Ad Campaigns
Rajkumar Hirani Films and Askme cast Ranbir Kapoor in AskMePay’s first TVC
MUMBAI: Askme has launched a campaign ‘Baap of all Pay apps’for its e-wallet app, Askmepay. The TV commercial starring Ranbir Kapoor was released today establishing for the first time payments through an app for both online and offline merchants with Askme network and beyond.
Conceptualised by Rajkumar Hirani Films and the marketing team at Askme, the TV commercial shows Kapoor as a new age, digital native, who shops on his mobile for widest range across products and services on Askme app and pays using AskmePay. And he chooses to pay for all of this using his phone rather than traditional formats of currency, cards etc. In today’s world, where people seek easy ways of shopping given the paucity of time, AskmePay comes with a premium payment platform to help create a value for both its customers and merchants.
Speaking on the occasion Askme digital strategy head and group CMO Manav Sethi said, “For us it’s an obvious and logical product offering. Askme Network has 15M+ SMEs who offer either a product or a service. In most of the cases the transaction consummates on our platforms itself. POS (Point-of-sale) systems for payments acceptance has been colossal failure in India due to prohibitive costs. Mobile phone is ubiquitous device for merchants ranging from grocery seller to a Doctor who pays for premium listing on Askme or a restaurant manager/owner who offers awesome deals fornext Sunday Brunch. Askmepay aims to be that vehicle that allows payments for these scenarios in both online & offline world. ”
Creative Director Karan Narvekar said, “The idea behind ‘Baap of all Pay apps’ was to showcase how today’s generation use mobile apps & services to their advantage. The whole concept of cashless payment which is the trend of the new age is reflected through this campaign with range of offline services and online products available on AKSME Network of apps.”
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.
