Ad Campaigns
Mumbai Indians bring cricketing giants to life at T2 with Arthat Studio’s sculptural tribute
MUMBAI: Cricket and creativity collided at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport this week, as Mumbai Indians unveiled towering 12-foot statues of their star players-Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Surya Kumar Yadav, and Jasprit Bumrah-crafted by Arthat Studio LLP. Installed at the arrival terminal (T2), these lifelike sculptures now welcome travellers to Mumbai with an unmistakable display of sporting pride.
The installation is part of the franchise’s ongoing #PlayLikeMumbai campaign and marks a striking fusion of public art and fandom. More than just decor, the project positions cricket icons as cultural landmarks-statues not of bronze, but of devotion.
Arthat Studio has gone beyond surface likeness, sculpting the soul of each athlete: Rohit’s calm authority, Hardik’s aggressive energy, SKY’s creative flourish, and Bumrah’s razor-sharp focus. The realism is uncanny; fans can almost hear the crack of the bat and the roar of the crowd.
“This initiative is a vibrant extension of Mumbai Indians’ ongoing #PlayLikeMumbai campaign, underscoring their commitment to inspiring new generations through the dedication and achievements of their iconic players,” the franchise shared.
For fans and visitors, these colossal forms deliver more than a photo op—they offer proximity to heroes who symbolise the spirit of Mumbai. The installation transforms the airport terminal into a canvas of celebration, reflecting the city’s deep cricketing pulse.
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.
