Ad Campaigns
Wunderman Thompson, TOI empower Indians to be corona warriors
MUMBAI: In response to Covid2019 pandemic, The Times of India has appealed Indians to make and wear their own masks at home with their #MaskIndia movement. Conceptualised by Wunderman Thompson South Asia, the movement empowered every citizen of the country to take charge of protecting themselves, their families and communities — encouraging individual action and responsibility among Indians, getting them ready to fight the single largest fight our generation has seen, globally. The campaign also focused on proper sanitation and disposal of the masks.
The ‘Make Your Own Mask’ campaign was launched on the front page of The Times Of India on 6th April involving the power of print, social media and national activation that received a phenomenal response and activated its purpose.
The MaskIndia movement has been elevated into a national movement with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi supporting it and himself sporting different homemade ghamcha masks on several occasions during the lockdown. Over a hundred thousand Indians have responded already with their own versions of homemade masks and posted their Mask Selfies and DIY How to Make Your Own Mask Videos with the #maskindia hashtag on social media and many unique, original and cool homemade masks have gone viral across Whatsapp Groups. Check out over 100,000 homemade mask and DIY mask posts on www.maskindia.com
The Times of India president marketing Sanjeev Bhargava said, “The Times of India has always stood by its motto: “Change Begins Here” and the #maskindia campaign is another link in the long chain of initiatives that we have launched in the recent past. What makes it special is that it has immediate relevance and benefit to everyone in the country. We strongly believe it can play a critical role in our fight against the pandemic. I would like to specially congratulate Wunderman Thompson for not only turning around and developing the campaign from scratch within 2 days but having done so in the times of a complete lockdown!”
Wunderman Thompson Delhi managing partner Joy Chauhan said, “The true character of a country is revealed by how its people and organisations behave in times of crises. With this timely and crucial initiative, The Times of India has proven India’s fortitude, agility and ability to go the distance. All of us at Wunderman Thompson are thankful and proud to be partners.”
The #MaskIndia movement culminated into a #MaskIndia film featuring a thousand different images of a thousand different homemade masks in a breathe in breathe out the composition of history and culture. The most innovative DIY homemade masks were curated from over 100,000 images posted by Indians during the lockdown with the hashtag #MaskIndia. Editorial photographs of the Masked Statues of National heroes like Mahatma Gandhi, Subash Chandra Bose and the Times Of India’s iconic Common Man feature as special masked characters along with thousands of Indians who have made their own masks and joined the movement.
Sharing details on the film, Wunderman Thompson India chief creative officer Senthil Kumar said, “The edit has been painstakingly crafted to lock the eyeline in all images so that the transitions from one homemade mask to another are all seamless. The simulation of eye movements is designed to invite a live face-off with audiences who are watching the film on their mobile or television screens. Experience the emotion of a thousand eyes talking to you to deliver a powerful narrative through the masks. All the cultural folk masks and ancient mythological masks have been carefully chosen to share only wearable masks made from jute, coconut husk, bamboo, wood, leaves, paper mache and natural fibre. It’s time to revive our cultural habit of wearing a mask to fight the evil virus, whenever we leave our homes for work and play, for life and family, for our country and for the future of humankind. It’s time to turn the humble ghamcha, dupatta, pallu, turbans, urma, lungi, dhoti, angavastram or any clean cloth into a mask and wear it for India. It’s time to dig deep into our cultural roots and create popular culture, inspiring every Indian to wear a mask like a warrior.”
www.maskindia.com features a unique interactive innovation where every Indian can upload their homemade mask selfie and their image will feature in a custom version of the #MaskIndia video.
“The idea is to inspire every Indian to Make their Own Mask and share their mask selfie to inspire every other Indian. With over a hundred thousand unique homemade masks already uploaded, the MAKE YOUR OWN #MASKINDIA movement will be amplified further with this interactive innovation”, added Kumar.
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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.
