Ad Campaigns
DBS Bank India launches India-Singapore Connect with CNBC-TV18
Mumbai: The India-Singapore relationship has emerged as one of the most important partnerships in the context of the ‘Asian Century’. Underpinned by a rich history of cultural and commercial connections, complementary strengths and shared priorities, the India-Singapore corridor has been growing in prominence for many years. To further strengthen these ties, DBS Bank India is launching an initiative that will bring together stakeholders from diverse sectors in both countries to identify synergies and create opportunities for charting a mutually beneficial way forward.
Since opening its first office in Mumbai in 1994, DBS Bank has now been present in India for 30 years. The bank’s partnership with CNBC-TV18 to launch the ‘India Singapore Connect’ is also a celebration of this milestone, by further deepening the dialogue and the exchange of ideas and best practices. This effort will spread over the rest of the year and will also leverage DBS Bank’s established linkages in both Singapore and India to include perspectives from government leaders, CEOs, entrepreneurs, economists and opinion leaders that will help contextualise key themes that are relevant to this corridor, covering regional trade, investment flows, innovation, emerging technology, sustainable development and cross-cultural interests.
Speaking on the launch of the campaign, DBS Bank India managing director and CEO Surojit Shome said, “As we celebrate three decades of growth in the country, DBS Bank reaffirms its commitment to India and to continuing to deliver value to customers as a trusted partner over many more decades to come. We envision the ‘India-Singapore Connect’ to be both a celebration of strong bilateral ties, while also looking ahead to further deepen existing relationships and forging new ones through meaningful interchange between both countries. As the largest bank in South-East Asia, it is a privilege for DBS to be able to catalyse greater collaboration between India and Singapore.”
This milestone program will kickstart with a curtain raiser episode featuring an interview with DBS Group CEO and director Piyush Gupta led by CNBC-TV18 managing editor Shereen Bhan, focusing on how the paradigm of the India-Singapore corridor has evolved and how its strengths can serve as a blueprint for developing successful economic and people-to-people relationships between the nations. It will conclude with an exclusive event – the ‘India-Singapore Connect Summit’ to be hosted in Mumbai, which will see thought leaders and dignitaries from across the region share insights and actionable pathways for inclusive growth.
“As India’s premier business news platform, we at CNBC-TV18 are passionate about curating meaningful conversations and focusing on issues that matter. We are proud to partner with DBS Bank India on the ‘India-Singapore Connect’ campaign that touches upon many transformational trends, as seen through the eyes of corporate and cultural leaders in two of Asia’s fastest-growing economies. It presents us with an invaluable opportunity to combine forces with DBS Bank to help develop an important bilateral relationship”, said CNBC-TV18 managing editor Shereen Bhan reflecting on the significance of the campaign.
DBS Bank India Limited is the first among the large foreign banks in India to start operating as a wholly owned, locally incorporated subsidiary of a leading global bank. As a trusted partner, DBS provides a range of banking services for large, medium, and small enterprises and individual consumers in India, focusing on a seamless customer experience that helps them ‘Live more, Bank less’.
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.
