Ad Campaigns
Vidya Balan takes center stage in Shobitam’s latest campaign ‘If it’s a saree, It’s a Shobitam’
Mumbai: Shobitam, a global D2C ethnic wear brand, today announced the launch of its latest campaign ‘If it’s a saree, It’s a Shobitam’ featuring actor and brand ambassador Vidya Balan. The campaign aims at showcasing Shobitam’s unwavering commitment towards preserving India’s timeless cultural fabric and inspiring women worldwide to celebrate the saree legacy by embracing it as a symbol of individuality and empowerment.
In the brand film, Balan is seen with a Director who narrates a script, set against a vintage backdrop. As she intently listens to the script, Balan slowly starts to embark upon a journey down memory lane, where suddenly her first love for sarees comes back flashing. Lost in a world of fantasy, she tries to recall her favourite styles. As she blissfully adorns her beloved sarees, mesmerized by her reflections in the mirror, she is overwhelmed with emotions with nostalgia, and revels in the sheer delight of wearing her cherished sarees. As reality pulls her back from surrealism and straight to the narration, she says, “And we never part, forever and ever.” The film concludes with Balan descending the stairs as an epitome of grace, urging audiences to “Join the Saree Revolution” brought to the world by Shobitam.
Sharing thoughts on this partnership, Balan said, “I am thrilled to be part of the Shobitam family and excited about our new campaign ‘If it’s a Saree, It’s a Shobitam!’. The sheer joy of wearing a saree makes you fall in love with yourself again and the saree is a symbol of our cultural identity. Shobitam’s unwavering commitment in making the saree accessible to anyone across the globe truly struck a chord with me. The authenticity of their offerings, wide selection, value added services and fast delivery was something that I personally experienced. So this shared journey of ‘Look Good, Do Good and Feel Good‘ and championing the saree revolution is truly exciting for me!”
Talking about the brand campaign, Shobitam co-founder & chief product officer Aparna Thyagarajan said, “We are thrilled to launch our latest campaign with our beautiful brand ambassador Vidya Balan. Through our new brand film, we hope to kick start the global “Saree Revolution” that thrives on emotional connection with the audiences through our beautiful creations. And, Vidya’s charismatic aura and her love for sarees just make her the perfect voice to helm this movement across India and the World. We do hope that audiences see Shobitam as a purveyor of traditional and handcrafted weaves and a reservoir of the timeless heritage of India. Our goal is to make Shobitam synonymous with the word Saree as a verb, where “If it’s a saree, it is a Shobitam!.”
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.
