Developed in collaboration with Indian hip-hop artists Divine and Roll Rida, the campaign departs from the league’s typically high-profile advertising approach, instead focusing on short-form, music-led storytelling centred on urban mobility and affordability.

The campaign has been created by Talented and features two regional films: one set in Mumbai with Divine and another in Hyderabad and southern markets featuring Roll Rida. Both films aim to reflect local cultural styles and languages while showcasing Uber Bike as a low-cost transport option.

The Mumbai film depicts Divine navigating city traffic on an Uber Bike, with visuals and lyrics that reference the service’s affordability and convenience. It includes a reference to the concept of “pachisi” (Hindi for “25”), described in the campaign as Uber’s take on “battisi” (Hindi slang for a 32-tooth wide smile), symbolising a wide smile associated with avoiding traffic congestion at a low fare. 

In southern India, Roll Rida features in a multilingual performance incorporating Telugu (a language mainly spoken in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) and Tamil (a language mainly spoken in Tamil Nadu) influences, with the film focusing on the role of affordable transport in enhancing urban connectivity. 

Arjun Kalra, Head of Marketing, Uber India & South Asia, said, “With Uber Bike rides starting at just ₹25, we’re leaning into our challenger mindset to deliver unbeatable value and make everyday mobility more affordable and accessible for Indian commuters.”

Arjun added, “In a cluttered IPL environment, even a simple, functional message needs to stand out. Collaborating with artists like Divine and Roll Rida allows us to use music as a powerful cultural lever to build strong recall for our Bike offering while staying rooted in regional authenticity.”

From the creative team at Talented, Pearl Alex and Teresa Sebastian said, “At its best, music in advertising is an opportunity for artistic expression across lyrics, screenplay, and regional nuance. Lyrically, Uber Bike captures your liberation from traffic and how an accessible ride empowers a vibrant city life.”

They continued, “Visually, you’ll notice a deliberate balance between the artist, the city, the consumer, and the drivers, because a city thrives optimally when every element plays its role. We leaned on Divine’s grit, Roll Rida’s energy, and consultants in each geography, all enriching both films with regional nuance.”

Moreover, the campaign positions Uber Bike within the broader competitive mobility market in India, where platforms are increasingly focusing on affordability and regionalised marketing strategies during high-visibility advertising periods such as the IPL season.

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The campaign, conceptualised by Talented and directed by Shivang Monga of First December Films, marks the first creative collaboration between Cars24 and the agency.

In a sector where trust is often conveyed through symbolism and emotional appeals, Cars24’s latest campaign takes a more tangible approach, centering on policies that directly guarantee product quality, rather than relying solely on messaging or imagery.

The films also feature Himanshu Ratnoo stepping in front of the camera, using familiar “family promises”, from a Mother Promise to a Mother-in-Law Promise and a Sister Promise, to emphasise the company’s confidence in the cars it sells. Additionally, the Lifetime Warranty is designed to offer long-term peace of mind to buyers, while the 30-Day Return Policy allows customers to live with their car and change their mind if necessary, a level of flexibility uncommon in the used-car market.

“We have spent the last few years working on one thing more than anything else: the quality of the cars we sell. In this business, you can’t compensate for a weak product. So we became far more disciplined about what we source, how we inspect, and how we prepare every car before it reaches someone’s driveway. A lot of cars don’t make it through our filters. We don’t sell a car that we would not buy for ourselves, and that has been a conscious choice,” said Gajendra Jangid, co-Founder & CMO of Cars24.

He added, “The Lifetime Warranty and 30-Day Return Policy are a reflection of that confidence. We are offering them because we trust the quality ourselves. Himanshu stepping into the film felt natural. When the India CEO stands behind something publicly, it reflects how seriously we take it internally. This brand film is coming after three years, and it feels good to finally share this side of our journey. We are genuinely excited about where the product stands today and proud to put our name behind it.”

Shivang Monga, director at First December Films, also said, “Cars have always been a soft spot for Indian households – a source of pride and treated like a member of the family. So placing cars inside living rooms felt like the right way to get the wheels turning. The CEO himself taking these ‘family promises’ just made the situations more dramatic and relatable, like a soap opera with cars!”

