Ad Campaigns
Bookmyshow brings festive cheer with ‘You Make the Excuse, We’ll Make the Plan’
MUMBAI: Picture this: It’s 24 December, and your boss sends a late-night email about a year-end report. You glance at the clock-it’s almost Christmas. The scent of gingerbread wafts through the air, twinkling lights paint your living room, and your family awaits a cozy movie marathon.
But instead of holiday cheer, you’re drafting excuses: ‘Family emergency’, ‘Last-minute volunteering’, or the classic, ‘Wi-Fi issues’.
Enter Bookmyshow with its cheeky campaign, “You Make the Excuse, We’ll Make the Plan”.
Aimed at the excuse-spinning, memory-making crowd, this initiative captures the chaotic charm of the festive season. It nudges us to swap the guilt for good times-whether it’s a concert under the stars, a theatrical masterpiece, or a blockbuster movie night.
Because, let’s be honest, between spreadsheets and stage lights, what truly matters are the moments spent with those who make life a celebration.
After all, deadlines can wait, but New Year’s fireworks? They won’t.
The campaign shines a spotlight on the seasonal tug-of-war between professional responsibilities and festive celebrations. With hilarious portrayals of employees drafting imaginative leave excuses—from celebrating a cousin’s goldfish’s birthday to answering the irresistible call of the mountains—Bookmyshow highlights the joys and challenges of the year-end rush.
The narrative unfolds through two engaging videos. One captures the employees’ perspective, showcasing their comical efforts to justify time off for entertainment plans booked on Bookmyshow. The other flips the script, offering the boss’s viewpoint as they navigate a wave of creative leave applications, eventually succumbing to the festive cheer themselves with an out-of-office email, “Finding my Inner Peace.”
The campaign urges audiences to laugh at relatable workplace moments and embrace the holiday spirit by booking their festive plans early.
Bookmyshow head of marketing, Dolly Davda shared her thoughts, “As the year comes to a close, the festive season offers a perfect opportunity to pause, relax and celebrate. With ‘You Make the Excuse, We’ll Make the Plan,’ we’ve captured the relatable humour, where balancing responsibilities and revelry becomes part of the holiday tradition. This campaign encourages people to take a well-deserved break and focus on what truly matters—spending quality time with loved ones and creating unforgettable memories.”
Adding to the campaign’s charm, leading brands joined the fun with quirky out-of-office replies. From Maybelline India’s “OOO or not, servin’ looks is our top priority” to Swiggy India’s cheeky “Sounds like a January problem”, the campaign sparked a wave of festive humour, resonating with audiences across platforms.
Whether it’s grabbing tickets to blockbuster movies, live performances, nature treks, or spectacular New Year’s bashes, Bookmyshow promises seamless planning for all entertainment needs. This campaign reminds audiences that the holiday season is all about cherishing moments and embracing the joy of celebration.
Still mastering the art of excuses?
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.
