Ad Campaigns
Macho Sporto and Sportskeeda’s “Toing Craze” campaign receives over 12.8 million engagements
Mumbai: Macho Sporto, a prominent athleisure clothing brand for men, partnered with Sportskeeda, India’s premiere multi-sports media platform, to leverage the immense popularity of the edition 15 of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Together, they successfully captivated a wider audience and heightened brand awareness by spreading the electrifying “Toing Craze” during IPL.
The groundbreaking “Toing” campaign, reintroduced by Macho Sporto in 2021, centred around the bold and progressive concept of the female gaze. It showcased a confident and empowered young woman (Rashmika Mandanna) fearlessly expressing her attraction towards a man (Vicky Kaushal). Challenging traditional gender norms, the campaign celebrated the modern woman’s confidence in making the first move, breaking patriarchal stereotypes.
With Sportskeeda’s collaboration, the primary objective of the campaign was to ignite the “Toing Craze” among IPL enthusiasts and establish a strong connection with the target audience through captivating content. Macho Sporto amplified its brand presence and engaged with the key demographic of men aged 18-34, while also encouraging women to participate and share their special “Toing” moments from IPL and cricket.
To achieve the campaign objectives, Sportskeeda launched the “#MyToing” contest on its social media platforms, providing IPL fans an interactive platform to immerse themselves in the exhilarating “Toing Craze.” The campaign employed a comprehensive 360-degree approach, utilising engaging video content, display ads, and interactive social media activations to amplify the contest and promote the Macho Sporto brand.
Throughout the campaign, captivating videos were produced and published daily, showcasing various aspects of the “Toing Craze.” These videos featured enthralling “Toing Moments” captured through the News IP, interviews with cricketing experts sharing their memorable “Toing” experiences, and a special weekend edition of “SK Match ki Baat.” Additionally, the campaign highlighted the match day experiences of the “#MyToing” contest winners and explored the vibrant atmosphere of the city through the “SK Squad” IP.
Complementing the video and display campaigns, Sportskeeda crafted ten compelling articles on its website, covering a range of IPL-related topics, including standout players and stylish cricketers. These articles seamlessly integrated brand hashtags, concluding with a clear call-to-action directing users to the Macho Sporto website.
To further augment the campaign’s reach organically, over 100 influencers were activated, sharing their personal “Toing” moments from their favourite cricketers and matches, driving engagement for the #MyToing contest. The campaign also featured live commentary branding activities on the Sportskeeda website, enhancing user engagement through animated celebrations, tickers, and branded markers.
The campaign achieved remarkable results, with substantial reach, views, and engagement across multiple channels:
Video and Social Campaign:
Reach: 40 million+
Views: 15.5 million+
Engagement: Over 12.8 million
Influencer Activity:
Reach: 1.2 million+
Views: 1.36 million+
Engagement Rate: 1.5%
Display Properties:
Impressions: 11 million+
Clicks: 3,22,000+
Click-Through Rate (CTR): 2.70%
“The successful execution of the Macho Sporto ‘Toing Craze’ campaign exemplifies the power of leveraging IPL and cricket’s popularity to promote and elevate brand awareness,” stated Sportskeeda business head- India Kanav Sud. “Through our campaign for Macho Sporto, we have effectively connected the brand with their desired audience while delivering engaging content and experiences that resonate with fans.”
“We are thrilled with the phenomenal results achieved through our partnership with Sportskeeda,” expressed J.G Hosiery Pvt Ltd head of media and ecommerce Sweta Jhunjhunwala. “The extensive reach, high engagement levels, and significant click-through rate are a testament to the effectiveness of our ‘Toing Craze’ campaign in connecting with our target audience and going beyond. The campaign was successful in leading to a substantial increase in brand awareness during this IPL season.”
The promising collaboration between Sportskeeda and Macho Sporto has not only helped the athleisure brand in highlighting its brand messaging distinctly but also ushered in a new era of empowerment and inclusivity. It showcased the confidence and enthusiasm of women in breaking societal barriers that are gender-biased.
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.
