Ad Campaigns
Cleartrip unveils first ad campaign with Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Mumbai: Cleartrip’s new brand ambassador and cricketing icon, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, marked his debut innings with the brand’s latest ad film. Donning 3 quirky avatars – pilot, darbaan and a traveler – MSD aka Captain Cool urges first-time users to book with Cleartrip to score big with offers and enjoy unparalleled flexibility on flights, hotels and buses under the brand’s promise – ‘ClearChoice’. This proposition for a whole new set of audience is timed perfectly right ahead of the summer travel frenzy.
The film aligns with Cleartrip’s vision of growing its market presence and unlocking a new and larger demographic. It introduces them to the brand’s unique value proposition through relatable moments that resonate with every traveler. Through the campaign, the films highlight the common pain points of travelers, especially for last-minute cancellations and modifications. MSD in his quintessential style reassures the users that with Cleartrip, booking journeys are stress-free and flexible.
The unique element of the campaign messaging is Cleartrip’s assertion that new customers are lucky if they haven’t yet booked with them. This quirky and provocative approach from an OTA, suggesting luck in not choosing their service, mirrors Cleartrip’s classic disruptive marketing.
The exciting offers include:
1 Domestic Flights: Flat Rs 777 off + earn 500 Supercoins on first domestic flight booking.
2 International Flights: Flat 10 per cent off + earn 500 SuperCoins on first international flight booking.
3 Domestic Hotels: Flat 25 per cent off on first booking
4 International Hotels: Flat Rs.2000 off on first booking
5 Hotel cancellations right before check-in start at just Rs.49
6 Lowest rates in the industry for rescheduling and cancelling flights.
7 Flat 15 per cent off on bus bookings
Cleartrip brand ambassador Mahendra Singh Dhoni said, “Throughout my career, travelling across continents, I have been a true globetrotter and discovered my love for travel. After so many years, travel has become something I look forward to. I couldn’t be more thrilled to come onboard Cleartrip, a brand that mirrors what travel should be like – fun, memorable and meaningful. In my career, I continue to make tough decisions every day, but with Cleartrip, decision-making is easy and straightforward. Their commitment to transparency simplifies choices and allows anyone to confidently go on a journey of their dreams.”
Cleartrip chief business officer Prahlad Krishnamurthi said, “At Cleartrip, our fundamental aim is to democratise travel through superior offerings and unprecedented flexibility. Our latest campaign with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, an iconic figure with universal appeal, is to invite new users to come onboard Cleartrip and experience travel like never before. MSD embodies Cleartrip’s ethos of Straightforwardness and Transparency and we believe he is the perfect Captain for us and our travelers from across the country.”
Cleartrip is indeed ‘Thala’s Choice’ for anyone seeking a seamless, memorable, and meaningful journey.
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.
