry in 2026, arguing that artificial intelligence, streaming TV and creator partnerships will combine to turn brand building into a more precise, performance-driven business.

At the heart of the shift, the company says, is the fusion of AI with Amazon’s vast trove of shopping, browsing and streaming signals, allowing advertisers to move beyond blunt reach metrics to campaigns designed around real customer behaviour.

“The future of advertising is not about reaching more people, but the right people with messages that resonate,” said Amazon Ads India head and vice president Girish Prabhu. “By combining AI with deep customer insights, we help brands move from broadcasting campaigns to having meaningful conversations wherever audiences spend their time.”

One of the biggest changes, according to Amazon Ads, will be the collapse of the wall between media planning and creative development. Retail media, powered by first-party data, is increasingly shaping everything from brand discovery to final purchase, pushing marketers to design campaigns around audience insight rather than internal instinct.

AI is also moving from a support tool to a creative engine. Agentic AI, which automates and accelerates production, is expected to make high-quality creative accessible even to small businesses, compressing weeks of work into hours and giving challengers the ability to compete with larger brands on speed and scale.

Behind the scenes, AI-driven analytics will take on a bigger role in campaign optimisation, identifying patterns, spotting opportunities and recommending actions that would previously have required teams of analysts.

Streaming TV is another big battleground. With India’s video streaming audience now above 600 million and connected TV users at 129.2 million in 2025, advertisers are set to treat streaming not just as a branding channel but as a performance engine, measured increasingly by sales, sign-ups and bookings rather than just reach.

Finally, Amazon Ads sees creators and contextual advertising reshaping how brands tell stories. Creators will act less like influencers and more like long-term partners, while scene-aware ads on streaming platforms will allow brands to insert hyper-relevant offers into the flow of what viewers are watching.

Taken together, Amazon Ads argues, these shifts mark a move towards advertising that is both more human and more measurable, where AI handles the complexity, and creativity does the persuading.

Ad Campaigns

Publicis India appoints Sonal Verma as Arc Worldwide MD

Published

1 month ago

January 15, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Publicis Groupe India has appointed Sonal Verma as managing director of Arc Worldwide India, handing the reins of its experiential and shopper marketing business to a leader steeped in live brands and real world storytelling.

Arc Worldwide, the Groupe’s specialist arm focused on experiences that nudge consumers from curiosity to checkout, sits at the intersection of creativity, commerce and culture. Verma’s mandate is to sharpen that edge as brands grapple with shorter attention spans and more complicated buying journeys.

Verma joins from Cheil India, where she spent nearly five years building and leading the brand experience practice, most recently as senior vice president and head of brand experience. Her career reads like a tour of India’s experiential landscape, with leadership roles at Momentum Worldwide, Percept D Mark, Blockkbuster Events and Showtime Events.

She has also held senior activation roles at Radio City and The Times of India, giving her a rare mix of agency, media and on-ground execution experience. The common thread has been simple: turning big ideas into moments people remember and talk about.

At Arc Worldwide India, Verma will focus on expanding the agency’s experiential and shopper capabilities, strengthening client partnerships and keeping the work firmly rooted in consumer behaviour rather than buzzwords.

With Verma at the helm, Arc Worldwide is expected to double down on ideas that live beyond screens and closer to everyday life. For an industry obsessed with clicks and scrolls, this is a reminder that sometimes the strongest connections still happen face to face.

Ad Campaigns

Barbeque Nation taps ‘milne ki bhookh’ to kick off the new year

Published

2 months ago

December 29, 2025

indiantelevision.com Team

BENGALURU: Barbeque Nation is ringing in the new year with a reminder that some cravings cannot be ordered online. The casual dining chain has rolled out a new film campaign, milne ki bhookh, pitching its restaurants as places to meet, reconnect and linger over food.

Set against a world of constant messages and missed meet-ups, the campaign leans into a simple truth: dining out remains one of the few rituals that still brings people together. Barbeque Nation positions itself as the excuse and the setting for real conversations, shared plates and unhurried moments.

Nakul Gupta, cmo at Barbeque Nation, says the brand has long been about shared celebrations. As the year turns, milne ki bhookh captures what he calls a growing hunger to meet, connect and spend time together, with food at the centre of that experience.

Created by Makani Creatives, the campaign comprises three films built around Barbeque Nation’s signature grills and desserts. The storytelling is deliberately sensorial, designed to spark cravings while nudging diners to step out and meet in person.

Pavan Punjabi, chief integration officer at Makani Creatives, says the idea stems from a familiar contradiction. People are constantly connected, yet meetings with loved ones are endlessly postponed. Milne ki bhookh, he says, is a gentle push to make time for real-life catch-ups, using food as the reason to come together, share a meal and create memories.

The campaign breaks on December 25 with the grilled prawns film and will run for two months, amplified across digital platforms. As the new year begins, Barbeque Nation is betting that the strongest appetite of all is not for food alone, but for each other.