Ad Campaigns
GroupM OOH Solutions conceptualises an outdoor innovation for Skipper Pipes
Mumbai: GroupM conceptualised a visual spectacle in the outdoor landscape of Kolkata for Skipper Pipes. The outdoor campaign raises awareness that the auspicious occasion of Durga Puja protects families from water contamination on the same lines as how Ma Durga protects and cares for all of us and provides safety.
Skipper’s “India’s Safest Pipes—Festival of Safety” campaign draws inspiration from Durga Puja. The campaign features Goddess Durga’s idol installed on a footbridge, with her Trident symbolically slaying Mahishasura. This powerful imagery parallels how Skipper Pipes protect people from water impurities, just as Ma Durga shields us from evil forces.
This campaign links traditions with modern infrastructure by replacing Goddess Durga’s Trident with Skipper Pipes to symbolize the removal of water impurities. The lead-free pipes take center stage as the key weapon against contamination, highlighted by illuminated, motorized movements alongside the Durga idol. This unique installation cuts through the clutter and makes a striking visual impact.
Skipper Pipes, marketing head, Anirban Pal Chowdhury said, “At Skipper Pipes, we believe that safety is divine. The Out of Home Innovation has wonderfully captured the passersby’s attention of the Skipper Pipes’ priority on safety, ensuring a traditional appeal and long-lasting impression during the auspicious festive season of Durga Puja. The installation turned out to be a veritable eyesore, showcasing its superior power and safety.”
GroupM OOH Solutions managing director Ajay Mehta said, “By blending modern infrastructure with traditional elements, the campaign creates a standout visual impact, highlighting our technological expertise and dedication to innovative, long-term solutions through the effort put together from planning to execution. There is a need for drawing inspiration from the festivities, and we saw an opportunity from Durga Puja on how crucial it is to protect our families from water contamination, just as Ma Durga shields us from evil forces.”
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.
