Ad Campaigns
Mastercard releases World Cup anthem for 2011 triumph memories
Mumbai: As the Indian cricket team continues its winning streak in the ongoing ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, Mastercard has released a special anthem to enable millions of cricket fans across the country to relive the 2011 triumph.
The anthem features World Cup-winning captain and Mastercard’s brand ambassador, Mahendra Singh Dhoni recalling the moments leading to the historic win 12 years ago at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium. It shows scores of fans cheering for the Men in Blue as the team chased down Sri Lankan team’s 275-run target to lift the coveted trophy.
Powered by Mastercard’s iconic Sonic brand tune, the anthem has been designed on the theme of ‘Har fan hai priceless’ (every fan is priceless). It includes the former Indian skipper emphasizing that every cheer by cricket fans goes a long way in lifting the spirits of players. It further shows Dhoni remembering the moment when all Indian fans in the stadium began chanting ‘Vande Mataram’.
“This anthem is a tribute by Mastercard to millions of India’s cricket fans who breathe life into the game. As ICC’s global partner for this year’s World Cup and a brand which has a strong connection with Indian cricket, Mastercard is committed to providing memorable opportunities and experiences to fans. The undying spirit and depth of emotions exhibited by fans in every match that India plays is simply priceless,” said Mastercard EVP and head of marketing and communications, Asia Pacific Julie Nestor.
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.
