Ad Campaigns
Airtel’s 4G girl is back in a new avatar at ICC World T-20 Cup
MUMBAI: The ubiquitous Airtel 4G girl is back in a new avatar starting today as she goes on a vacation with her friends. Airtel’s new campaign around its 4G services starring Sasha Chhetri goes on air today during the India-New Zealand match of the ICC World T-20 Cup.
Airtel has led the proliferation of 4G services in India and has the widest 4G footprint in the industry with services available in over 350 cities and towns across the country. The new campaign, which has been conceived by Taproot Advertising, is positioned on Airtel being the widest 4G network in the country with unmatched coverage.
The campaign will have a total of 5 films, each one different from the other in terms of the visual beauty of the location. It will have support legs in outdoor, print and digital mediums which will play a big role in delivering the message to the online audience, in particular the youth.
Since August 2015, when Airtel’s disruptive 4G ‘Challenge’ went on air, Sasha Chhetri has become the synonymous with 4G in India and has established herself as the confident go-getter who can deliver the brand’s message with panache.
On the new campaign, Bharti Airtel (India & SA) CBO Rajiv Mathrani says, “Airtel’s 4G campaigns have redefined communication around high speed mobile data services and the brand has powerfully surged ahead. With the expansion of Airtel’s 4G network across India, the campaign showcases the network in some of the most picturesque locations and is delivered in a casual yet persuasive tonality. We will see Sasha in a refreshingly new avatar as she continues to build a strong youth connect for Brand Airtel”
Taproot-Dentsu’s Agnello Dias says, “The Airtel 4G girl has built a powerful 4G association with Airtel. For this campaign, we have taken a different spin on her character while driving home a strong network message”
India is witnessing explosive growth in the mobile data category. As the 4G device ecosystem matures, and 4G enabled handsets are available at affordable price points, high speed data services are expected to see considerable uptake across India.
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.
