Ad Campaigns
MS Dhoni, redBus urge people to take control of their bus journeys
MUMBAI: redBus has launched a large scale, 360-degree integrated marketing campaign, featuring its brand ambassador, MS Dhoni, highlighting the conveniences and advantages of using the redBus platform, as opposed to traditional methods of bus ticketing. It emphatically urges people to avoid being puppets of unorganised ticketing methods and take control over their journeys with redBus.
As part of the campaign, redBus has launched a 30-second TVC, which is the first in the series of two commercials, with the second video set to go live on 7 December. The films emerge from the core idea of highlighting the plight of travellers who are at the mercy of offline bus ticket booking system. They often have no control over the choice of bus, seat or ticket pricing. The films dramatise this lack of control by portraying the offline consumer as a puppet controlled by greater forces. The messaging deals with two major pain-points faced by offline ticket purchasers – limited range of options and arbitrary prices. redBus comes to the rescue on both occasions with Dhoni carrying the brand’s message of ‘taking control’ of one’s bus journey with the help of the redBus app, with his sporty elegance.
The campaign will be aired on all leading national and regional TV channels, including digital and social media.
redBus CEO Prakash Sangam said, “We have strengthened our footprint across the country, especially in West and North India, with MS Dhoni anchoring our campaigns. The online bus ticketing segment is still underpenetrated with tremendous potential to grow and our objective is to attract a large cohort of offline ticket purchasers to experience the convenience of booking on redBus and thereby drive growth.”
On the occasion of the launch, redBus VP and head of marketing Pallavi Chopra said, “The objective of this campaign is to attract a large segment of offline ticket purchasers who are deprived of choice and best ticket prices, to try redBus and enjoy a hassle-free travelling experience. We have put up a strong narrative to emphasise this message, with Dhoni delivering it emphatically to a PAN-India audience. The films are both, educating and entertaining and sure to command strong attention from our audience.”
McCann South EVP Dileep Ashoka said, “redBus, India’s No. 1 online bus ticketing app, has already managed to get a large share of the early adopters on board with previous campaigns. The objective of the current communication is to target the laggards in the category- those who are habituated to booking through traditional methods, despite all the pitfalls. The use of the puppet as a visual device, a catchy rap and Dhoni’s mass appeal is aimed at driving home the message to a wider demographic in the most disruptive way possible and shake offline consumers from their current state of inertia.”
redBus launched its first brand campaign with Dhoni in May this year, where the cricketing legend was cast in an unusual avatar of a hockey player. The films associated with this campaign, emphasised on aspects such as choice of leg room and best discounts offered on the redBus platform and was well received across India. The campaign also helped deliver growth in the west and north markets for redBus.
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.
