Ad Campaigns
Hair & Care launches new campaign #KhuleBaalBefikar
MUMBAI: Staying true to its philosophy of being youthful and contemporary, Marico’s Hair & Care recently launched their new campaign #KhuleBaalBefikar that celebrates the joy of ‘Khule Baal’ or open hair. The film that is currently on air shows a few, fun situations where the protagonist isn’t able to enjoy a ride either on a carousel or in a convertible because of the heavy, sticky hair oil which doesn’t let her hair dance. Adding a quirky hint of nostalgia, the iconic song Ude Jab Jab Zulfein Teri plays in the background as the couple discovers the joy of free flowing hair because of a light, non-sticky hair oil.
A key element of this campaign was the TikTok challenge that went live on 23rd November with top influencers of the platform and crossed 2.8 billion views within 3 days. The brand worked with influencers across multiple cities and challenged TikTok users to make their hair dance and upload videos of their best hair moves with the hashtag #KhuleBaalBefikar. The activity saw 2.8 million videos created with multiple, fun takes on free flowing hair.
Marico Limited chief marketing officer Koshy George said, “At Marico, our priority is to understand consumer mindset and accordingly develop an insight-driven campaign. Hair & Care is a young, fun brand for audiences who like to enjoy every moment in their lives fully. These consumers are always looking for entertaining content on the new-age social media platforms and are willing to adopt new trends. Our media mix was hence devised scientifically keeping in mind newer formats that would gain engagement from our core consumers. TikTok is one such platform that has helped us drive our brand narrative – #KhuleBaalBefikar in a fun, engaging, short-video format.”
With a 360-degree integrated marketing communications approach, the campaign went live with a TV commercial in Hindi-speaking markets. The brand has also innovated with their OOH advertisements in the form of motion sensor boards at targeted locations including the Saki Naka Metro Station, Mumbai and the Jawaharlal Nehru Marg, Jaipur. The screens display the photo of a girl with open hair that is programmed to fly every time a train or a bus enters the station. A radio campaign was also a part of the mix where listeners were encouraged to share their ‘Khule Baar Befikar’ videos on the RJs’ social media pages.
The film was conceptualized and shot by BBH India with Chrome Pictures and is currently on air in Hindi speaking markets. CEO and managing partner Subhash Kamath said, “Hair & Care has always been an exciting brand for us. It is young and fresh and demands a very different approach from regular hair oil advertising. The brief was simple and clear and we had fun creating this campaign. The promise of ‘Khule Baal Befikar’ isn’t just a functional promise. It symbolises the sense of freedom and expression of our youth audience. So it was important to make it fun and entertaining, and the creative delivered beautifully on that promise.”
Agency: BBH India
· Chief Creative Officer & Managing Partner: Russell Barrett
· CEO & Managing Partner: Subhash Kamath
· General Manager: Sarita Raghavan
· Creative Director: Ira Gupta
· Senior Business Partner: Shivani Dand
· Business Partner: Vimesh Salian
· Senior Strategist: Amrita Korwar
· Production House: Chrome Pictures
· Director: Hemant Bhandari
· Producer: Abhishek Notani
· DOP: Tapan Basu
· Assistant Producer: Aditya Gupta
· AD Team: Bhavtavya Saklani, Rishabh Jain, Rishi Parinja, Avinash Sharma
· Production Manager: Rimal Arora
· Production Assistant: Drishti Goda
· Post Producer: Mithun R Shaw
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.
