Ad Campaigns
Truecaller India and Talented launches “scampaign”
Mumbai: Scientist. Doctor. Engineer. CA. Sharma ji’s government job waale bacche. All considered among the smartest and brightest role models to never make a mistake.
Today, scams are run by some of the smartest, most creative and relentless professional fraudsters. They hide in plain sight or come packaged in layered information to confuse you on a busy day. No matter who you are or how many degrees you hold, you are one wrong call away from an empty bank account.
Ever since smartphones entered households in India, Truecaller has offered protection from both spam and scams with identifications and call screenings.
With the introduction of Truecaller Fraud Insurance, they are doubling down on their safety promise. Truecaller’s Premium yearly plans now include Fraud Insurance cover of up to ₹10,000 if you succumb to a phone call or SMS scam.
Truecaller VP, global brand – Ashwani Sinha said, “Introducing Fraud Insurance is a big part of our mission to keep our users protected against phone scams. Especially because scammers keep devising more creative ways to catch people off guard. Unfortunately, our nonchalance and misplaced overconfidence – ‘I will never fall for their lame tricks’ – makes their job easier. Our campaign aims to shake this overconfidence off and remind people that they’re a lot more likely to be scammed than they would imagine.”
Conceptualised by Talented, a clean business card visual conveys that like your degrees, the fact that you got scammed is also how people start to identify you. The billboards, hosted in Delhi and Mumbai serve as a precautionary reminder that if the conventionally “smart” can be scammed, you are not any safer. Truecaller can help insure your loss and henceforth, ensure your vigilance.
Founding partner Prashant Gopalakrishnan and Talented’s creative Yuvraj Bagchi, added, “Why does insurance against fraud make sense? As of Q1 2024, Indians have already lost a whopping ₹1,750 crores to reported cyber frauds. Two common things among victims we spoke to were: 1. They were educated, technologically sound, and problem-aware. 2. They said, “I can’t believe I fell for this. Me! I’m a [insert conventionally cerebral profession]!” We realised that scammers would go to any degree, literally, so we did too. In fact, our initial pitch landed on “You’re dumber than you think” but our irreverence was appropriately curbed. Also, having a ‘smart’ audience reassured us that our idea, even if it takes a second, will land and leave them with a reality check.”
Today, not just in metros but in small towns too, not only the retired, tech-starved, and gullible adults but also the highly qualified, are victims to phone fraud. Truecaller & Talented’s campaign introducing Fraud Insurance reminds us that perhaps the smart thing to do is not be over-smart.
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.
