Ad Campaigns
Castrol Activ launches campaign #NonStopDemocracy
MUMBAI: Castrol Activ, the engine oil for two-wheelers, announced the launch of its new marketing campaign titled, #NonStopDemocracy. Set against the backdrop of the upcoming general elections in India, the ad film encourages the young audience of India to ‘Give a Ride, Help Cast a Vote.’
The renowned creative agency Ogilvy India has conceptualised and developed the campaign which was rolled out on 22 February across multiple channels. The campaign is an extension of the brand’s marketing philosophy, focused on showcasing young riders as changemakers for today’s society.
“Young voters will define the elections in 2019. By showing them a very easy to execute idea of converting their own motorcycles or scooters into a vehicle to ferry people to polling booths, we have hopefully shown them a way and encouraged them to think differently to do their bit,” Ogilvy chief creative officer Sukesh Nayak commented.
“Today’s youth is self-aware and responsible. This campaign is our salute to the youth who want to make a difference to society and are driving this positive change. In this journey, we hope that Castrol Activ will be their trusted partner. We see this communication as a catalyst for change to shape thoughts of the young generation and encourage them to keep protecting what they love,” Castrol India marketing vice president Kedar Apte said.
The setting at the beginning of the film implies a low voter turnout during the general elections because of difficult weather conditions. But youngsters on their bikes protected with Castrol Activ, ensure they individually visit various households, urge adults to cast their votes, and ferry them to the polling booth.
“I’m happy that the much-loved Castrol Activ brand has once again been able to come up with an impactful message around protecting what you love. We hope this message resonates with India’s youth just like the previous campaigns and ignites a spark towards making a positive difference in whichever sphere of life they may choose," Castrol India Limited managing director Omer Dormen commented.
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.
