Ad Campaigns
Royal Challenge releases #PlayBold Anthem amidst cricket fervor
MUMBAI: Today’s young Indian is about stepping out of their comfort zone and making bold moves. Royal Challenge Sports Drink is all set to fuel this unwavering aspiration by giving it a single sound through an anthem that inspires the nation to #PlayBold.
The #PlayBold anthem is being released during the cricket season as a combined voice of the nation to cheer and support the Indian cricket team. Bollywood composer Salim Merchant has created the music for this anthem starring Vishal Dadlani’s voice. The lyrics have been woven together by Sonal Dabral, chairman and chief creative officer of DDB Mudra Group.
A vibrant video has been shot in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai with a variety of young Indians in different settings cheering and singing aloud ‘Go India’ and ‘Play Bold’ starring Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni.
Commenting on the anthem, United Spirits Marking SVP Subroto Geed said, “Through this anthem, Royal Challenge Sports Drink is attempting to galvanize the Indian youth to follow their heart and make bold choices. We hope that the anthem’s catchphrase “Mere India, Tu Play Bold”, becomes a single sound that does not just reflect our country’s love for cricket, but goes on to become the youth anthem for India.”
“This is that electrifying time of the year when the entire country stands united behind our team. It’s been truly exciting to create this anthem to give us all one voice to encourage our team and our country to Play Bold. The lyrics, music and video of this anthem capture this powerful emotion, and we hope it will become the voice of billion hearts.” said DDB Mudra Group CCO and chairman Sonal Dabral.
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.”
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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.
