Ad Campaigns
Ikea rolls out the rainbow rug with ‘Welcome everyone with Pride’ campaign
MUMBAI: Ikea India is kicking off Pride Month with a splash of colour and a bold message—everyone is welcome, starting right at the front door. Its new campaign, ‘Welcome Everyone with Pride’, reimagines the humble doormat as a symbol of allyship with the launch of ‘PILLEMARK’ — a rainbow-coloured mat that’s part décor, part declaration.
Created by Leo India, the accompanying film puts the mat at the centre of the story — showing how a simple object can quiet the questions many LGBTQIA+ individuals face when entering new spaces: Will I be accepted? Am I safe here? The answer, in this case, is literally underfoot.
Commenting on the video, country integrated media manager, Jayendra Gupta said, “At IKEA, we believe that a true sense of home goes beyond four walls; it’s about feeling accepted, respected, and free to be yourself. With PILLEMARK, we are encouraging people to take a small but powerful step to show that their homes are safe spaces for all. This film is an invitation to every ally, every neighbour, every family to open their hearts, their homes and welcome everyone with pride.”
“The idea was to enable people to feel welcome even before the door opens. And with PILLEMARK, we got that opportunity. Our attempt was to turn the everyday welcome mat into an everyday movement for inclusion so India could turn their quiet belief into a visible sign of allyship,” said Leo India national creative director Pravin Sutar.
The campaign is picking up steam on social media, with creators and community voices joining the chorus and showing off their rainbow welcome. Because at Ikea this Pride, it’s not just about opening doors — it’s about opening minds.
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.
