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Black and white halftone of a hand holding a phone over a counter-top QR stand, on a flat mustard background

UPI MDR Of 0.4% Starts 15 October On Merchant Payments Above Rs 2,000

The first charge on a large slice of UPI merchant payments arrives next month. Small merchants, and every payment up to Rs 2,000, stay free.

A halftone photograph being pulled in two directions by opposing cut-paper arrows, on a saturated cobalt ground

Social First

The Rights Problem Hiding In Every UGC Campaign

A collage of a motorcycle, riders in helmets and an open road with arrows

Brand Comebacks

Royal Enfield: From Fading Motorcycle Brand to Global Cult

The Latest

Brands

Gurbaksh Singh Virdi To Lead NODWIN Gaming's New Sports Division

Sapna Chadha, elevated to vice president for Google's Asia Pacific Ads go-to-market strategy and operations

Sapna Chadha Takes Charge Of Google's APAC Ads Go-To-Market

Sandhya Biswas, joining Orient Electric as chief marketing and customer experience officer

Orient Electric Names Sandhya Biswas Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer

Mayank Kumar, joining IndiGo as head of content and creative after nine years at MakeMyTrip and a year at MobiKwik

Mayank Kumar Joins IndiGo As Head Of Content And Creative

Jayadeep Reddy, appointed national head of digital platforms and consumer AI at Bajaj Finserv after six years in its health business

Jayadeep Reddy Named National Head Of Digital Platforms And Consumer AI At Bajaj Finserv

Hema V R, taking an expanded mandate as chief channel officer across Zee Marathi, Marathi ZEE5, Zee Talkies and Zee Yuva

Hema V R Takes Charge Of Zee's Whole Marathi Entertainment Business

FeatureWork LifeAll →

A trophy silhouette on a plinth casting a shadow far longer and heavier than the trophy itself

Work Life

What Is The Real Cost Of Chasing Awards?

The entry fee is the cheapest part. What it costs is measured in whose work gets the good brief.

Are Agencies Losing Institutional Memory?

Every agency has a story about the idea that failed in 2014. The trouble starts when nobody left can tell it.

Will AI Make It Harder To Get Your First Agency Job?

The tasks juniors used to learn on are the tasks the tools do first. Nobody has said what juniors learn on now.

Why Agency Culture Breaks During Pitches

Everything an agency says about how it treats people is written for ordinary weeks. Pitches are not ordinary weeks.

FeatureBrand BuildersAll →

Brand Builders

Harshil Mathur, Who Built a Brand for People Who Read Documentation

In B2B payments the person who chooses you is usually the one who has to make it work. Razorpay marketed to them directly.

Ghazal Alagh, Who Built the Product Behind the Promise

Varun Alagh, Who Turned a Parenting Problem Into Mamaearth

Peyush Bansal, Who Rebuilt the Eyewear Business From the Factory Up

Sameer Mehta, the Quieter Half of boAt

Aman Gupta, Who Made the Founder the Advertisement

Kunal Shah, Who Made Exclusivity the Product

CampaignsAll →

Campaigns

Greenpanel has released Hum Hain Greenpanel, a brand anthem

Saplings, a timber tractor, a test lab and dealers in flower garlands. A panel maker has put its whole supply chain to music.

A man stands in a glass house at sunset as devices float around him, from Hyundai's BAYON name reveal film

Campaigns

Hyundai Motor India has named its upcoming SUV the Hyundai BAYON

A frame from the Complan film India Ka Complan Boy featuring cricketer Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who debuted for India at fifteen

Campaigns

Complan Makes Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Its India Ka Complan Boy

Campaigns

Nestasia Turns A Guest Checking The Bottom Of A Bowl Into A Compliment

Laxmi Dental Launches Illusion Zirconia Campaign With Madhuri Dixit

airpay Marks 14 Years With A First Brand Film Built On Being Forgotten

YiPPee Puts 25 Young Players Across The Board From Magnus Carlsen

Hafele India Puts Sachin Tendulkar Back In The Kitchen For Its Second Film

FeatureSocial-FirstAll →

A halftone hand holding one small photograph while much larger empty frames hang behind it, on a saturated hot pink ground

Social First

Why Nano Influencers Outperform Their Follower Count

Social First

How Brands Decide Which Language To Post In

A halftone shopping basket balanced on a wobbling stack of cut-paper charts, on a saturated lime ground

Social First

Is Social Commerce Actually Working In India?

