Ad Campaigns
GMR’s ‘Rug rug mein rugby’ campaign brings the scrum to the street
MUMBAI: GMR Rugby Premier League (RPL) is charging into the national consciousness with a thumping new campaign — Rug Rug Mein Rugby — an audacious attempt to make the gritty, fast-paced sport of Rugby 7s feel as everyday as chai and traffic jams.
Launched by GMR Sports and Rugby India, the campaign leads with a high-energy anthem that celebrates the adrenaline, grit and speed of the game, backed by vibrant visuals and a hook designed to stick. But it doesn’t stop at soundtracks. A witty series of digital films reimagines rugby in everyday Indian scenarios — from a fish-market dive that mirrors a try, to a lift-crasher evoking a ruck. The goal? Make the game less foreign, more fun.
Speaking on the campaign, Rugby India president Rahul Bose said, “With Rug Rug Mein Rugby, we are not just launching a league, we’re launching an emotive appeal to all Indians – Sabke Rug Rug Mein Rugby, India ke Rug Rug Mein Rugby. The theme song exudes all the exciting characteristics of the sport, while this campaign simplifies the game, celebrates the best athletes, and invites all of India to witness this spectacle.”
GMR Sports CMO Sujoy Ganguly said, “At GMR Sports, we are committed to building a strong foundation for rugby in India. This campaign captures the heart and excitement of the sport and makes it accessible to new audiences. It’s a dynamic, high energy launchpad for both the Rugby Premier League and a wider rugby movement in the country.”
The GMR RPL, backed by World Rugby, kicks off its debut season on June 15 at the Mumbai Football Arena with 34 matches lined up. If the campaign’s punchy appeal lands right, rugby might just go from niche to next-big-thing.
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.
