Ad Campaigns
Amazon Pay thanks unsung Covid heroes in new campaign
New Delhi: Amazon Pay announced the launch of UmmeedKeChehre – a digital-led campaign to salute the unseen and unsung heroes of the ongoing pandemic who continue to work tirelessly to help and support others.
The campaign unfolds with a digital film that captures the extraordinary efforts and commitment of individuals and groups, including the frontline staff, lab technicians and lesser-known heroes like drivers, watchmen and many more who are selflessly doing their best for the society and people.
Speaking about the campaign, Amazon Pay India, CEO, Mahendra Nerurkar said, “UmmeedKeChehre, is our digital campaign to thank lakhs of Covid heroes for their commitment and aims to spread a strong message of positivity and hope during these tough times. It salutes the spirit of hope that is being exemplified by these ordinary folks through their extraordinary acts of serving and caring for people and communities.”
As part of the campaign, people can pay gratitude towards Covid heroes by making donations through the partner NGOs’ Milap, Give India, Akshay Patra, Help Age, Humanity for Habitat, or also have an option to or share an Amazon Pay digital gift card as a gesture with their Covid-19 heroes. The campaign runs across multiple media channels to connect and encourage people to join the movement and share a ‘Thank you note’ for their Covid Hero on their own social media channels using #PayYourRespect.
The company said it is also enabling procurement, airlifting, local transportation and seamless delivery of critical medical equipment to hospitals and communities where it’s needed the most. “We have scaled up relief efforts for our employees and their families too, including access to medical infrastructure and other supplies, quarantine facilities, financial support, and more. Further, we have committed to provide vaccination support for our employees, sellers, partners and their dependents; and our on-premises vaccination camps are functional for employees and associates across multiple cities,” said the company.
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.
