The strongest brands in India continue to rely on television to shape perception and drive demand. The most effective TV advertisement examples in 2025 show that television remains the main storytelling screen, while digital channels multiply its impact.
Today, we look at standout Indian campaigns and show how brands are using television with greater intent and precision.
Why TV Advertising Still Dominates in 2025
Television remains the most influential mass medium in India. Over 210 million Indian households own a television set, with deep reach across semi-urban and rural markets where internet quality remains inconsistent.
A global econometric study on media ROI attributes 65 per cent of media-driven sales impact to TV, the highest among all channels. The same study reports an average ROI of 4.9 for every unit of currency invested, with performance holding steady even at higher spends.
India’s market data reinforces this strength. TV ad spends grew by around 27 per cent in the first half of 2025, reclaiming a leading share of total ad expenditure. Advertisers are paying more for TV because they value its credibility, cultural reach, and ability to create memories.
What Makes a TV Ad Successful Today? Must-Know Factors
Insights from Kantar’s Creative Effectiveness Awards, based on testing 1,350 Indian ads in 2024, reveal a consistent creative formula behind winning television advertisement examples.
Kantar summarises it clearly:
Culture is the context. Creativity is the catalyst. Impact is the outcome.
Prasanna Kumar, Head of Creative Domain at Kantar India, explains that effective advertising stays “rooted in culture, sparked by creativity and rich in emotional truth.”
#1 Cultural anchoring beyond language
Strong TV ads go beyond translation. Campaigns that reflect culturally specific situations, rituals, and behaviours perform better across regions. Kantar compares culture to comfort food, familiar and emotionally satisfying, while creativity adds the spark that makes it memorable. (Source)
#2 Micro moments over broad messaging
The most persuasive TV ads examples focus on small slices of daily life. A rainy train platform, a festival ritual, or a family conversation carries more impact than sweeping statements about the nation. (Source)
#3 Emotional storytelling with a business purpose
Successful work connects emotion directly to a commercial role. Kantar highlights campaigns from Danone, HUL, Haleon, and Godrej as proof that emotional stories can also drive sales and brand equity. (Source)
#4 Craft and execution quality
Indian storytelling relies heavily on music, humour, casting, and idiom. In 2025, production quality has risen further with 4K and 8K cameras, drones, VFX, and AI tools shaping cinematic films designed to travel across TV, CTV, and social platforms. (Source 1, Source 2)
#5 Selective celebrity use
Celebrity appearances now appear in 29 per cent of TV ads, a clear drop from 2023. Film actors account for 74 per cent of these endorsements, followed by sports personalities and television actors. Brands use celebrities with greater restraint, focusing on relevance rather than fame. (Source)
Best 2025 TV Advertisement Examples in India
The following TV advertisement examples represent how leading Indian and global brands are using television to drive long-term value.
Example 1 – FMCG Brand TV Ad
Surf Excel: Daag Acche Hain
Surf Excel adapted its global idea “Dirt is good” into the culturally relevant “Daag Acche Hain.” The brand addressed a strong Indian belief where dirt often symbolised poor hygiene rather than play or learning.
The creative shift reframed stains as signs of children doing the right thing. In the iconic “Puddle War” film, a brother jumps into muddy water repeatedly to cheer up his sister. The voiceover closes with:
“Daag lagne se agar kuchh accha hota hai, toh daag acche hain na?”
(Source)
The platform has grown from stain removal into parenting values. Recent extensions, such as #RanghheHain, uses Holi colours to show children reconnecting emotionally with elders. The idea stays flexible while preserving its core meaning. (Source)
Surf Excel’s Brand Equity score rose from 63 to 70. The brand’s turnover grew 5.4 times, making it India’s largest laundry brand and HUL’s biggest business. HUL executive director Sudhir Sitapati noted that ad recall rose within two weeks and sales followed within six weeks. (Source)
Example 2 – Tech Brand TV Ad
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra with Google Gemini
Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra campaign avoided futuristic clichés. It presented AI as a helpful presence in ordinary life.
Three short films show common situations such as cooking confusion, laundry mistakes, and exam stress. Gemini-powered AI appears as a conversational assistant guiding users. The tone stays grounded, youthful, and practical.
(Source)
Sascha Kuntze, Chief Creative Officer at BBH Singapore, explains:
“Rather than positioning the AI as futuristic tech, we’re showing how Galaxy S25 Ultra unlocks everyday discovery.”
While India-specific ROI figures for this Samsung campaign are not publicly disclosed, its performance can be framed using established benchmarks.
CTV video advertising in India delivers over 90 per cent completion rates and shows around 23 per cent better ROI than linear TV on certain platforms.
Samsung Ads also used NewFronts 2025 to introduce interactive formats and shoppable TV experiences, reinforcing a full funnel approach where television builds intent, and digital layers convert interest into action.