Social First

The Rights Problem Hiding In Every UGC Campaign

A hashtag is not a licence. Most brands running user-generated campaigns do not own a single frame of what comes back.

Why Employees Are Becoming A Brand’s Most Credible Creators

What Brands Should Do In The First Hour Of A Social Crisis

Culture Moves at Gen Z Speed, Can Brands Keep Up?

Why Dark Social Is India’s Biggest Measurement Blind Spot

BrandsAll →

A white elephant sculpture painted with rainbow hearts, standing in red flowers, in Elephant Parade's launch image

Brands

Archies Brings Elephant Parade Sculptures To India

A card and gift chain has found a product with a story attached, and the story is about a real elephant.

Hands lifting a box off a Bourbon Chocolate Modak on a magenta set, in Britannia Bourbon and Bombay Sweet Shop's key visual

Britannia And Bombay Sweet Shop Bring Back The Bourbon Chocolate Modak

A Delhi Metro station sign reading Ai+ Nova Smartphone Rajouri Garden, in Ai+ Smartphone station branding

Ai+ Nova Smartphone Puts Its Name On Rajouri Garden Metro Station

Halftone paper cutout of a burger and a map pin, marking Burger King opening its 600th India restaurant in GTB Nagar, Delhi

Burger King Opens Its 600th India Restaurant In The City Where It Started

A camera aperture ring and a silicon chip rendered as halftone paper cutouts, for Apple unveiling the iPhone 18 Pro with a variable aperture camera and 2nm A20 Pro chip

Apple Unveils iPhone 18 Pro With Variable Aperture And 2nm A20 Pro Chip

A takeaway box and a rising bar chart rendered as halftone paper cutouts, for Swiggy's budget food delivery app Toing reaching 33 million weekly active users

Swiggy's Toing Reaches 33 Million Weekly Users In Its First Year

Hyundai Motor India Signs Para Archer Sheetal Devi As Brand Ambassador

Newsletter

The Buzz, in your inbox.

Ad world news, campaigns and moves, a few times a week. No noise.

FeatureIndian Ad LegendsAll →

A graphite pencil portrait of Prasoon Joshi, the poet who gave brands their voice

Indian Ad Legends

The Story of Prasoon Joshi, the Poet Who Gave Brands a Soul

Read the story of Prasoon Joshi, one of Indian advertising's most influential figures, known for McCann, Coca-Cola's Thanda Matlab campaign and a rare career that spans advertising, poetry and film.

A graphite pencil portrait of Arun Nanda, the adman who built Rediffusion

Indian Ad Legends

The Story of Arun Nanda, the Adman Who Built Rediffusion

A graphite pencil portrait of Mohammed Khan, the adman who built Enterprise

Indian Ad Legends

The Story of Mohammed Khan, the Gentleman Who Built Three Iconic Agencies

Graphite pencil portrait of K.V. Sridhar, the Leo Burnett creative chief known across Indian advertising as Pops.

