Ad Campaigns
Khiladi Akshay Kumar stands firm as Star Cement brand ambassador
Kolkata: Star Cement has roped in actor Akshay Kumar as its brand ambassador, and as part of the association, the Kesari star can be seen in the brand’s latest television commercial airing on major channels.
In the TVC, Kumar dons the role of a pilot who tries to land his helicopter after it develops some snag while flying. Much to the surprise of the co-pilot, Kumar confidently lands on the roof of a house made with Star Cement. The commercial conveys the message that the roof made with Star Cement has taken minimum time for solid setting, which is quick and strong setting. The product feature then blends with the brand promise of Hai Tayyar Hum for all challenges.
The TVC master is 45 seconds and there are edits of 30 and 20 seconds in Hindi, Assamese and Bengali languages. The campaign is supported by billboards across the north east, West Bengal and Bihar in addition to digital, social media and FM radio.
Star Cement CEO Sanjay Kumar Gupta said the actor’s endorsement will help the brand as it enters into a new phase of growth. “One of nation’s greatest Icons Akshay Kumar truly reflects our firm commitment, determination and preparedness for all the challenges that may come our way. We are truly proud and honoured to have Akshay Kumar on board as the brand ambassador and we believe that this association will turn out to be beneficial for the brand.”
Akshay Kumar added, “I am delighted to be associated with Star Cement. I support their goal of being the fastest growing and most competitive cement brand in eastern India. I quite liked the brand’s campaign line Hain Tayyar Hum which is simple yet denotes a strong message…readiness to meet all challenges. We thoroughly enjoyed shooting the campaign. Playing a pilot was a lot of fun and it has turned out so well in the TVC. I look forward to a long and fulfilling association with the brand.”
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.
