Ad Campaigns
O&M recreates beauty of Tagore land
MUMBAI: The film created by Ogilvy Kolkata for Bengal Tourism traces the journey of a young girl who has come to attend a wedding and decides to explore Bengal. Through the course of her visit, she realises that in Bengal, she is never really far from home. Her wanderlust has led her into the sweetest part of India – A place that welcomes guests with open arms.
The alluring music of a mystic’s Dotara takes the shape of an old Tagore song, as the story of a Bideshini (lady from a distant land) unfolds through the changing landscapes of Bengal. Her journey takes her through the city streets of old Calcutta. She strolls through the mysterious corridors of ancient terracotta structures, dances to the tunes of a Baul’s serenade, and befriends local artisans. While the diverse cuisine of Bengal manages to sate her appetite, the hospitality of her host makes her feel at home. Like a child enthralled by the tales of an old storyteller, the Bideshini looks on in wonder as the folklore of the land come to life and arrest her in a riot of colours. Even on the coldest day, the misty hills of Darjeeling embrace her in warmth. In the end, reality meets fantasy in an old Calcutta tram. At the close of her journey, she becomes one with the land. She is not a stranger anymore.
Ogilvy & Mather executive creative director (south Asia), “In Bengal, sweetness finds different manifestations. It is in the language we speak, the hospitality we extend to our guests and our cuisine. Thus, when we were entrusted with the responsibility of creating communication for Bengal Tourism, we worked on a campaign that would identify Bengal as the sweetest part of India.”
“The campaign stays away from the stereotypes associated with Bengal as a destination and introduces new places, rituals and experiences. This film also has an endearing human touch to it. It showcases the hospitality of Bengal, something that lends uniqueness to our state,” added Ogilvy and Mather creative director (managing partner) Sujoy Roy. We hope this film makes NRI Bengalis homesick and also manage to carve a place for Bengal in every traveller’s bucket list.
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.
