Ad Campaigns
An ode to the Un-disputed gods of the new world
MUMBAI: Power is not wielded from corner offices. Success no longer wears only pin stripes. Nor does it just sit in high rises of glass and chrome. The latest Ballantine’s communication raises a toast to the entrepreneurial spirit of this new breed who are redefining the codes of corporate success. Unorthodox, intrepid and bold in its very visual language, the latest campaign by Ballantine’s aims to acknowledge their audacious spirit with aspirational authenticity.
The new Ballantine’s campaign is an ode to these ‘Uns’ – symbols of the fearless new corporate tribe. So there is no one hero in the film. The protagonists are many, diverse and represent corporate success across unconventional walks of life. Fearless, bold and not disheartened by temporary glitches, their strength lies in their uniqueness. They’re holding their ground in un-stereotypical ways; scripting success in unimagined fields and professions.
Even the media use and spread of the campaign is as sharply defined. Talking as it does to and about a highly connected, digital savvy audience, the campaign makes adept use of television, social media and digital platforms to convey the spirit of Ballantine’s. Ballantine’s audience’s experimental spirit and sense of identity expressed through self-belief has a seamless brand connect. Ballantine’s is a spirit that has stayed true to its character since its very origins in 1827. Unswayed by competition, unchanged by changing times, its self-belief has remained unsullied. Armed with great self-conviction, Ballantine’s has always taken the world head on, chin-up, with a no-retreat-ever attitude. Perhaps reason why, few can match its unbeatable performance and position in the market.
Kartik Mohindra, Chief Marketing Officer, Pernod Ricard India, put it very succinctly: “These are the times of the unconventional. Unawed by the norms, their entrepreneurial spirit is redefining the codes of success. Their ambitions are global and undefined by boundaries. Not content to step into anyone’s shoes, they script success stories on self-belief. Powerhouses of talent, they are challengers of the stereotype. They are dreamers who are doers. Undiluted in intent, they are upending the dos and don’ts of the expected. With great success. Ballantine’s and this film is an ode to these heroes.”
Nitin Srivastava, Group Creative Director, Ogilvy India said, “The new world order and success itself belongs to this new breed of disrupters of the typical. Decisive and determined, they are the new wealth creators in hitherto unimagined fields. By applying a sharp business acumen to their passions, they are creating new business empires. A boldness of vision on the part of the client inspired the team to push the boundaries. Together, it led us to script unusual stories of success with a dramatic new visual language”.
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.
