Ad Campaigns
Saatchi & Saatchi Propagate’s campaign for UPES showcases the power of education
Mumbai: Saatchi & Saatchi Propagate, part of Publicis Groupe India, has conceptualised the launch campaign for UPES ON, a new entrant into the online degrees and learning space. This two-film campaign showcases inspiring stories of individuals who have transformed their lives with an additional online degree. The films have been shot in Hindi, English and Telugu for better reach.
The first film “Driving Tomorrow” highlights the remarkable journey of a man who, despite life’s challenges, chose UPES ON and went on to achieve great success. The second film “REBEL” features a girl who opted for UPES ON’s online education over traditional college, forging her own path as a decisive and independent thinker.
Saatchi & Saatchi Propagate EVP & business head Prachi Bali said, “We aimed to create a campaign that not only exhibited the transformative capability of education but also connected with the viewers on an emotional level. Through these films, we have knitted a yarn of touching and inspiring stories, each reflecting the success that comes with knowledge.”
UPES ON senior director global sales & marketing and business head Sumanth Palepu added, “The stories from the two campaigns, ‘Driving Tomorrow’ and ‘REBEL,’ highlight how education can make a big difference in people’s lives. Both campaigns tell us that education can shape your future, no matter how you choose to learn. UPES ON is all about supporting unique journeys and encouraging people to choose online degrees that match their dreams. It’s a call to action to rethink education and take charge of your own path in a world that’s constantly evolving and creating new and innovative ideas.”
Saatchi & Saatchi Propagate, creative director, ECD & Delna Dastur Sudarshan Sudevan further commented, “While UPES ON provides an opportunity to pursue online education, we focused on capturing the emotions experienced by students after completing their education. In the two films, we delve into emotions such as a profound sense of achievement and pride, coupled with the empowering feeling of creating one’s own narrative. These films help us strike a chord in the hearts of people, further making them want to pursue an online education.”
The campaign films are live and will have presence across digital platforms as well as in cinema halls.
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.
