Ad Campaigns
Dr Agarwals Eye Hospital: Eyeing clever marketing with Sachin Tendulkar
MUMBAI: When you want to be heard, either do it subtly when there’s pin drop silence or yell out loud when others are also yelling to be heard over the cacophony of sound. Or you can take the middle path: be loud where it’s needed and subtle where it is not.
Which is what Dr Agarwal’s Eye Hospital has done. Chief marketing officer Ayushman Chiranewala – of Titan Watches fame – has gone in for one big personality – the silky-smooth batsman Sachin Tendulkar and you can’t get louder than that while positioning in the consumer’s mind.
In one of the ads in a plane, Glenn McGrath features where he is seen arguing about a decision which had gone in his favour and against Sachin in one of their cricket encounters in Australia. Sachin tells Glenn he should get his eyes checked. Which Glenn refuses saying his eyes are perfect. In comes a lady co-passenger interrupting them and informing Glenn that the seat he was occupying was hers. Glenn responds by saying it’s 3D; the lady says it is 3B. That’s a cue for Sachin to take him to Dr Agarwal’s Eye Hospital for an eye check-up. And the message if you don’t get yourself checked in time, you will repent later!
The second spot has Sachin’s doppelganger first fawning over him and then being venerated by a fan when the master-blaster is actually standing in the same lounge. The fan continues to be all over the duplicate even when Sachin clears his throat to alert him that he is the real thing. When a bell boy informs Sachin that his car has arrived, it jolts the fan. Then comes the message: “When you develop cataract, your vision gradually deteriorates! Visit Dr Agarwals eye hospital!”
Clearly, this is funny humor done seriously and it sticks in your mind. And for a serious affliction: eye vision loss and going for a hospital visit to possibly get it repaired or healed. The message is hammered home very, very loudly and clearly. Care for your eyes when you have the time, otherwise you will really have to take care of your eyes!
“Agarwal’s hospitals number 200 in 10 countries with its doctors serving two million patients annually and performing 200,000 surgeries,” says Chiranewalla. “This journey of bringing world-class eye care to everyone’s doorstep wouldn’t have been possible without your trust and support. Our commitment remains the same: making eye care accessible, affordable, and exceptional for every individual. Join us in celebrating this milestone as we continue to expand our vision of creating healthier communities!”
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.
