Ad Campaigns
Kuku FM ropes in Dulquer Salman for ad campaign to appeal to southern audiences
MUMBAI: Kuku FM has got the south of India on its radar. The company has enlisted south Indian star Dulquer Salmaan to star in a new campaign which is aiming to captivate listeners across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in a bid to bring regional stories and audiobooks closer to the hearts of millions.
The TVC has been made in Tamil and Malayalam, with dubbed versions in Kannada, Telugu, and Hindi, to connect with India’s linguistic diversity. The campaign, titled Redefining the Art of Storytelling, will roll out in two phases, starting with social media and later expanding to television, OTT platforms, and offline channels.
With content in eight languages across multiple genres, Kuku FM aims to make storytelling accessible and relevant to listeners across regions.
Dulquer, a household name known for his versatility and appeal prominently among southern audiences, embodies Kuku FM’s values of authenticity, innovation, and customer-centricity. His deep connection to storytelling, nurtured from childhood, shines through the new TVC, where he recalls the comforting tales narrated to him by his grandmother.
To view the TVC click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch? “With Kuku FM, I’m excited to revisit the roots of storytelling and invite listeners to embark on a journey of self-discovery and inspiration with their vast genres and collections with Kuku FM,” Dulquer shared. “Storytelling is an art that transcends time, culture and language barriers,” said Kuku FM co-founder & CEO Lal Chand Bisu. “With Dulquer, we’re thrilled to explore new horizons in southern India, a region that’s rich in languages, history and stories. Our mission is to empower our listeners across Bharat with stories that entertain, educate, and inspire. By partnering with an icon like Dulquer who is a versatile actor and truly understands the craft of storytelling, we’re not only celebrating the past but also reinventing how stories are shared in the digital age. Dulquer is a prominent actor who is well-regarded among younger audiences and families, positioning him as a relatable figure for listeners across diverse age groups. Furthermore, his influence extends beyond the realm of cinema into the digital space, thereby aligning perfectly with our vision at Kuku FM.”
“Our storytelling OTT platform has experienced exceptional growth in our southern user base, with over one million monthly active subscribers from these regions, now accounting for 35 per cent of overall platform engagement,” shared Kuku FM VP of revenue growth Sachin Singh. The demand for southern language content has also seen a dramatic rise, with a five times increase in monthly new subscriber additions over the past year.
Dulquer stated, “Kuku FM is doing something truly innovative by reinventing storytelling in a way that blends tradition with modernity. As someone who finds stories to be central to my craft and passion, I’m thrilled to be part of a journey that celebrates the soul of south India’s storytelling legacy while making it accessible for today’s generation.” Are the south Indian folks listening?
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.
