Ad Campaigns
Mountain Dew offers wild card entry to Kaun Banega Crorepati
Mumbai: Mountain Dew has launched an exciting collaboration with the game show Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), offering consumers a chance to secure a wild card entry into the show’s sixteenth season. This unique opportunity allows the Mountain Dew fans an opportunity to sit on the iconic hot seat, playing this popular game show, opposite the legendary Amitabh Bachchan, even after the official participation period has closed.
This partnership is a testament to Mountain Dew’s commitment to motivating people to confront their fears and embrace Courage, a theme central to both the brand and KBC. So, the Mountain Dew x KBC campaign theme is, “Yeh khel ‘gyaan’ ka hai, par jeeta ‘himmat’ se jaata hai” (KBC is a game of knowledge, however, it takes courage to win it)!
Commenting on the partnership, PepsiCo India category head, Mountain Dew, Akankshaa Dalal said, “Mountain Dew has always been about celebrating courage and victory in the various ‘hot seat’ situations that one can face in life. And this partnership with KBC is a natural fit as the game show brings with it moments where the stakes are high, and both knowledge and courage are tested every step of the way. By offering this wild card entry, Mountain Dew hopes to inspire millions to take bold steps towards realizing dreams.”
Consumers can purchase Mountain Dew x KBC packs featuring a QR code till 30 September. By scanning the code, they will be directed to a WhatsApp bot where they can enter the 16-digit code found behind the label, provide demographic details, and answer a qualifying question. Those who complete these steps will have a chance to move on to auditions, with 10 lucky winners ultimately participating in KBC’s exclusive “Week of Courage.”
The Mountain Dew x KBC campaign will be amplified through a TVC and a 360 campaign. The special Mountain Dew packs are being introduced across India and will be available at retail outlets and online platforms.
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.
