Digital
Targeted ads on Disney Star Network’s TV Entertainment channels deliver a remarkable windfall for brands
Mumbai: The introduction of a targeted advertising solution on Linear TV through a collaboration between Disney Star Network and Tata Play, is transforming the landscape for brands that have previously hesitated to engage with linear advertising. The concerns of spillover and large campaign outlays got allayed with the creation of this extremely premium & exclusive audience cohort lowering the barriers to entry significantly.
Brands are seizing the opportunity to execute a high visibility campaign among Linear TV’s premium audiences, complementing their digital exclusive audience across mobile & CTV. This breakthrough innovation offering targeted ads on Disney Star Network’s HD entertainment channels and top-rated shows attracted one of India’s largest advertisers, Amazon which has executed three campaigns for Amazon Fresh and Prime Speed delivery. Flipkart launched their most important “Big Billion Day” campaign recently to access this affluent metro cohort. Brands from D2C, BFSI, Pharma, Media & Entertainment and FMCG have attained a significant push to their growth with these targeted campaigns on Linear TV.
“We are thrilled with the response received for our new Addressable Ads solution on our linear network of HD channels. Through this one-of-a-kind ad-solution launched in collaboration with Tata Play, we have introduced an array of possibilities for brands who have specific business objectives and want to target affluent metro audiences only. We look forward to many more successful campaigns during the festive season,” said Disney Star, Head of Entertainment, Ad Sales & Strategy, Dev Shenoy.
Tata Play tested this differentiated ad product to enhance Linear HD audiences and drive app downloads for its OTT aggregation platform, Tata Play Binge. A high frequency 10-day Binge campaign delivered instantaneous impact. Tata Play chief commercial & content Officer Pallavi Puri remarked on the campaign’s success “To promote our Tata Play Binge campaign, we leveraged the addressable ads platform to effectively target the metro viewers of Disney Star Network’s HD channels, and it resulted in a 17% jump in app downloads. We believe this is a remarkable standard for efficacy and ROI.”
Riversoft, a water softener start-up was one of the first brand campaigns on this new ad product and experienced a substantial double-digit growth in its E-commerce sales. Riversoft founder Ashutosh Kedawat commented on the enthusiastic consumer response to this campaign “We wanted to try out Linear TV for our ad campaign and we were looking for a plan with less spill over that helps us reach our target audience. Disney Star Network presented a plan targeting the top 8 metros which also coincided with our target audience. We were really delighted to see how well the campaign performed.”
Other D2C brands and start-ups ventured into Linear TV advertising successfully using this pioneering ad product. Perfora, a GenZ first oral care brand that is reimagining teeth whitening with safe & effective solutions, in its inaugural TV campaign expanded its audience by tapping into millennials. The campaign saw a significant surge in website traffic and resulted in increased brand search volume during its run. Gourmet snack brand 4700BC, witnessed a sizable increase in quick commerce orders. Third Wave Coffee saw its store footfalls rise across Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore resulting in high double-digit revenue growth.
While this one-of-a-kind ad product on Linear TV attracted many new brands, existing FMCG advertiser such as Freedom Oil leveraged this ad product to reach out to a niche audience cohort of Hindi content viewers in the Southern metros.
Digital
Ethical AI must benefit society, not dominate it, says WFEB chief Sanjay Pradhan at IAA event
At Mumbai event, ethics expert urges businesses and governments to shape AI responsibly
MUMBAI: Artificial intelligence may be racing ahead at lightning speed, but its direction must still be guided by human conscience. That was the central message delivered by Sanjay Pradhan, president of the World Forum for Ethics in Business (WFEB), during the latest edition of IAA Conversations held in Mumbai.
The session was organised by the International Advertising Association (IAA) and the Artificial Intelligence Association of India (AIAI) in association with The Free Press Journal at the Free Press House on 7 March. Addressing a packed audience, Pradhan called for stronger ethical leadership to ensure AI remains a tool that benefits humanity rather than one that governs it.
“Artificial intelligence has rapidly become one of the most powerful technologies humanity has created,” Pradhan said. “It is unlocking breakthroughs in medicine, science and creativity at a pace unimaginable just a few years ago.”
But he warned that the same technology carries serious risks. AI, he noted, can amplify disinformation faster than facts can travel, compromise privacy, deepen discrimination and disrupt millions of livelihoods. Referencing concerns raised by AI pioneers such as Geoffrey Hinton, often called the godfather of AI, Pradhan stressed that the real challenge is not whether AI will shape the world, but whether humans will shape it with ethics and wisdom.
Structuring his talk around four guiding questions, why, what, how and who, Pradhan introduced the audience to WFEB’s emerging AI Ethics Partnership, a global platform aimed at advancing responsible artificial intelligence. He outlined four priority concerns that demand urgent attention: disinformation, bias and discrimination, data privacy and job security.
To make the idea of ethical AI easier to grasp, Pradhan offered a simple metaphor. Ethical AI, he said, is like a three layered cake. The outer layer represents the visible value ethical AI creates for businesses and society. The middle layer is organisational culture that moves ethics from written codes to everyday practice. The innermost layer, however, is the most crucial, the conscience of individual leaders.
Drawing from Indian philosophical thought through WFEB co-founder Ravi Shankar, Pradhan noted that while artificial intelligence can reproduce stored knowledge, true intelligence is boundless and rooted in conscience, creativity and compassion. Practices such as breathwork and meditation, he suggested, can help leaders develop the calm clarity needed for ethical decision making.
The event also featured a discussion with Maninder Adityaraj Singh, chief of staff and head of innovation at Rediffusion Brand Solutions Pvt Ltd, and Yash Johri, lawyer, Supreme Court of India.
Opening the session, IAA India chapter president Abhishek Karnani, highlighted the need for industries to understand and engage with AI responsibly.
“AI has to be befriended and understood,” added Rediffusion managing director and AIAI national convenor Sandeep Goyal. “Its ethical use will determine whether it becomes a friend or a foe.”
As AI continues to reshape industries and societies, Pradhan ended with a simple but powerful call to action. Businesses, governments and individuals must work together to ensure that the algorithms shaping the future reflect human values rather than just cold logic.
