Ad Campaigns
Wunderman Thompson launches new campaign ‘shut out corona’ for Tata Pravesh
MUMBAI: Wunderman Thompson South Asia has conceptualised a digital film for Tata Pravesh. The film demonstrates how India is united in its fight against novel coronavirus, shutting all its doors to signify that when an entire country shuts its doors, it has the power to shut out Corona.
According to Tata Pravesh, the main challenge was to get this done at a time when the entire world was behind closed doors, production houses included. Crowdsourcing was the only solution. The film was made with Instagram and twitter posts by hundreds of Indians with the Tata Pravesh hashtag #DoorsOfIndia. These shots were combined with footage of closed doors sourced from the Wunderman Thompson team across six Indian cities.
As PM Narendra Modi announced a nationwide lockdown on 24 March to curb the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus. Since then, the pleas of the PM and Chief Ministers across states, urging people to stay indoors, have been ignored by many. There appears to be a lack of awareness of the consequences of venturing out and this extends even to the more evolved. Incidents of violation of govt. guidelines continue to make the headlines and a large number of people have already been arrested.
Individuals are not adhering to the one overarching guideline of staying indoors to stay safe, blissfully unaware of the consequences of coronavirus. With the deadly virus knocking on our doors, it was imperative to drive awareness of the simple fact that when you stay home you stay safe, India had to be reminded that you are safe indoors.
The film brings lockdown alive through hundreds of closed and locked down #DoorsOfIndia. It begins with shots of doors closing followed by a montage of closed doors from various geographies covering the entire expanse of this vast nation. The fast-paced montage is choreographed to a ‘homemade’ soundscape that is evidence of how work from home can give birth to truly ingenious solutions.
An entire Indian classical music rhythm pattern was created not by using traditional Indian percussion but by using live sounds of doors being shut and sounds of latches, hinges, stoppers, and locks, along with ambient street noises and dialogues. These sounds were sourced from across the country using #DoorsOfIndia.
Tata Steel chief services and solutions business P Anand said, “Tata Pravesh has always endeavoured to open minds through evocative socially connected films. This relevantly timed film reminds people to stay behind closed doors, that being the best way to combat Corona.”
Wunderman Thompson CCO Senthil Kumar said, “The idea was to bring alive the fact that India has shut its doors on Corona. This simple idea was executed powerfully by featuring doors from various provinces which gives the film a pan India scale while indicating that the #DoorsOfIndia will remain closed till we #ShutOutCorona.”
Wunderman Thompson Kolkata ECD and VP Arjun Mukherjee said, “It was important to tell people that all it takes to flatten the curve is to shut the door. The film uses doors of various shapes, sizes, age and lineage which reflect the diversity of this nation, all united in shutting out Corona.”
Wunderman Thompson senior VP and managing partner Vijay Jacob Parakkal said, “The vast numbers who have closed their doors on corona is testimony to the exceptional resolve and fortitude that our country has always demonstrated in times of stress. We are delighted to partner Tata Pravesh on this film which shows what India can do if it puts its heart into it.”
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.
