Ad Campaigns
Star Sports launches ‘fan-centered’ campaign for Tata IPL 2024
Mumbai: As the anticipation builds for India’s most awaited cricket spectacle, Star Sports, the official television broadcaster of the TATA IPL 2024, has launched an “ode to IPL fandom and its various expressions” in its campaign for season 17 of the tournament. Inspired by real-life fan stories, moments seen on social media and true events of fandom, the campaign brings alive moments of togetherness that unleash a plethora of diverse emotions. It celebrates the idea of “better together” by representing diverse groups of fans whose experience of TATA IPL 2024 and emotions attached with players, matches and match situations are elevated when they watch together.
The film features four IPL captains and Star Sports ‘Believe’ ambassadors – Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul, and Shreyas Iyer – representing diverse fans in different situations, each representing different emotions which take over when one experiences key moments of the games in groups.
The momentary transformations of fans’ personalities are a true representation of the emotional roller-coasters that IPL 2024 promises to be. Rishabh ‘Gabroo’ Pant’s gang sheds its “macho personality” and tears up with emotions, Hardik ‘Corporate’ Pandya and his team forget they are in a boardroom with foreign clients and break into a dance to celebrate, KL ‘Padhakoo’ Rahul and his study circle drop their books and let their passions fly when an umpiring decision goes against them, Shreyas ‘Good boy’ Iyer drops his submissiveness around his family and rebels against his father-in-law. The teasers and BTS clips surrounding the campaign have been making waves on social media and have added to the anticipation. It will be released in multiple languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali, and Malayalam to resonate with fans across India.
Disney Star head-sports Sanjog Gupta said, “TATA IPL 2023 was the biggest IPL in TV history and reiterated the belief that ritualism, community and togetherness are essential facets of the live cricket viewing experience. This year, our campaign is an ode to the plethora of emotions that fans around the country will experience over the next couple of months. Unlike Indian cricket, where pride is the pervasive fan sentiment across the nation, IPL allows different fans to take sides and experience distinct emotions in the same moment. And these emotions are elevated when they are experienced in the company of friends, families and/or community. The goal of the campaign is to elevate the stature of TATA IPL, drive fan tribes to support their teams even more passionately and excite viewers for an unparalleled experience on Star Sports.”
Star Sports ‘Believe’ ambassador, Hardik Pandya, said, “I’m thrilled to have participated in the ‘Ajab Rang Dikhega’ campaign. Playing the role of a fan in the campaign, brought back memories of me being a fan, celebrating happily with friends and family when emotions take over during memorable victories.”
“As a ‘Believe’ Ambassador, it is an honour to be a part of the ‘Ajab Rang Dikhega’ campaign. IPL is an emotion, and we love it as much as the fans do. Through the new campaign, we celebrate the unique community experiences that IPL evokes across the country making it a truly unforgettable experience. I’m grateful for the love showered by fans and I’m looking forward to IPL 2024”, added Rishabh Pant.
The campaign has been conceived and conceptualized by Tilt Brand Solutions, a Mumbai-based brand and communications consultancy that is a part of Quotient Ventures.
The ‘Incredible Premier League’ is best experienced with friends and family, capturing the essence of communal viewing that enhances the thrill of live sports on television. Star Sports has effectively placed fans at the heart of its coverage, fostering a sense of community and highlighting the excitement of watching the marquee tournament on TV. Through a series of on-ground events under the ‘Star Nahi Far’ activations, the broadcaster has successfully engaged audiences from all corners of the country, offering fans and fan communities a unique opportunity to connect with their favourite heroes. The ‘Incredible 16’ initiative featured legends selecting their all-time IPL squads, receiving widespread acclaim. Fans enthusiastically voted to back their favorite all-time stars, and created their versions of the ‘Incredible 16,’ amplifying the excitement surrounding the tournament as the opening day approaches.
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.
