Ad Campaigns
Hero Cycles pedals into the record books with ‘Har Gully Hero’ ride-a-thon
MUMBAI: Hero Cycles, in partnership with WPP Media and RED FM 93.5, has officially entered the Guinness World Records for creating the largest online video album of people riding bicycles — a high-octane finale to its wildly successful ‘Har Gully Hero’ campaign.
With over 5,800 verified entries flooding in from across India, the campaign didn’t just clock record views — it sparked a full-blown pedal-powered revolution. Targeted at kids aged 6–14 and their nostalgia-loving parents, Har Gully Hero reignited a national passion for outdoor play at a time when screens are winning the battle for attention.
Billed as India’s largest cycling movement, the campaign reached over 16 lakh citizens across 23 cities, uniting schools, housing societies, and cricket academies in a massive show of community spirit and wheeled fitness.
Taking it a gear higher, Hero Cycles rolled out limited-edition IPL co-branded bikes with Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Delhi Capitals. RED FM kept the campaign buzzing with a high-decibel mix of radio activations, an infectious anthem, and RJ-fuelled meet-ups that gave the campaign its signature swagger.
By blending purpose with pedal power, Hero Cycles didn’t just break a record — it created a movement. And in the process, reminded India that the real playground isn’t a screen, it’s the street.
Hero Cycles head – marketing, Pallavi Gupta said, “At Hero Cycles, we’ve always believed that cycling is more than just mobility but a movement. With Har Gully Hero, our vision was to bring back the joy of outdoor play, especially for children growing up in a rapidly evolving digital world. Setting a Guinness World Record is a proud milestone, but what truly matters is the impact we’ve made on communities across India. We are full of gratitude for every child, parent, school, and partner who made this possible. This is just the beginning of a larger movement towards a fitter, more active India.”
WPP Media South Asia COO Ashwin Padmanabhan said,” Har Gully Hero’ is more than a campaign, it is a cultural revival. It’s a celebration of India’s street sport culture and an urgent call to bring movement back into children’s lives. Achieving a Guinness World Record is a proud moment for all of us and reflects the power of purposeful storytelling at scale.”
He further said, “This campaign not only rekindled the joy of cycling and gully cricket but also showcased how a brand-led initiative can unite a nation through one pedal, one gully, and now, one world record at a time. With Har Gully Hero, Hero Cycles plays a catalytic role in championing outdoor play and physical fitness, proving how brands can shape healthier, more connected communities.”
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.
