Brands
India Gate spices up Gujarat with bold OOH pulav campaign
Campaign targets core 25–55 audience with data-driven media planning
GUJARAT: India Gate, the flagship basmati rice brand of KRBL Limited, has partnered with WPP Media to execute a high-visibility out-of-home campaign supporting the launch of its new pulav variant across Gujarat.
The outdoor-led rollout spans Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Gandhidham, Navsari and Visnagar, reinforcing India Gate’s presence in a state with a strong affinity for pulav.
The campaign forms part of a broader integrated communication strategy across outdoor, television and digital platforms, aimed at delivering sustained visibility and high recall during the launch window.
A centrepiece of the activation is a large-format outdoor innovation on Sindhubhavan Road near Oxygen Park in Ahmedabad, along the busy stretch connecting SP Ring Road and SG Road. The installation features a larger-than-life steaming bowl of pulav, designed to visually convey aroma, freshness and flavour while dominating one of the city’s most trafficked corridors.
WPP Media anchored the plan in data-led site selection, using proprietary tools and audience impact measurement scores to identify high-density target locations. The strategy was further supported by Orbis to optimise reach and frequency within the core 25–55 age group over a short burst period. The campaign went live on 2 February, 2026 and runs until 20 February, 2026.
India Gate vice president – marketing and organised trade Kunal Sharma, said the integrated approach helped bring the product’s taste and aroma alive in a market that has a strong cultural connection with pulav.
WPP Media India head of media solutions Ajay Mehta, said the objective was to combine stopping power with cultural relevance, using outdoor as a high-impact anchor within an integrated media ecosystem.
Brands
AI becomes key tool for Indian travellers, Agoda report finds
68 per cent plan to use AI for trips as 33 per cent already rely on it.
MUMBAI: Holiday planning is getting a software upgrade less “Where should we go?” and more “What does the algorithm say?” Indian travellers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to map their journeys, with new data from Agoda’s 2026 Travel Outlook Report suggesting that AI is fast becoming central to how trips are imagined, planned and booked.
While 33 per cent of respondents said they already use AI tools for travel planning, a far larger 68 per cent indicated they are likely to rely on it for their next trip pointing to a sharp acceleration in adoption in a market already comfortable with digital-first travel.
What travellers want from AI, however, goes well beyond basic search. The report shows 38 per cent are looking for recommendations on local attractions and activities, while 37 per cent expect personalised itineraries. Destination discovery remains a key use case at 29 per cent, with dining suggestions (23 per cent) and budget management (22 per cent) also emerging as practical applications.
The shift reflects a broader change in expectations AI is no longer a novelty but a planning companion expected to work across every stage of the journey, from inspiration to execution.
Trust levels appear to be keeping pace. Nearly 88 per cent of respondents said they either trust or feel neutral about AI-generated recommendations, including 53 per cent who expressed clear confidence. This builds on earlier trends, with Agoda’s 2025 survey showing nine in ten Indian travellers already using apps to book travel suggesting AI adoption is more evolution than disruption.
The company has been testing this appetite through initiatives such as its 2025 AI-powered Vacation Planner campaign, which generated customised itineraries and visuals based on user inputs, delivered with a layer of celebrity-led engagement.
For platforms like Agoda, which aggregates more than 6 million properties, over 130,000 flight routes and 300,000 travel activities, AI offers a way to navigate scale without overwhelming users turning abundance into relevance.
As AI continues to embed itself into everyday decision-making, India is emerging as a market where travel planning is not just going digital, but decisively intelligent.