Indian Ad Legends

The Story of K.V. Sridhar, the Artist the Industry Calls Pops

The Story of Prasoon Pandey, the Director Who Filmed India's Most Loved Ads

The Story of Prahlad Kakkar, the Man Who Made Ad Films Fun

The Story of R. Balki, the Adman Who Turned Ideas Into Films

The Story of Swati Bhattacharya, the Voice That Changed How India Talks About Women

NewsAll →

UPI MDR Of 0.4% Starts 15 October On Merchant Payments Above Rs 2,000

Prime Video Adds On-Demand News Clips To Its Free News Hub

Arena Media India Wins The Ashiana Housing Media Mandate

TRAI Ends Weekly Ad-Duration Reporting For TV Channels

The Next 50: Honouring The People Behind India's Best Agency Work

Dream Theatre Takes The Baahubali Licensing And Brand Partnerships Mandate

Mutant Wins PR Mandate For Singapore's Beyond The Label

Dangal TV, Flipkart And Starcom Make Rimjhim Shoppable

FeatureCreative RoomAll →

Halftone collage of a red pen resting on a heavily marked page, for how legal review changes creative work

Creative Room

How Legal Review Changes a Creative Idea

Halftone collage of a stack of storyboard frames fanned out at an angle, for how animatics are built

Creative Room

How Storyboards Become Animatics

Halftone collage of an empty chair under a single spotlight, for how casting shapes a campaign

Creative Room

How Casting Decides What an Idea Feels Like

Halftone collage of a single shape repeated at many different sizes and crops, for how ideas are adapted

Creative Room

How One Idea Is Adapted Across Formats And Markets

The idea was bought as a thirty-second film. It will be seen as a six-second cutdown, in a language nobody in the room speaks.

How Sound and Music Are Chosen for an Ad Film

How Campaigns Get Their Names

How Pressure Shapes Better Campaign Thinking

Where Rejected Ideas Go and Why They Still Matter

Ad TechAll →

Halftone paper cutout of a silicon chip and a memory module, marking the OpenAI and Samsung Electronics collaboration on next-generation AI chips

Ad Tech

OpenAI And Samsung Move From Memory Supply To Building Chips Together

A sound wave and a signed contract rendered as halftone paper cutouts, for Suno launching its v6 AI music models with Warner Music Group and BMG

Ad Tech

Suno Launches v6 Models With Warner Music Group And BMG

A jewellery display stand and a data node diagram rendered as halftone paper cutouts, for the Zithara.AI and Tyaani Jewellery customer engagement partnership

Ad Tech

Zithara.AI Partners Tyaani Jewellery On AI Native CRM

A deodorant spray can and a notification bell rendered as halftone paper cutouts, for the Hamilton Sciences and WebEngage customer engagement partnership

Ad Tech

Hamilton Sciences Picks WebEngage For Denver, ENVY And Vanesa

FeatureCampaigns That Built IndiaAll →

Halftone collage of a boxy television set and a pair of horns on charcoal, for the Onida devil campaign

Campaigns That Built India

How Onida’s Devil Sold Envy To A Country That Had To Wait

Every other television brand was explaining its picture quality. Onida skipped the product and sold what owning one did to the people next door.

Halftone collage of a detergent sachet and a bicycle on charcoal, for the Nirma washing powder story

How Nirma’s Jingle Undercut Surf And Rewrote The Detergent Market

Halftone collage of a detergent carton and a shopping basket on charcoal, for the Surf Lalitaji campaign

How Surf’s Lalitaji Made Thrift The Smart Woman’s Argument

Halftone collage of a bar of soap and a falling stream of water on charcoal, for the Liril waterfall campaign

How Liril’s Waterfall Changed What Indian Advertising Could Show

Halftone collage of an ornate chandelier of bare bulbs glowing in darkness, marking the Happydent Palace commercial

How Happydent's Palace Lit a Kingdom With Teeth

Halftone collage of a chilled glass soft-drink bottle beaded with condensation, marking the Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola campaign

How Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola Annexed a Hindi Word

Halftone collage of two pairs of hands overlapping on a shared umbrella handle, marking SBI Life's Main Se Hum campaign

How SBI Life's Main Se Hum Made Insurance Sound Like Growing Up

FeatureBrand ComebacksAll →

Brand Comebacks

Royal Enfield: From Fading Motorcycle Brand to Global Cult

Royal Enfield was a fading heritage brand. How it became a global lifestyle cult by selling feeling and belonging instead of mileage and price.

