Ad Campaigns
Sehgal outlines Prasar Bharati’s future at IAA industry meet in Mumbai
MUMBAI: From Agra expressways to All India Radio, Navneet Sehgal’s media journey has had one goal, reaching Bharat, better. At the latest edition of IAA Conversations, hosted by the India Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA) in partnership with The Free Press Journal, the spotlight fell on Prasar Bharati, chairman Navneet Kumar Sehgal in an engaging tête-à-tête with Groupm COO for South Asia Ashwin Padmanabhan.
Held at Mumbai’s Taj Lands End, the session welcomed a full house of brand custodians, agency leaders, and media professionals, reflecting the industry’s growing interest in public service media’s evolution.
IAA India chapter president Abhishek Karnani kicked off the evening by reaffirming the IAA’s 2025 focus “Conversations, Skilling, and Artificial Intelligence” as tools to futureproof the communication ecosystem.
Described as a legacy administrator with a media mission, Sehgal spoke candidly about navigating the dual identity of Prasar Bharati, a half-government, half-autonomous behemoth with unmatched rural reach and new-age ambitions.
“With over 1000 transmitters, 36 plus TV channels, and 58 radio stations, our footprint is vast. But our challenge now is agility and relevance,” Sehgal said.
Some of the initiatives he outlined include, Building a robust OTT platform that unifies live TV, radio, e-commerce, and digital-first content. Launching direct-to-mobile TV broadcasting that bypasses internet requirements. Investing in creator and youth ecosystems through initiatives like Waves, a content summit kickstarted by the prime minister.
Ashwin Padmanabhan noted that under Sehgal’s leadership, Prasar Bharati had become remarkably collaborative, inviting participation from advertisers, influencers, and platforms alike.
“This is not a closed-door legacy broadcaster anymore,” he said. “It’s a space where creators can experiment, and brands can build authentic Tier 2 and Tier 3 engagement.”
Sehgal recounted a memorable storytelling project with Big FM and Nilesh Mishra that used emotion, not explanation, to communicate government schemes. “A good ad commercial or social moves people to act. That’s the power of public storytelling,” he said.
He emphasised that while public service media often carries the weight of bureaucracy, its evolution must be people-first. “We are not just public. We are people-first. And to stay people-first, we must constantly innovate.”
The evening closed on a high note, with warm appreciation from the audience, which included advertising veterans, brand marketers, and digital leaders. Special thanks were extended to the IAA team, including Rahul and Heta, for curating a conversation that was more than just a fireside chat, it was a call to reimagine public media for a new India.
As Sehgal quipped with a smile, “Legacy is not a burden, it’s the launchpad.”
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.
