Ad Campaigns
Protium’s #VocalForLocal Diwali campaign highlights small businesses
Mumbai: As Diwali, the festival of lights, approached, Protium reaffirmed its commitment to the #VocalForLocal campaign, carrying forward the spirit that has ignited positive change over the past years. The campaign’s essence revolved around the idea of encouraging individuals to embrace and support local businesses, with a special focus on micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the backbone of our nation’s economy.
Launched on 8 November, Protium’s Diwali campaign seeked to rekindle the spirit of supporting local businesses, a concept that has gained momentum in recent years. The campaign kickstarted with a heartwarming video featuring a young girl making a conscious choice to shop at a local shop named “Diwali Chirags” instead of visiting malls or opting for big retail chains. This action not only echoed the campaign’s message from the previous year but also served to underscore the powerful impact of individual choices on the livelihoods of local vendors. It aimed to inspire individuals to prioritize local businesses, fostering a deeper connection to the community, especially during festive seasons.
Protium, an advocate for MSMEs, is guided by a strong moral compass to support small businesses, which often grapple with the challenges posed by intense competition and the allure of more expensive alternatives. The core objective of the #VocalForLocal campaign was to empower and boost these enterprises by driving business in their direction. Protium’s Diwali campaign culminated in a fun celebration in which employees from across the organisation gathered to revel in the festival of lights, fostering a sense of community and support for small businesses. The highlight of the festivities was a vibrant Diwali Mela organized by the employees which echoed the campaign theme and showcased a diverse array of products and crafts, emphasizing the richness and uniqueness of offerings by local enterprises and artisans. This resounding success of the campaign underscored Protium’s commitment to the #VocalForLocal principles, emphasizing that collective efforts truly empower small businesses and fortify our local economy.
The Diwali campaign symbolised Protium’s commitment to nurturing local businesses, fostering community support, and igniting a sense of responsibility towards sustaining our economy at the grassroots level. In line with this commitment, Protium has chosen to lead by example. For their in-house decorations, they consciously opted to shop from local establishments. In doing so, Protium embraces the philosophy of “being the change they wish to see in the world.” Protium believes that every small step contributes to the larger movement of supporting local enterprises and fostering a resilient, interconnected community.
This Diwali, Protium encouraged everyone to join the #VocalForLocal movement yet again and take a step towards supporting local businesses, not only during the festive season but as an enduring commitment. The brand believes that together, we can illuminate the path for small businesses to thrive and make our nation’s economy even stronger.
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.
