Ad Campaigns
UC Browser’s Miss Cricket Campaign Makes Debut on billboard at New York Times Square
MUMBAI: After almost 2 months of fierce competition, UC Miss Cricket Contest, an exciting campaign from UC Browser, has come to an end, with the winner Nishi Singh featuring on a billboard at New York Times Square. The 21-year old new rising star has also received cash prize of Rs 10 lakh, while the first runner-up Pari Sharma and second runner-up Aishwarya Singh have won Rs 5 lakh and Rs 2 lakh respectively. The 3 winners have also made an appearance on the Indian edition of Vogue magazine.
Nishi Singh, winner of UC Miss Cricket, on the Nasdaq billboard at New York Times Square in June’ 2018
UC Miss Cricket is India’s first online beauty contest driven only by users vote, without intervention from judges. Winner Nishi Singh, TV beauty from Mumbai, got the maximum “likes” on UC Browser for her warm and friendly personality.
On winning the UC Miss Cricket contest, Nishi Singh said: “Not just winning the competition, it has been a great journey altogether during the entire campaign of UC Miss Cricket 2018. I would like to thank UC Browser from the bottom of my heart for giving me this platform and helping me reach so many people. I have been able to connect with all my new-found fans over multiple social media platforms and I would also like to thank them for their votes and support. Winning the First Prize has been a dream come true, and getting my face on NY Times Square has been an icing on the cake.”
Winner of UC Miss Cricket-Nishi Singh (in the middle), Pari Sharma (First Runner-up, on the left), Aishwarya Singh (Second runner-up, on the right) at the Vogue photo shoot
UC Miss Cricket Campaign is driving increased Content Consumption and Engagement on UC Browser by Young Users
UC Browser witnessed a jump of 50% unique visitors during the recently concluded IPL 2018. Having transformed itself into a leading content distribution platform, UC Browser provided cricket fans with over 2.5 lakh articles, to meet the increased demand for specialized content from users. The total page views saw a jump of 24% this cricket season and the users spent 10% more time catching up on cricket news versus last year. With more interesting voting and engagement brought by the first edition of UC Miss Cricket Contest this year, the campaign contributed towards the highest single day page views of 220 million for the IPL Cricket related content and total engagement of 45 million on UC Browser.
“In line with our ‘faster speed, richer content’ strategy, we want to add more interactive content by introducing contests such as UC Miss Cricket. We hope to continue with this contest every year. India’s millennials love to express their voice by participating in online activities. With high content consumption and engagement, UC Miss Cricket is not only a platform for young girls but also for young mobile users to express what they like. We believe more and more advertisers will see the great value and potential on such a platform that reaches millions of young audiences across India. ” said Damon Xi, General Manager – India & Indonesia, UCWeb, Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group.
The success of the first UC Miss Cricket Contest also created buzz on social media platforms. YouTubers Lalit Shokeen, Round2Hell and Madras Central added to the craze with their videos, generating combined views of a whopping 7.8 million. Hashtags #MissCricket and #KeepScoring were also trending on Twitter while the video from Lalit Shokeen trended No. 1 on YouTube and Round2Hell’s video trended at No. 2.
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.
