Ad Campaigns
Taapsee endorses cashless economy campaign
MUMBAI: While the entire nation was in a flux with the sudden announcement of demonetisation, Times Network, a part of India’s largest media conglomerate, The Times Group, was the only broadcast network that realized the need of the hour and initiated a nationwide campaign ‘Remonetise India’ to bring the economy back on track.
As part of the initiative, Sahayata camps were organized in Mumbai to encourage people to get Pan Cards, Aadhaar Cards and open bank accounts (Jan Dhan Yojana Accounts) for the development of Digital India. Bollywood Actress Taapsee Pannu was seen promoting the initiative and educating the citizens to learn e-banking, go digital and cashless for the coming future. The camp received tremendous support and response from the common man who were seen taking the pledge of remonetisation, going digital and making India a less-cash economy.
Times Network MD & CEO M K Anand said, “I think there is a lot of work remaining to bridge the Remonetisation gap. Urban India has started using less cash, but they will get back to their old habit if the entire system is not geared for a less cash way of life. The true benefits of Remonetisation will come only when we drag every activity into the formal economy. For that every Indian citizen needs to be empowered. Financial inclusion can happen only when all have bank accounts. The Remonetise India Sahayata Camps are our effort in this direction.”
Pannu said, “The sudden decision by the government totally shook the nation and when Times approached me to be a part of this initiative I readily agreed, because I myself am a software engineer and going digital is the need of the hour. Remonetise India is such a novel concept by Times as normally you come across people only condemning the current scenario, but nobody taking a step to help overcome this situation.”
As part of the initiative, the network first organized a telethon that invited speakers, opinion leaders and policy makers across all network channels to understand the way forward after demonetisation. Further Go Cashless bike rallies were organized to spread awareness about the need to go digital and save cash for those in rural areas who are cash dependent and don’t have an access to digital facilities. The entire campaign has received tremendous support from famous Bollywood celebrities, CEOs, political leaders as well as the common man, making this nationwide initiative a great success.
Ad Campaigns
Amazon Ads maps 2026 as AI and streaming rewrite ad playbooks
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.







