Ad Campaigns
Fedex delivers a big hit with cricket-themed ad campaign
MUMBAI: When it comes to logistics, some deliveries are best left to the pros, especially if your courier of choice happens to be a cricketer! That’s the cheeky premise behind Fedex’s latest brand film, The Shipment, created by Saatchi & Saatchi India. Starring Joburg Super Kings’ Faf du Plessis, Devon Conway, and Sibonelo Makhanya, the campaign blends humour with purpose to showcase Fedex’s reliability. Through their comically flawed delivery attempts, the ad underscores the logistics giant’s commitment to empowering SMEs with seamless global shipping solutions.
“Fedex plays a vital role in empowering SMEs,” said Fedex vice president of marketing and air network for middle east, Indian Subcontinent, and Africa Nitin Navneet Tatiwala. “With our speed, expertise, and global reach, entrepreneurs can trust us to deliver their products seamlessly.”
Saatchi & Saatchi India, no stranger to cricket-themed storytelling, crafted a campaign that blends sports fandom with brand messaging in a way that sticks. “We threw out over 20 ideas before locking in the final three,” said Saatchi & Saatchi India chief creative officer Rohit Malkani. “From start to finish, it was an absolute riot! Roopali’s direction and Aman’s music were the perfect finishing touches.”
Saatchi & Saatchi India head of north and east Hindol Purkayastha added, “Cricket fans remember content that stands out. This campaign isn’t just engaging, it’s delivering results in international markets. And we’re just getting started!”
Blending cricket, comedy, and commerce, the ad highlights how Fedex is the go-to logistics partner for South Africa’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The film follows an ambitious SME owner, Sibusiso, who struggles to get his products delivered on time. Enter three Joburg Super Kings (JSK) cricketers, each attempting bizarre, unconventional shipping methods—with predictably disastrous results. Whether it’s hurling packages like a fast bowler or getting creative with unorthodox deliveries, the message is clear: some things are best left to the experts.
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.
