Ad Campaigns
Himalaya’s ‘Chennai Ponnu’ captures her essence in peppy video
MUMBAI: The Himalaya Drug Company, India’s leading wellness brand launched the “Chennai Ponnu” (Chennai Girl) campaign for its flagship product Himalaya Purifying Neem Face Wash. The campaign aims to celebrate the spirit of the Chennai girl and captures her essence in a fun and peppy music video.
Today’s Chennai girl has evolved in many ways, from her dressing style, grooming, eating to her beauty preferences, yet she enjoys her culture equally. The music video brings out this message beautifully, telling the story of the Chennai Ponnu through relatable experiences.
The Himalaya Drug Company marketing manager Rahul Panchal said, “Our regular interaction with the consumers in Chennai highlighted that young girls in the city have changed in several ways. While they are confident, independent and modern, they still continue to enjoy the rich culture of Chennai, be it the local food, music, dance or movies.”
The Himalaya Drug Company category manager – face care Hemang Vasani said, “Our TVC communication centers on the brand taking care of the teenagers’ skin troubles, especially pimples, giving her the confidence to enjoy life. With the Chennai Ponnu campaign, we wanted to further build on this communication by showcasing the energy, enthusiasm and confidence that today’s Chennai Girl.”
“When the brief first came to us, the brand was definite that they wanted an upbeat, contemporary film around the “Chennai Girl”. So we had to develop a script that captured the essence of the “Chennai girl” who’s modern and at the same time loves her traditional culture,” said Roadrunner Productions director Rahul Bharti.
Himalaya will tap the digital medium to promote this campaign, which will be rolled out across its social media properties including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. In addition, creative tie-ups with a music platform and influencers will further amplify the message. The music for Chennai Ponnu has been composed by famous composer Prashant Pillai, who has captured the local energy of Chennai in a catchy, feet-tapping melody. The quirky lyrics are written by Amrit Rao while the choreography is done by Bollywood choreographer Adil Shaikh, famous for his work for Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Kapoor & Sons, etc.
Ad Campaigns
Amazon Ads maps 2026 as AI and streaming rewrite ad playbooks
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.








