Ad Campaigns
FCB Kinnect & Flipkart curates ‘After Dark #IYKYFK’ campaign
Mumbai: Tapping into Gen Z’s late-night shopping habits, Flipkart launched the ‘After Dark #IYKYFK’ (If You Know You Flipkart) sale ahead of the big billion days sale. The campaign featured glow-in-the-dark billboards near popular spots, like Mumbai’s Carter Road and Delhi’s Cyber Hub, visible only at night with QR codes for exclusive access. Audible billboards were also placed at these hotspots, while engagement was driven through X, Instagram, push notifications, and dating apps.
Speaking on the campaign, FCB Kinnect & FCB/SIX India CEO Rohan Mehta said, “A fun creative idea, a deep understanding of the new-age consumer, and flawless execution, all working together to deliver a great creative solution for Flipkart Big Billion Days. Our relentless drive to leverage multiple touchpoints creatively turned this idea into a truly integrated and unforgettable experience.”
FCB Kinnect & FCB/SIX India CCO Neville Shah added, “The sharpness of the business problem resulted in an effortlessly creative solution. Reaching the right audience was only half the battle. Think of it like finding the party. With this campaign, we didn’t just point to the party; we gave night owls a reason to stay up and party with us, all night long.”
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.
