Ad Campaigns
MakeMyTrip & Ministry of Tourism launch ‘India: The Homecoming’ campaign
Mumbai: Millions of people of Indian origin living worldwide often feel a deep sense of pride and nostalgia on special occasions like Independence Day. To honor this connection, MakeMyTrip, in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, has launched a campaign for India’s 78th Independence Day, titled ‘India: The Homecoming.’
The campaign features an online film narrated by the legendary Gulzar Saab, showcasing India’s transformation. The film’s central message is: “कितना हुआ है इन दिनों बदलाओ तो देखो, तुम अपने घर में लौट कर आओ तो देखो” (kitna hua hai inn dino badlav toh dekho, tum apne ghar mein laut kar aao toh dekho).
Highlighting the importance of the campaign, minister of tourism & culture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said, “In our efforts to enable Indian diaspora become Incredible India Ambassadors through the Chalo India initiative, the call to encourage Indian diaspora to rediscover their homeland and experience a transformed India, is paramount. This Independence Day, we call upon Indian diaspora across the globe to take a trip back home, and experience Incredible India in all its richness, not just for themselves – but for everyone whom Incredible India awaits.”
MakeMyTrip co-founder & group CEO Rajesh Magow said, “We are thrilled to launch the ‘India: The Homecoming’ campaign, aimed at inviting the Indian diaspora to rediscover a transformed India. By highlighting the progress, beauty, diversity, and rich heritage, we aim to inspire a sense of pride and nostalgia, encouraging the global community to visit and explore the nation. This initiative is about celebrating the unbreakable bond that every Indian, no matter where they are in the world, shares with their homeland.”
Building on the recent announcement of MakeMyTrip’s global accessibility, which now allows travellers worldwide to engage with the platform seamlessly, this campaign also extends the legacy of last year’s successful Independence Day initiative, ‘The Traveler’s Map of India.’ This initiative highlighted over 600 hidden travel destinations across the country, promoting domestic tourism and uncovering the nation’s hidden gems.
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.
