Ad Campaigns
NPCI launches UPI awareness campaign in association with payment ecosystem players
MUMBAI: National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in association with the payment ecosystem players have co-created an industry campaign “UPI Chalega” to promote UPI as easy, safe, and instant mode of payment. The campaign is aimed to guide users towards the right usage of UPI and help create a habitual change, use of UPI in their daily life. The campaign also focuses on safety aspects while transacting on UPI enabled apps.
The campaign targets the Indian smartphone users to guide them on the ease of using UPI through various use cases where UPI can be used instead of cash or any other payment mode. The campaign targets users across all ages and aims to promote how to safely use UPI. UPI Chalega campaign educates customers about using UPI for their daily expenses such as at the vegetable shop, petrol pumps, restaurants, e-commerce, bill payment, etc.
Campaign’s creative agency Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) has created a relatable character, Mrs Rao, who is the mouthpiece of the brand UPI. Whenever there is a cash crisis at hand, Mrs Rao appears as the voice of reason, and introduces UPI transactions as the simple solution to the problem. In the six TVCs, the story is satirically narrated by Mrs Rao who gently reprimands the viewers for their faith in the old ways of buying things and splitting bills. The ad films end on an instructive note, ‘Batwe ke jagah mobile nikalo; len den ki nai aadat dalo’.
The 360-degree campaign uses various media channels like television, cinema, outdoor, digital and radio to drive the traffic to UPIChalega.com microsite. This microsite has TVCs, ‘how to’ videos about using UPI safely, information about live banks and third party Apps as well as social feeds among other information. From Registration process, what’s a UPI id, pin change, complaint redressal, sending money, PIN secrecy to the uniform UPI payment page that users should always remember, the campaign covers everything in the how to videos in UPIChalega.com microsite.
NPCI COO Praveena Rai said, “We are excited to announce the launch of “UPI Chalega” campaign. We believe this campaign has extreme potential to educate users, exponentially accelerate the adoption rate of digital payments and support our vision of a less-cash payments economy. We are happy to associate with our member banks, payment service providers and third party Apps and design this fun-filled and educational UPI awareness campaign. We hope the highlight of our campaign, Mrs. Rao, would motivate customers to shift to easy and safe UPI payments and restrict the usage of cash.”
SBI DMD strategy and chief digital officer Swaminathan J said, “SBI as a founding member of NPCI is happy to be a part of FLAC (Financial Literacy & Awareness Campaign) committee to create awareness and increase the adoption of UPI. Over the years, endeavor of SBI has been to promote safe and convenient digital payment methods including UPI among its customers. It is important for the payment eco-system to constantly educate and inform customers about UPI as the simple, instant and one of the most secure modes of payment methods in the country.”
FLAC (Financial Literacy and Awareness Campaign) Committee chairman and Kotak Mahindra Group CMO Karthi Marshan said, “This is possibly the first time that banking, payments and fintech players are coming together with NPCI to promote safe usage of UPI via a massive multi-media campaign that aims to provoke interest as well as educate in an engaging manner. It’s been a privilege for me to work with my peers and NPCI in championing this truly important agenda, of leading India to a less cash, more digital economy. Digital money is the simplest alternative to carrying cash. And it’s safer. But most consumers aren’t aware of that. They still rely on cash for most of their transactions. We wanted to come up with a simple creative solution that encourages behaviour change. Our message – UPI chalega – is a short and effective trigger.”
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.