Moreover, creatives Sanket Audhi and Udit Joshi from Talented added, “Buying a car in India is rarely just a transaction. It’s surrounded by opinions, advice, and, most importantly, promises. Everyone has one: family members, friends, neighbours, even people who’ve never owned a car. While trust in this category has traditionally been communicated emotionally, the real shift needed to happen at a product level.”

The campaign reflects a broader industry trend of brands using policies and guarantees to build consumer trust, moving beyond traditional marketing narratives.

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The campaign promoting the chess course in India features young grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, presenting him in a way that diverges from traditional portrayals of chess players. Rather than the typical “nerdy” or “awkward genius” stereotype, Praggnanandhaa is depicted as stylish, approachable, and confident, combining aspirational qualities with relatability.

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Duolingo regional marketing director, Karandeep Singh Kapany, said, “Chess has long carried the perception of being either overly intellectual or inaccessible. Our ambition was to change that — to make the game inviting rather than intimidating. The Duolingo chess course is designed to democratize the sport and bring it to a much wider audience.”

He added, “Choosing Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa as the face of the course in India was a natural decision. He represents a new generation of chess excellence that is modern, aspirational, and deeply relatable. By presenting him through the same cultural lens we reserve for mainstream icons, we’re simply acknowledging what the chess community already knows: this is a sport with stars, stories, and a massive, passionate following.”

Moreover, billboards across Chennai and other parts of India also featured Praggnanandhaa wearing a contemporary take on Madras checks, alongside the Duolingo brand mascot. The campaign has received positive attention online, with fans responding enthusiastically to the young grandmaster’s new visual portrayal.

Speaking on the concept, creatives Shania Pereira and Pearl Alex from Talented said, “Praggnanandhaa deserves to be portrayed as the force he is, but as never seen before: iconic, commanding, and unmistakably stylish. Those who noticed the Madras Checks in his wardrobe have correctly read them as a deliberate nod to Tamil Nadu – his roots, and the land that has given India so many grandmasters.”

They added, “Conceptualizing a shoot like this meant stepping outside familiar territory, as chess has rarely been framed through an editorial lens. The fact that this avatar has surprised the internet as much as it has only means it was long overdue.”

Director duo Akimbo (M G Bopanna & Mandakini) also added, “In India, fame manifests in chaotic ways and we wanted to create small realistic vignettes of that with Praggnanandhaa. We worked closely on the script with Talented to try and achieve that. Thinking about the film vertical-first was a challenge for us. It changes variables ranging…”

The campaign reflects Duolingo’s effort to position chess as an accessible and culturally relevant activity while highlighting the achievements of its young Indian champions.

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The campaign features two films showcasing “tailor-made” holidays for families and couples. The ads will run across digital platforms and connected TV from December to April, targeting key holiday-planning periods. The project marks the first collaboration between two companies within the Talented Grid.

According to Early’s consumer research, a growing number of leisure travellers are moving away from standardised packages and fixed itineraries. While they want greater control over their trips, many lack the time or capacity to plan every detail themselves. With this, Pickyourtrail positions its tech-and-touch model as a response to this demand, offering customised holidays designed to meet varied preferences and budgets.

Early’s brief also emphasised the need to communicate both the appeal of personalisation and the accessibility of the service. Talented developed the creative approach, using the idea of “tailouring the holiday” as a device to demonstrate customisation. The campaign was produced in collaboration with Bushra Shariff and director Shivang Monga, featuring a tailoring shop setting reimagined in the visual world of travel.

Pickyourtrail co-founder and CEO Hari Ganapathy said, “This is a milestone moment for Pickyourtrail. India’s international holiday market is exploding, and travellers now want holidays that match their tastes and fit with their budgets. Our first-ever brand campaign celebrates exactly that: how customisation has helped us create sooper hit holidays for thousands of families and couples. After planning 1,50,000+ such holidays across every budget, and earning some of the best NPS scores in the industry, we felt it was the right time to share our story with the world.”

