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T-Mobile wins TV ad of the year
MUMBAI: T-Mobile accepted the TV ad of the year award at the British Television Advertising Awards for their early 2009 ad release dance.
The ad, created by Saatchi and Saatchi London, featured 350 dancers breaking into a routine en-masse at Liverpool Street station in London. The filming of the advertisement was done in “guerrilla-style”, with hidden TV cameras placed around the station.
The cameras captured the spontaneous reactions of London commuters as they watched the dancers complete a range of synchronised moves. Filming and editing the ad in just 36 hours was impressive in itself but now the ad has been rewarded with a most envied award at the BTAA – TV ad of the year.
T-Mobile head of brand and communications Lysa Hardy says, “We are extremely excited by this award as it is the first time a telecoms company has ever won TV ad of the year at the BTAA and is a real accolade for marketing excellence. It was ambitious to turnaround the ad in such a short time, but the fact it was an instant link to the event in Liverpool Street Station made it even more special.
“As a result of the ad and the hard work we put into clarifying the “life’s for sharing” insight, we saw retail footfall increase, web sale results rise by 22 per cent and searches for T-Mobile jump 30 per cent. We also had over 20 million views of “dance” on YouTube – it was the most viewed ad and an instant hit with the public.”
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Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
