Ad Campaigns
Kartik Aaryan collabs with Disney+ Hotstar for #ItnaSabFreeKa campaign
Mumbai: After emerging victorious in Asia Cup 2023, the excitement for ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 is palpable, with the entire nation rooting for Team India. As a run-up to the highly anticipated cricket tournament, Disney+ Hotstar has collaborated with the screen sensation, Kartik Aaryan, and released their ad film focusing on the platform’s ‘free on mobile’ offering of the tournament this year along with free first-class entertainment!
The film starring the blockbuster star turns the table on the relationship between the star and his fans in a funny, light-hearted way. In his quintessential style, Kartik Aaryan interacts with his fans only to find out that his limelight has been stolen by Disney+ Hotstar and its free content offerings of ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023- and first-class entertainment such as Freddy, Brahmastra Part One: Shiva, Cuttputlli, Vikram and many others. The ad film is conceptualised by the internal Disney+ Hotstar team and directed by Rajesh Krishnan.
Talking about the collaboration, Disney+ Hotstar India head–marketing Sidharth Shakdher said, “We are delighted to collaborate with Kartik Aaryan for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 campaign for Disney+ Hotstar. His energy resonates with the spirit of the game, and together, we aim to elevate the cricket-watching experience for viewers across India. With this campaign, we want to reach our users in every nook and corner of India and provide them with first-class access to sports and entertainment.”
Commenting on this association, Kartik Aaryan said, “ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup is more than just a game for me, it’s an emotion for me and I believe for everyone globally. I am excited to be associated with Disney+ Hotstar to celebrate ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 and there’s more – Disney+ Hotstar is offering first-class free entertainment, this makes it a double celebration for all of us.”
Team India begin their ODI World Cup campaign on 8 October 2023, with an epic showdown against Australia at the iconic MA Chidambaram Stadium. The hosts will then lock horns with Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. The anticipation builds as India’s path leads them to a highly anticipated clash with arch-rivals Pakistan at the Narendra Modi Stadium on 14 October adding another thrilling chapter to the ‘Greatest Rivalry’.
Tune in to Disney+ Hotstar to stream the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, LIVE and free on mobile. It will also broadcast LIVE on the Star Sports Network.
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.
