Ad Campaigns
Maitri breaks new ground with BGMI ad for World Introvert Day
MUMBAI: In a world where extroverts dominate the narrative, a whisper of recognition often speaks louder than a shout.
Maitri, in collaboration with Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), has flipped the script on the traditional ad blitz with a campaign that’s as understated and impactful as its audience: introverts.
While brands chase the loud fanfare of Valentine’s or Mother’s Day, Maitri chose World Introvert Day to quietly celebrate the unsung heroes who find joy in solitude, thrive in the shadows, and accomplish great things without fanfare. It’s a rare moment of applause for those who prefer none—a subtle yet powerful nod to the ones who rarely seek the spotlight but deserve it anyway.
The ad, set to launch on World Introvert Day, 2 January 2025, focuses on providing a relatable story for introverts, capturing their quiet essence during the typically overwhelming holiday season. Directed by award-winning feature film director Manu Asokan, the ad stars actor and editor Sangeeth Pratap, whose portrayal resonates with the audience.
“Games like BGMI provide the perfect balance of social interaction and community for introverts,” explained Maitri head of digital & overseas business, Sumit Raj. “By addressing them directly, we’ve crafted a campaign that engages BGMI’s audience in a light-hearted yet deeply meaningful way.”
The ad leverages the timing of World Introvert Day, which follows the festive period—an especially challenging time for introverts. By weaving in relatable moments, the campaign positions BGMI as a platform where introverts can connect on their own terms.
“The collaboration with Manu Asokan and Sangeeth Pratap gave the film a universal appeal,” said Maitri group creative director Francis Thomas. “Fans shared the ad widely, pushing it beyond the gaming community and into broader conversations about introversion and connection.”
Maitri’s previous campaigns for BGMI in Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada, such as the viral Malayalam ad with Dhyan Sreenivasan, set the stage for this ambitious project. However, this marks the agency’s first foray into creating a national Hindi-language ad for BGMI, typically handled out of Mumbai.
“This national ad demonstrates the trust clients have in Maitri’s ability to consistently deliver impactful work,” said Maitri MD, Raju Menon. “As South India’s largest independent agency, we are proud to break new ground with campaigns that celebrate diversity, culture, and human stories.”
With a 28-year history of award-winning campaigns for major national and international brands, Maitri continues to set benchmarks. The agency recently became the first independent firm to win a Grand Prix at Goafest 2024 and is a three-time winner of the IMA South Indian Agency of the Year award.
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.
