MAM
upGrad persuades working professionals to follow their dreams with the latest brand campaign #RahoAmbitious
MUMBAI: upGrad today unveiled the first leg of their brand-new campaign “#RahoAmbitious” with the launch of two TV commercials. The TVC revolves around upGrad’s aim to rekindle the spirit of ambition and passion for learning among today’s working professionals. This campaign will connect with customers across all touchpoints like television, print, digital and social media.
The 360-degree integrated brand campaign commences with the launch of two TVC’s that will be aired across 70 channels, including Hindi and other vernacular languages, across India.
Education in India is typically associated with discipline and seriousness and is yet to become a part of the popular culture. To break this taboo tied to education, upGrad has on boarded India's most popular content creators The Viral Fever (TVF) and FilterCopy to shed light upon the campaign within the digital sphere. Such light-hearted, relatable, and humorous content will narrate the relevance of education in various walks of life and showcase how impactful online education has become in today’s day and age.
Nonetheless, the print-campaign will also be spread across India in English and regional languages tapping into a wider readership of Tier I and Tier II cities.
Talking about the campaign, Mayank Kumar, co-founder and MD of upGrad says, “With upGrad Raho Ambitious, we embark upon a new journey to provide 1 million working professionals with better learning sphere and equip them with a perfect blend of business acumen and technical capabilities at the same time. The campaign reiterates upGrad’s core belief of outcome-based learning through emotional messaging and real-life career transitioning journeys of learners. Such a twofold approach will not only break the stereotypical notions attached to education, but also reignite viewers hidden ambition.”
In addition to this, upGrad has also introduced freshly curated content with its new video series to be launched soon on the upGrad App. The new app will be available on Google Play and YouTube. The videos entail tailor-made content focused on the brand’s key narrative- lifelong learning. Divided into 100 episodes of 5 minutes each, upGrad aims to solve the three biggest problems faced by professionals while adopting a new habit, especially when wheeled
towards lifelong learning-lack of time, lack of money, and lack of intrigue. The content would be free in its initial phase, available for streaming on the upGrad Android App & YouTube, which will also later be available on subscription basis, provided viewers discretion. Apart from this, the brand has also launched ‘upGrad Stand-up Books’ which also features Vicky Kaushal, the face of upGrad, summarizing his life lessons and ‘LifeLong Learning’ from the books he had read in the past in a quirkiest way.
With this new initiative, upGrad is set to leave its imprints in the minds of consumers and is moving one step ahead to change the way education is imparted across India.
MAM
ASCI study uncovers how Gen Alpha navigates ads in endless digital feeds
‘What the Sigma?’ ethnographic report maps blurred boundaries between content and commerce for 7–15-year-olds.
MUMBAI: Gen Alpha isn’t scrolling through the internet, they’re living rent-free inside its never-ending dopamine drip, and the ads have already moved in next door. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) Academy, partnering with Futurebrands Consulting, has published ‘What the Sigma?’, an immersive ethnographic study that maps how Indian children aged 7–15 (Generation Alpha) consume, interpret and live alongside media and commercial messaging in a hyper-digital environment.
The research draws on in-home interviews, sibling and peer conversations, and discussions with parents, teachers, counsellors, psychologists, marketers and kidfluencers across six cities. It examines not only what children watch but how algorithms, content creators, peers and parents shape their relationship with the constant stream of shorts, vlogs, gameplay, memes, sponsored posts and ‘kid-ified’ adult material.
Five core themes emerged:
- Discontinuous Generation, Gen Alpha is not growing up alongside the internet, they are growing up inside it. Cultural references, humour, aesthetics and language sync globally in real time, often leaving adults functionally illiterate in their children’s world. A reference that lands instantly for a 10-year-old in Mumbai or Visakhapatnam feels opaque or disjointed to most parents.
- Authority Vacuum, Parents and teachers frequently lose cultural fluency in digital spaces. The algorithm responsive, inexhaustible and perfectly attuned to preferences becomes the most attentive presence in many children’s daily lives. Rules around screen time feel increasingly difficult to enforce when adults cannot fully see or understand the content landscape.
- Digital as Society, Online and offline no longer exist as separate realms, they form one continuous reality. The phone is not a tool children pick up; it is the primary social environment they inhabit.
- Great Media Mukbang, Content flows as an ambient, boundary-less, multi-sensorial stream. Entertainment, advertising, commerce, gameplay, memes and vlogs merge into one undifferentiated feed. The line between active choice and passive absorption has largely collapsed.
- Blurred Ad Recognition, Children aged 7–12 typically recognise only the most overt advertising formats. Influencer promotions, gaming integrations and vlog sponsorships often register as organic entertainment. Children aged 13–15 show greater ad literacy but remain highly susceptible to narrative-integrated, passion-driven and emotionally resonant brand messaging. Discernment remains low across the board in a non-stop stream.
ASCI CEO and secretary general Manisha Kapoor said, “ASCI Academy’s study is an investigation into the content life of Generation Alpha not to judge them but to understand them. Their cultural reference points seem disjointed from those of earlier generations. Insights on how they perceive advertising is the first step towards building more responsible engagement frameworks, given that they are the youngest media consumers in our country right now.”
Futurebrands Consulting founder and director Santosh Desai added, “While earlier generations have been exposed to digital media, for this generation it is the world they inhabit. This report explores not only what they watch but how they are being shaped by algorithms, content and advertising.”
The study proposes four adaptive, principles-led pathways:
- Universal signposting of commercial intent using design principles that make advertising recognisable even to young audiences.
- Ecosystem-wide responsibility shared among advertisers, platforms, creators, schools and parents.
- Future-ready safeguards built directly into children’s content experiences rather than as optional background settings.
- Formal media and advertising literacy embedded in school curricula to teach age-appropriate understanding of persuasion and commercial intent.
In a feed that never pauses, Gen Alpha isn’t merely watching content, they’re swimming in an ocean where entertainment, commerce and identity swirl together. The real question isn’t whether they can spot an ad; it’s whether the adults building the ocean can agree on where the lifeguards should stand.
