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WagonR launches new ad campaign created by Dentsu
MUMBAI: WagonR has launched a new advertising campaign titled ‘Prank‘.
The ads have been conceptualised and created by the brand‘s creative agency Dentsu Creative Impact.
The objective of the campaign is to highlight the new features of the “improved” WagonR, while retaining the core of the brand of being a car for the smarter race.
According to the agency, the brief that was given from the client was that with changing consumer preferences and growing competition, it becomes imperative for an age old brand like WagonR to evolve itself to continue to meet consumer expectations. The new TVC hence must announce the launch of the new WagonR and communicate its features without it being a blind spot.
The agency had earlier launched a ‘Big like India, Smart like you‘ campaign for the brand which first time saw the trio of Madhavan, Raghu and Rajiv of Roadies together describing the car and its various features. The core idea of the new campaign, takes from there, and talks about the new features of the smarter WagonR using brand ambassador the three celebrities again.
Dentsu Creative Impact NCD Soumitra Karnik said, “The task was to announce the new changes in the widely sold WagonR and the challenge was how to make this announcement engaging. We decided to continue with the casting of the last commercial of Madhavan, Raghu and Rajiv as it was quite well received. This particular script was found to have all the elements of being an entertainer. A prank played by the twin brothers wearing clown masks who at the end get outsmarted by Madhavan, the car‘s owner who impresses them with all the new features in the car. One thinks of many different things but in the end you go with your gut with a script like this.”
The television commercial will be supported by a digital and print campaign. There will also be in-store advertising of the brand.
The story revolves around two characters in clown masks who get into Madhavan‘s car and tell him to drive them around while he‘s held hostage to a gun point. During the interaction, the features are revealed. However, Madhavan tricks them and drives away leaving them behind, proving his wit & smartness. The reveal in the end showcases that the clowns are no other but Raghu-Rajiv themselves who had set out to play a prank Madhvan but end up getting tricked by him.
The television commercial has been produced by QED Films.
MAM
IAS launches Total TV suite to boost transparency in CTV ads
New solution offers programme-level insights across platforms and publishers.
MUMBAI: In the world of streaming, what you see is not always what advertisers get and that’s exactly the problem IAS is looking to fix. Integral Ad Science (IAS) has unveiled ‘IAS Total TV’, a new suite of Connected TV (CTV) solutions aimed at bringing what it calls “linear-like” transparency to the fast-growing streaming ecosystem. In simple terms, it is an attempt to make digital TV advertising a lot less of a black box.
The offering aggregates programme-level data covering genre, ratings, language, shows and specific content from major platforms including Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount and Prime Video, along with opted-in publishers via Publica. All of this is housed within the IAS Signal interface, giving advertisers a unified view of where their ads actually appear.
The timing is hardly accidental. According to Nielsen, as of Q4 2025, 74.2 per cent of all TV viewing in the United States is ad-supported. Of that, streaming alone accounts for 45.6 per cent outpacing traditional television and cementing its position as the largest ad-supported medium. Advertisers have followed suit, funnelling premium budgets into CTV, but often without a clear, standardised view of performance or placement.
That gap is precisely what IAS is targeting. By combining content insights with media quality, supply path data and campaign outcomes, the platform aims to give marketers more control over when, where and alongside what content their ads run. The goal is not just visibility, but accountability ensuring ads land in brand-suitable environments rather than disappearing into opaque inventory pools.
The suite also promises practical gains. Marketers can access real-time, aggregated transparency across shows and platforms, streamline campaign controls across digital video channels, and leverage third-party verification to improve efficiency and pre-bid decision-making. Measurement tools extend to quality reach and incremental conversions, offering a clearer link between spend and outcomes.
At a time when high CPMs and fragmented data make CTV both attractive and complex, the push for transparency is becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity. IAS’s move reflects a broader industry shift, where the race is no longer just for eyeballs, but for clarity on what those eyeballs are actually watching.
Because in streaming’s premium playground, knowing the content may just matter as much as owning the audience.