A halftone collage of cut gemstones and gold rings on a magenta ground

Brand Comebacks

Tanishq: From Market Skepticism to India's Most Trusted Jeweller

A halftone bowl of steaming noodles beside a green tick on a red ground

Brand Comebacks

Maggi: The Ultimate Trust-Rebuild After the 2015 Crisis

Children drinking orange squash beside a jug, glasses and orange slices under a sunburst

Brand Comebacks

Rasna: A Childhood Summer Brand Fights to Stay Relevant

Kinetic Luna: From Middle-Class Icon to Electric Comeback

Tata Sierra: The Return of an Iconic SUV Nameplate

BSA: A British-Indian Motorcycle Heritage Returns

Yezdi: The Nostalgia-Led Motorcycle Revival

Tribe TicksAll →

Halftone collage of a magnifying glass at extreme close crop, for influencer regulation in India

Tribe Ticks

How Influencer Regulation Changed The Advertising Business

Tribe Ticks

How D2C Changed What A Brand Launch Looks Like

Halftone collage of an empty pedestal in deep negative space, for why brands stopped making mascots

Tribe Ticks

Why Indian Advertising Stopped Making Mascots

Halftone collage of a building seen through a torn hole in paper, for the rise of in-house agencies

Tribe Ticks

The Rise Of The In-House Agency In India

R.S. Sodhi, the Man Who Turned Amul's Trust Into Market Share

Jessica Shoemaker Joins Netflix As Global Director Of Product Marketing

The Bull That Bowed: Inside Alpha Bull Rum's Open Letter To Old Monk

The Anatomy of a Great Brand Reply

Pizza Hut India Joins Forces with MoEngage to Power Customer Engagement

Amigos Foods Joins Hands with Orion Digital to Power Its Online Growth

An independent industry studyTell us what you are actually seeing in the industry right now. 25 questions, 5–7 minutes, confidential unless you choose to be quoted.Take the survey

EventsAll →

02DEC

The Next 50

Ad Tribe's honour for 50 people under 30 who are already making India's agency industry better. One national class, recognised on 3 December 2026.

Hyderabad, India

Ad Tribe — daily news on India’s advertising industry

UPI MDR Of 0.4% Starts 15 October On Merchant Payments Above Rs 2,000

The Rights Problem Hiding In Every UGC Campaign

Royal Enfield: From Fading Motorcycle Brand to Global Cult

Archies Brings Elephant Parade Sculptures To India

Prime Video Adds On-Demand News Clips To Its Free News Hub

Britannia And Bombay Sweet Shop Bring Back The Bourbon Chocolate Modak

Greenpanel has released Hum Hain Greenpanel, a brand anthem

Arena Media India Wins The Ashiana Housing Media Mandate

Ai+ Nova Smartphone Puts Its Name On Rajouri Garden Metro Station

TRAI Ends Weekly Ad-Duration Reporting For TV Channels

Hyundai Motor India has named its upcoming SUV the Hyundai BAYON

Gurbaksh Singh Virdi To Lead NODWIN Gaming's New Sports Division

Sapna Chadha Takes Charge Of Google's APAC Ads Go-To-Market

Orient Electric Names Sandhya Biswas Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer

Mayank Kumar Joins IndiGo As Head Of Content And Creative

Jayadeep Reddy Named National Head Of Digital Platforms And Consumer AI At Bajaj Finserv

Hema V R Takes Charge Of Zee's Whole Marathi Entertainment Business

What Is The Real Cost Of Chasing Awards?

Are Agencies Losing Institutional Memory?

Will AI Make It Harder To Get Your First Agency Job?

