Ad Campaigns
Mindshare, Sunlight, Durga Pujo & the 60 foot Sphere
MUMBAI: Kolkata is dotted with zillions of pandals during the Durga Pujo period. We all know that. Brands trip over each other to partner with the one that will give the maximum bang for the buck. Almost every one works hard get their individual pandal to be a standout.
Media services agency under GroupM and WPP Mindshare came up with a unique innovation for Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL)’s detergent brand Sunlight. It executed an unprecedented brand activation at the iconic Santosh Mitra Square Durga Puja. At the heart of this activation was a groundbreaking 60-foot-tall sphere, a first-of-its-kind installation in India, inspired by the world-renowned sphere in Las Vegas.
Utilising innovative LED loop technology, the Sphere displayed stunning visuals and graphics of Bengal’s iconic saree designs, such as kantha, garad, and jamdani, making it an extraordinary spectacle visible from afar. This celebration of Bengal’s rich heritage kicked off on 5 October.
Powered by 100,000 LED pucks, the installation reinforced the brand’s long-standing commitment to preserving Bengal’s cultural legacy and served a visual treat to the throngs who witnessed this modern marvel. Supported by West Bengal’s leading media powerhouse, ABP, the event was amplified across various channels including print, social media, and digital platforms. The dazzling Sunlight Sphere attracted a host of influencers, who organically created content around the installation.
The sphere was the highlight of the festive campaign that ran for the detergent this Durga Pujo, combining tradition with innovation. The campaign – Oithirjher Rong Natun Rakhe (Keeping the Colors of Tradition Alive) – embodied Sunlight’s commitment to preserving the vibrant colors of west Bengal’s cultural heritage. With Kolkata transforming into a vast public art gallery with thousands of pandals – boasting extravagant themes and artworks, the campaign gave pujo revelers a unique, larger-than-life tech experience.
“Sunlight has been a part of West Bengal’s cultural fabric for over a century, and we are committed to keeping that legacy alive,” said HUL fabric cleaning unit head Aditya Kasyap. “Our promise of superior colour care for iconic fabrics, delivered through an innovative activation, celebrates both the timelessness of Bengali traditions and the freshness of modern creativity. The experience aims to inspire audiences and ensure the essence of Bengal remains vibrant for generations to come.”
Added Mindshare Fulcrum south Asia head Snehi Jha: “Our goal is to create memorable and impactful experiences that build iconic brands for our consumers. With Durga Puja being the most important cultural and religious celebration in West Bengal, there was no better opportunity for Sunlight to connect deeply with its audience. Our innovative Sunlight Sphere installation showcased the brand’s significance on a grand scale, unlike anything seen before in India.”
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.
