Ad Campaigns
Crunchyroll launches ‘Wish Your World Was Anime’ campaign
Mumbai: Crunchyroll, the ultimate home for anime worldwide, launched its first ad campaign in India, ‘Wish Your World Was Anime’, which masterfully blends the immersive world of anime with real life, featuring anime superfans Rashmika Mandanna and Tiger Shroff. In the two ad films, the protagonists wish for dream scenarios in their real lives, such as embarking on vivid adventures and turning challenges into triumphant moments, much like those in the captivating anime worlds they enjoy.
The dynamic ads premiered during the IPL and will air digitally on JioCinema during TATA IPL matches. Crunchyroll has also planned a comprehensive marketing campaign encompassing surround sound promotions through OOH, digital advertising, and social media outreach.
Anime, with its unique storytelling style, action, and visual artistry, offers a realm unlike any other, where individuals immerse in narratives that inspire, provoke thought, and evoke emotion. With ‘Wish Your World Was Anime,’ Crunchyroll aims to tap into the universal desire shared by anime enthusiasts everywhere – to infuse their everyday lives with the vibrancy, courage, and adventure reminiscent of their favorite anime characters and shows.
The ad films have been uniquely crafted using a blend of original Japanese animation with live action. The creative agency behind the campaign is Tilt Brand Solutions, while the anime segments were created by renowned anime studios in Japan, ensuring the authenticity of the craft and reinforcing Crunchyroll’s dedication to sharing Japanese anime with the world. Drive Inc. created the anime for the ad film with Rashmika, while the anime in Tiger’s ad film was created by ARECT, Inc. The films were overseen creatively by Crunchyroll’s creative services team. The background music in the ad film with Tiger is exclusive, produced by Donn Bhatt, and features rapper Jagsifat. The ad film with Rashmika has the song ‘Billo’ by Excise Dept.
“We are thrilled to announce Crunchyroll’s first brand campaign in India — a heartfelt milestone for us and the anime community here,” said Crunchyroll SVP of marketing Markus Gerdemann. “With Tiger Shroff and Rashmika Mandanna joining us, our campaign shines a light on the power of anime as a captivating form of storytelling. India’s rich culture and its enthusiastic embrace of anime inspire us every day. What better way to debut the campaign than another milestone cultural moment – the IPL.”
“This campaign is more than just an announcement; it’s a reflection of our dedication to nurturing our bond with anime fans across the country,” added VP of creative services Norman Rabinovich. “We’re celebrating our collective love for anime and supporting the fandom that makes it all so rewarding.”
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.
