Ad Campaigns
Castrol launches new EDGE range of products in India
Mumbai: Castrol India Ltd has unveiled an exciting range of products within the Castrol EDGE line. This premium and advanced engine oil, designed for on-demand performance, now includes three new variants tailored for the passenger car segment, addressing the evolving needs of automotive consumers.
Supporting this launch is a dynamic television commercial (TVC) campaign titled Stay Ahead, featuring Bollywood superstar and brand ambassador Shah Rukh Khan. The TVC concluded its grand premiere on 9 June 2024 amidst the highly anticipated India vs Pakistan T20 match, which showcased Khan in a fresh and exciting avatar, highlighting the superior performance offered by Castrol EDGE.
The commercial cleverly plays on today’s paparazzi culture, depicting celebrities finding innovative ways to ‘Stay Ahead’ of the shutterbugs. The core message highlighted in the TVC is Castrol EDGE’s ability to significantly boost engine performance on demand, ensuring drivers can count on exceptional performance in any situation and on any terrain.
The TVC opens with Khan, playing himself, showcasing his cheeky dance moves outside his parked car, holding a pack of Castrol EDGE. Soon, paparazzi on their bikes, exhausted from a swift chase, approach, expressing their surprise at finally spotting Shah Rukh Khan. The frame shifts to a flashback, showing an exhilarating and playful chase where the paparazzi eagerly try to get close to SRK’s car for pictures. However, each time, SRK zooms away, leaving the paparazzi only with blurry pictures of him.
Taking a humorous approach, the film highlights the innovative ways that celebs like SRK stay ahead of the paparazzi. In a light-hearted manner, SRK then reveals his secret to ‘Staying Ahead’ of the paparazzi and hands them a pack of Castrol EDGE engine oil. The paparazzi, hopeful of finally getting a clear shot, prepare their cameras. However, their anticipation quickly turns to playful disappointment as they watch SRK speed away once more. The commercial ends with SRK cruising away, leaving the world behind – “Castrol EDGE, Stay Ahead”.
“We are excited to launch Castrol EDGE, our range of high-performance car lubricants, with this engaging multimedia campaign featuring Shah Rukh Khan. The campaign leverages SRK as himself, showcasing a slice of his life, where the brand can truly give him an advantage,” said Castrol India Ltd VP & head of marketing Rohit Talwar. “With the introduction of Castrol EDGE, our focus on innovation meets India’s growing demand for better performance from their cars. The new Castrol EDGE range features products specifically engineered for a range of vehicles, from Hybrids to European Cars and SUVs providing cutting-edge technology that exceeds the requirements of the highest industry standards. This launch reaffirms our leadership in the lubricant sector, and we are confident that Castrol EDGE will set a new benchmark in engine performance and drive business growth.”
Discussing the TVC’s creation, Ogilvy India CCO Sukesh Nayak said, “We had to do something magical on Castrol. With SRK on board, we wanted to creatively maximise his potential. Then the question we asked ourselves was “Why does SRK need on demand performance?” ‘Stay Ahead’ was born. This isn’t just a TVC, it’s a full-blown campaign replete with fun teasers, first ever SRK image gallery, roller coaster chases and a tongue in cheek humour that’s sure to keep consumers engaged.”
The launch includes EDGE Hybrid specially formulated for Hybrid engine, EDGE Euro Car targeting leading EURO OEMS like Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, Land Rover, Volkswagen, Skoda, and Porsche, and EDGE SUV for high performance and premium SUVs.
In Addition to the T20 World Cup, Castrol is also an associate sponsor on Disney Star for Wimbledon in July 2024. The TVC is released on 9 June in seven languages to resonate with diverse audiences as part of a complete 360-degree marketing campaign spread across multiple platforms including a teaser video, print, digital, influencer amplification and OOH.
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.
