Ad Campaigns
WaterAid India launches the 2023 edition of the ‘Batting For Water’ campaign
Mumbai: WaterAid India launched the 2023 edition of its flagship campaign, ‘Batting For Water’. In an endeavour to ensure full access to clean drinking water in every home, the campaign strives to support women and young girls in rural India. In recent years, rural India witnessed substantial public investment through the government in the form of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) which aims to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections to all rural households by 2024. To have a long lasting impact complementing efforts are required by other stakeholders like private sector, individual citizens, students in schools, colleges to make this a movement owned by everyone everywhere to achieve the dream of 100% water access in a sustainable way!
After gaining remarkable success in 2021, the ‘Batting For Water’ campaign is continuing its momentum this year as well, emphasising the need for citizens of India to play their role by linking this movement with the great game of cricket, thereby regarding it as similar to playing with a partial bat. Just as a triumph in cricket necessitates the complete bat, so do the aspirations of individuals living in marginalised communities, particularly women and young girls in rural areas hinge upon 100% access to “water”. In a nation that has 17.7 per cent of the global population and has only four per cent of global freshwater resources, there exists a dire need to address the challenges faced by those who lack full access to clean water by uniting people to attain a shared goal – “Har Ghar Jal”. Collaborations with cricketers and celebrities generated substantial public involvement during the previous campaign. This year’s efforts also seek to join forces with such notable figures especially when India is hosting the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup to sensitise the masses and boost active participation to save water through better practices – we need to dedicate this World Cup to a spirit of our collective efforts to compliment the movement of water access to every household. This movement is to remind the public that “water saved is water produced.”
Looking forward to another year of the campaign and showing enthusiasm about its continued impact, WaterAid India director of resource mobilisation and communications Vikas Kataria said, “WaterAid India takes immense pride that our endeavours align seamlessly with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal – Safe & Affordable Water to All. With the ‘Batting For Water’ campaign, we seek to build unity and gain unwavering support from every individual to come forward and align harmoniously with the objective of achieving 100% access to water across the nation through responsive water habits. We believe that access to clean and safe water resources closer to habitation holds the potential to transform lives and uplift the dignity of individuals belonging to the rural community and help build our nation.”
He further added, “The organisation is committed to ensuring safe and equitable access to drinking water for marginalised and vulnerable communities. Through the implementation of community-based piped water supply systems, water quality testing and monitoring, rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge structures, water recycling and the installation of hygiene facilities in schools, urban areas, and villages, WaterAid India is effecting lasting change for millions across the country. The government has achieved great success by taking important strides in this regard over the last few years and it is important that those efforts are complimented by other stakeholders.”
The ‘Batting For Water’ campaign represents a unique opportunity for our cricketers who are celebrated in India and for the change-makers, influencers, and our citizens across the nation to make a tangible difference by taking action towards responsible water usage within their own domains. Through this innovative approach, people can collaborate to achieve the seemingly impossible and empower every rural household for a long lasting, equitable access to drinking water and a dignified life. Together, we can ensure that clean water is not only a basic human right but also a potent weapon in the battle for public health.
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.