Why Agency Culture Breaks During Pitches

Harshil Mathur, Who Built a Brand for People Who Read Documentation

Ghazal Alagh, Who Built the Product Behind the Promise

Varun Alagh, Who Turned a Parenting Problem Into Mamaearth

Peyush Bansal, Who Rebuilt the Eyewear Business From the Factory Up

Sameer Mehta, the Quieter Half of boAt

Aman Gupta, Who Made the Founder the Advertisement

Kunal Shah, Who Made Exclusivity the Product

Greenpanel has released Hum Hain Greenpanel, a brand anthem

Hyundai Motor India has named its upcoming SUV the Hyundai BAYON

Complan Makes Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Its India Ka Complan Boy

Nestasia Turns A Guest Checking The Bottom Of A Bowl Into A Compliment

Laxmi Dental Launches Illusion Zirconia Campaign With Madhuri Dixit

airpay Marks 14 Years With A First Brand Film Built On Being Forgotten

YiPPee Puts 25 Young Players Across The Board From Magnus Carlsen

Hafele India Puts Sachin Tendulkar Back In The Kitchen For Its Second Film

Why Nano Influencers Outperform Their Follower Count

How Brands Decide Which Language To Post In

Is Social Commerce Actually Working In India?

The Rights Problem Hiding In Every UGC Campaign

Why Employees Are Becoming A Brand’s Most Credible Creators

What Brands Should Do In The First Hour Of A Social Crisis

Culture Moves at Gen Z Speed, Can Brands Keep Up?

Why Dark Social Is India’s Biggest Measurement Blind Spot

Archies Brings Elephant Parade Sculptures To India

Britannia And Bombay Sweet Shop Bring Back The Bourbon Chocolate Modak

Ai+ Nova Smartphone Puts Its Name On Rajouri Garden Metro Station

Burger King Opens Its 600th India Restaurant In The City Where It Started

Apple Unveils iPhone 18 Pro With Variable Aperture And 2nm A20 Pro Chip

Swiggy's Toing Reaches 33 Million Weekly Users In Its First Year

Hyundai Motor India Signs Para Archer Sheetal Devi As Brand Ambassador

The Buzz, in your inbox.

The Story of Prasoon Joshi, the Poet Who Gave Brands a Soul

The Story of Arun Nanda, the Adman Who Built Rediffusion

The Story of Mohammed Khan, the Gentleman Who Built Three Iconic Agencies

The Story of K.V. Sridhar, the Artist the Industry Calls Pops

The Story of Prasoon Pandey, the Director Who Filmed India's Most Loved Ads

The Story of Prahlad Kakkar, the Man Who Made Ad Films Fun

The Story of R. Balki, the Adman Who Turned Ideas Into Films

The Story of Swati Bhattacharya, the Voice That Changed How India Talks About Women

UPI MDR Of 0.4% Starts 15 October On Merchant Payments Above Rs 2,000

Prime Video Adds On-Demand News Clips To Its Free News Hub

Arena Media India Wins The Ashiana Housing Media Mandate

TRAI Ends Weekly Ad-Duration Reporting For TV Channels

The Next 50: Honouring The People Behind India's Best Agency Work

Dream Theatre Takes The Baahubali Licensing And Brand Partnerships Mandate

Mutant Wins PR Mandate For Singapore's Beyond The Label

Dangal TV, Flipkart And Starcom Make Rimjhim Shoppable

How Legal Review Changes a Creative Idea

How Storyboards Become Animatics

How Casting Decides What an Idea Feels Like

How One Idea Is Adapted Across Formats And Markets

How Sound and Music Are Chosen for an Ad Film

How Campaigns Get Their Names

How Pressure Shapes Better Campaign Thinking

Where Rejected Ideas Go and Why They Still Matter

OpenAI And Samsung Move From Memory Supply To Building Chips Together

Suno Launches v6 Models With Warner Music Group And BMG

Zithara.AI Partners Tyaani Jewellery On AI Native CRM