Ad Campaigns
Duster TVC reflects its resilience and real capability
MUMBAI: Renault, one of the fastest growing automotive brands in the country, will release its new TVC for the recently launched Duster Petrol with CVT (Continuously Variable Timing) automatic gearbox. The first in the series goes live on Monday (8 May).
Setting the benchmark for perfection, Renault Duster has firmly achieved the status of being a cult product in the Indian automobile industry. Duster plays a pivotal role in Renault India’s product portfolio and with the introduction of the new petrol range with CVT transmission, Renault has the widest offering in the segment, enabling to best cater to evolving customers’ needs.
The new campaign seeks to build greater appeal, and expand the market base for a car that has been well accepted and loved by the country for over five years now. The film celebrates the spirit of the Duster driver, characterized by a certain inner strength, sincerity and sense of duty – qualities that resonate with greater India.
Renault India head of marketing Virat Khullar said, “This is the first time Renault has introduced an emotive campaign on social awareness for the Duster. The TVC essentially retains the Duster’s iconic macho stance, but also adds a heart of gold to the narrative. The overarching objective was to realign the communication approach for the new Duster in a way that it resonates with both urban and semi urban audiences, thereby reaching out to a wider base of audience. The campaign subtly brings this emotion alive, through our protagonist, with his all-terrain capable and resilient new Renault Duster. The campaign essentially drives home the point to take the right step with the right intent that becomes a source of inspiration for others too.”
Conceptualised by Law and Kenneth Saatchi and Saatchi, Renault in its latest TVC campaign aims to create an awareness campaign, encouraging people to be more socially conscious, highlighting the versatility of the true SUV- Duster.
The TVC opens with an aerial shot of the new Duster wherein the protagonist, a smart young guy, driving the new Duster CVT through a narrow hilly area with a perfect picturesque background. As the road takes a turn, the young fellow finds that the road is blocked by a trailer of oranges which accidentally got overturned. Further aggravating the situation, some hooligans are seen taking stock of the strewn oranges while an insane biker is crushing the oranges lying over the road.
Two elderly farmers vehemently try to prevent them but fail miserably in their attempts. The protagonist stops his Duster in the midst of the commotion and the hooligans escape from there. Braving all odds, the protagonist himself tries to move the trailer to clear the road-block while others get inspired too and join him.
The film now portrays the dynamic SUV ability of the new Duster CVT as it literally helps in clearing the road-block, bringing smiles to the farmer’s face. The rendition of the TVC also aims to depict the protagonist as a Samaritan who stands up to break the archetypical barriers bothering all civilized citizens of the country. The film ends with the fruit trailer being towed by the powerful Duster CVT as it traverses through the scenic hilly landscape to drop the farmer at the market place.
Executive creative director Kartik Smetacek said, “The task was to build emotional appeal for the new Duster. We mined stories that would strike a chord with greater India, while also allowing us to demonstrate the inherent strength and capability of the car.”
The new TVC celebrates the humanitarian spirit of the protagonist, characterized by sincerity, solidarity and sense of moral duty – qualities that resonate with the new age India. The personality reflects the Duster’s inherent characteristics of strength, resilience and real SUV capability. The TVC is summed up with the voiceover, “Presenting the new Duster with the DNA of a true SUV for the new Indians who believes in doing things right” as the background score lifts up the spirit.
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.