Moreover, founder of Early and fractional CMO at Pickyourtrail, Meghana Bhat, added, “The very purpose of starting Early was to work with young brands and help them unlock the next stage of growth through marketing. With Pickyourtrail, we realised that the brand was already doing an amazing job of creating customised holidays, and the world needed to know. Partnering closely with the brand to shape and bring this story alive through these films has been incredibly rewarding.”

Talented’s brand strategist Angelina Kurian and director Shivang Monga also commented, “We wanted Pickyourtrail’s first campaign to stand out against established players. So, bringing alive the concept of ‘tailor made holidays’ to show customisation, boasts the brand’s expertise. The challenge: turning that idea into small, memorable moments of discovery for the viewer. Props to our props team for the fabrics, measuring tapes, sewn ‘boarding passes’ and even a ‘trial room’ that could mirror the vacation you want. Playful staging and camera movements try to embody the dynamics around holiday planning in families.”

They added, “While legacy brands have big-budget sets & ambassadors, we were going for ‘I see what you did there!’ through art, character choices, and rich metaphorisation of a world unseen in the travel segment.”

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The New Thing’s main goal for their brands is to facilitate the creation of cultural conversations and impact on social media, acknowledging the rarity of brands getting it right, while unhesitatingly adapting to the ever-changing internet landscape.

During the launch of the new marketing agency, Viren Noronha, said, “Getting social right is hard. And, the way agencies and brands look at it needs a desperate refresh. My experience at Swiggy & Tinder showed me evidence of a crucial shift – it’s not about what your brand is saying, it’s about what people are saying about your brand.”

“To keep yourself relevant you need to lean into those conversations. You need to contribute to internet culture with your content. And, you need creators who do that for themselves every day, as part of your team,” Noronha said. 

He remarked, “Look at some of India’s most popular campaigns over the last few years – It’s not that people hate advertising, they just hate boring ads. Great advertising or social doesn’t force your audience to talk about you, it invites them to. And it certainly doesn’t need ‘30 posts a month’ to do that.” 

He added, “The New Thing wants to help brands be in charge of those conversations, whether it’s ‘daily social’ or ‘spike campaigns’. We want to make brands work for the internet, not the other way around. I’m now excited to begin with colleagues and partners who, like me, believe that social done right is a growth function, not a cost centre.”

Speaking of their new agency, Gautam Reghunath & PG Aditiya founders of Indie Agency Talented, said, “Viren has executed some of the most talked about social-first campaigns in India but we think he’s been masquerading as a brand-side marketer & an agency-side creative these last few years. Now in his avatar as a creative entrepreneur, we simply want to liberate him and his founding team and help them launch the social and culture agency of their dreams.”

“There’s a clear reason why we’re launching this as a separate agency. Right from the kind of talent needed to workflow and processes, it’s become evidently clear that specialised social-first creative mandates for brands have to be run very differently from wider creative mandates. It’s equally exciting to see what an agency staffed & run entirely by creators looks like,” they explained. 

Speaking about their ambition, they added, “This model is how we currently envision scaling Talented & our brand – by enabling creative entrepreneurs their own platform to build from, instead of assuming we can simply incubate a new practice internally by ourselves. At the core of our new  ‘Talented grid of agencies’ will sit Talented itself – an ideas shop, a medium-agnostic creative agency staffed by the brightest creative talent in the market.” 

“Specialised agencies like The New Thing and potentially others in the future will be organised under and report into Talented – therefore having the ability to tap into this grid of shared services, while continuing to run as independent shops with their own unique personalities and specialisation,” they added. 

Noronha also added, “Funnily, The New Thing is both the company’s name and the heart of its business model. The name holds us accountable to our own definition of disruption – to do things so different that it destroys the old methods.” 

He added, “To brands, it offers instant clarity on who we are – a shorthand that communicates that we’re not shy about keeping up with trends and how the internet is moving. “So, our clients shouldn’t be either. The New Thing is going to change how social media can work for brands in India.”

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