Ad Campaigns
eBay engages consumer with live game on FB
MUMBAI: Festive season is a busy time for Indian brands, especially the e-commerce players given the shopping spree the nation witnessed around the time. Thus it becomes important to brainstorm on new and unique ways to get the consumer’s attention; something different from the unbelievable discounts that is default of the season.
eBay India’s doing so by hosting the first ever Facebook live gaming event for its consumers called Dhanbola (online tambola). Hosted by stand-up comedian Zakir Khan, Dhanbola went live on October 25, from 4:00-5:00 pm on eBay India FB page, and was witnessed by over 7000 people live.
The concept of Dhanbola was simple: over 5.6 million consumers on ebay.in had gotten codes that entitled them to participate in live Dhanbola event, witth prizes such as MacBook Pro, an Apple iPhone 7 or a Philips Bluetooth speaker up for grabs.
“Our festive season in India, which started on 15 September and will continue till Diwali, is the most important time of the year for our business. These forty five days have been packed with multiple activities, be it exclusive launches, new products and attractive offers and discounts,” shared eBay India marketing director Shivani Suri.
This year, eBay is especially looking forward to the festive given a huge jump in their over all product selection on the platform. Compared to last year’s three crore products, this year the e-commerce player boasts of 10 crore products on the site.
Thus, unlike its usual presence on the digital platforms, this year eBay has launched a TVC campaign as well, with a shelf life of around six weeks.
The e-commerce player’s latest TVC campaign titled #ThingsDontJudge highlights the variety of products that eBay has to offer while also turning materialism on its head. The caption for the ad sums up the idea behind the advert. It states that “Don’t let the voices hold you back. eBay has products that don’t judge you for who you are or what you believe in. They say just one thing – Live and let live.”
Tying the TVC’s message with the latest FB initiative Suri had earlier said “Our recently launched TVC campaign #ThingsDontJudge struck a chord with consumers from different walks of life. Dhanbola is yet another industry first from eBay India to not only deepen our engagement with consumers on a platform which is preferred by them but also to celebrate the spirit of the upcoming festivities.”
Apart from ‘Dhanbola’, eBay shoppers will be given a chance to engage with the stand-up comedian through several additional activities. Consumers can challenge the host for either a ‘Truth or Dare’, and/or a real time “Roast the Host.”
eBay offers consumers the option to make purchases via EMI through ICICI, Citibank and HDFC credit cards. All purchases are covered under the eBay Guarantee which ensures refund or replacement in case a consumer is unhappy with the purchase.
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.
