Ad Campaigns
Ram Bandhu ropes in Madhuri Dixit to endorse its pickle & papad range
Mumbai: FMCG company Empire Spices and Foods Ltd (ESFL) known for its flagship brand Ram Bandhu, has roped in Bollywood superstar Madhuri Dixit-Nene as brand ambassador to promote its pickle and papad product range across offline and online mediums.
The latest campaign “Aapka Taste Partner”, conceptualised by Betel Leaf Communications, encapsulates the wide range of pickle & papad variants to win a coveted space in the target consumer’s mind in a very simple and effective manner. The association with the actor comes at a time when the company is on a mission to expand its business and is reaching out to new markets. The company offers a wide range of products used in daily household consumption by the masses like pickles, papads, spices, ketchup, sauces, pastes and chutneys.
The campaign is supported by a 360-degree approach, leveraging TV, out-of-home, digital and social platforms.
The partnership is expected to provide a revered face to the brand’s philosophy as the actor personifies the brand’s ethos of quality and innovation which have been the pillars of the brand’s success in the pursuit of culinary ecstasy over the years, the company said in a statement.
ESFL, chairman, Hemant Rathi shared, “Our presence is spreading across India and this endorsement will help our brand to connect better with the users in both urban and rural areas. We wanted our brand ambassador for our pickle and papad categories to be someone who represents our target consumer group aptly, and who better than Madhuri Dixit Nene who is a working mother in her personal life and a well-known Bollywood actress who is popular across India, and even across generations, and overseas as well with a robust image just like our brand.”
The campaign draws its inspiration from the fact that human beings are inherently social creatures and in general value relationships over other things in life. Hence the importance of one’s life partner in one’s life is substantial followed by the other different types of partners like one’s work partner, room partner, mischief/fun partner, business partner, travel/tripping partner, gossip partner etc. By communicating ‘Ram Bandhu’ as a partner it helps to personify the brand instead of projecting it merely as a beneficial wondrous product.
Speaking about the association Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit-Nene shared, “Everyone has grown up eating pickles or achaar and it has strong memories attached to it, sometimes it’s the love of a grandmother, or warmth of a mothers touch. My association with the campaign “Aapka Taste Partner” reminded me of my childhood days when eating pickles and papads were an experience in itself! I am excited to be a part of a campaign by such a respected and loved brand like Ram Bandhu.”
ESFL, managing director, Umesh Rathi shared, “There is a huge opportunity of growth in the pickle and papad market in India. Ram Bandhu is one of the leading brands in both the papad and pickle categories across India when it comes to household consumption. We have always been believers of adapting with changing tastes, trends and technology. Our motto is “dil jeeto har grahak ka” and our aim is to be present in every kitchen of India and become an inseparable part of the culinary setup of every household in India”
“Our aim was not to sell the concept but to make the concept sell the brand,” explained Betel Leaf Communications creative head, Rishi Upadhyay.
Oberoi IBC managing director and the Clcreative producer of the TVC campaign, Anand Oberoi added, “The ad is witty, looks classy and is well-made, and establishes the point that Ram Bandhu is not just a maker of food products but is personified as an evergreen partner in the target consumer’s life when it comes to matters of taste and good food.”
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.