This campaign works well as a television advertisement example that shows how high concept technology can remain human and relatable when television sets the emotional context. (Source 1, Source 2)
Example 3 – Automobile Brand TV Ad
Hyundai India's campaign featuring actor Pankaj Tripathi employed the concept of "listening to your heart" versus "listening to the deals." (Source)
The creative featured Tripathi in relatable, humorous scenarios where the choice between emotional desire (buying a Hyundai car) and financial prudence (negotiating deals) played out with cultural authenticity.
Clear Brand Positioning: By positioning Hyundai as the "smart family choice" that balances aspiration with practical value, the campaign targeted the consideration phase of car-buying, not the impulse purchase phase.
The execution included 30-second TV spots airing nationally, complemented by regional language versions in Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam, recognising India's linguistic diversity.
Example 4 – Food and Beverage Brand TV Commercial
Pepsi: Anytime is Pepsi Time
During the ICC Champions Trophy and IPL season in March 2025, Coca-Cola launched a cricket-focused “Half Time” campaign. Pepsi responded with a bold idea that rebranded The Times of India masthead as “Any Times of India,” extending into the “Anytime is Pepsi Time” proposition.
The copy line lists everyday moments such as first time, thirst time, play time, crunch time, and me time, turning routine situations into brand occasions. (Source 1, Source 2)
The campaign plays out in a ₹1.37 lakh crore non alcoholic beverage market, where summer and cricket create peak demand. Coca-Cola holds around 60 per cent market share, Pepsi about 27 per cent, while Campa has crossed ₹1,000 crore in sales, adding pressure through pricing and IPL sponsorship. (Source)
Television allows Pepsi to speak across age groups and regions during high viewership moments, reinforcing its relevance in daily life.
The idea stays aligned with Pepsi’s youthful and irreverent DNA, echoing its iconic “Nothing Official About It” campaign from the 1990s.
Lloyd Mathias, former PepsiCo marketing head, noted:
“Pepsi has always been irreverent. They stole the spotlight from Coke in the ’90s, and this campaign stays true to Pepsi’s DNA.”
Brand strategist Harish Bijoor added that Coke’s cricket-centric messaging invited a response, and Pepsi’s idea can stretch into an “Always Pepsi” platform.
Example 5 – Fintech or Insurance Brand TV Advertisement
ACKO Insurance: Zabardasti Nahi
Insurance rarely draws attention. ACKO changed this by using a Bollywood action film style narrative. MS Dhoni and R Madhavan appear as heroes, while the antagonist is a pushy car dealership insurance seller.
The insight focuses on the moment of car purchase. Buyers often feel exhausted and pressured into costly dealer insurance. The film reframes ACKO as the option that restores control and dignity.
A campaign breakdown on LinkedIn captured this sharply:
“The insight here cuts deep: car dealership insurance isn’t just overpriced, it’s forced on you at your most vulnerable moment.”
Policybazaar provides category context. Having sold over 4.2 crore policies across 16 years, the brand continues to use TV and OTT to educate consumers. Joint Group CEO Sarbvir Singh explains their focus on clear education and real claim stories to build confidence.
Together, these TV ads examples show how insurance brands humanise complex products through mass reach storytelling.
(Source)
Why Did These TV Ads Work?
Across Surf Excel, Samsung, Maruti, Pepsi, and ACKO, clear patterns emerge from these television advertisement examples.
They begin with a defined consumer tension. Surf Excel addresses parenting dilemmas. ACKO tackles forced insurance.
They rely on culturally specific storytelling rooted in daily Indian life. Kantar’s 2025 winners consistently reflect family concerns, education anxieties, and household realities.
The product appears as the natural solution within the story. Samsung’s AI guides each scene. GoodKnight’s protection is built into the narrative.
They use television as the primary medium. Godrej’s marketing leadership has stated that a television-first approach remains the most effective way to reach households across 30 lakh outlets.
They create long-term platforms rather than one-time slogans. “Daag Acche Hain” and “Anytime is Pepsi Time” allow continuous storytelling across years.
TV Ads vs Digital Ads in 2025: Which Works Better for Brands?
India’s advertising market is expected to grow 7.8 per cent in 2025, reaching around ₹1,37,099 crore.
Digital advertising reached ₹45,292 crore in 2024, accounting for about 42 per cent of total spend, with projections moving toward 44 to 45 per cent. CRISIL estimates digital already holds 46 per cent of the ad market in fiscal 2025.
Television spending tells a different story. TV ad spends rose 27 per cent in the first half of 2025, even as volumes declined. Brands are buying fewer spots at higher value, treating television as premium inventory.
CTV strengthens this further. Campaigns combining CTV and mobile achieve higher conversion rates in 63 per cent of cases.
For reach, trust, and cultural memory, television leads. For targeting and conversion, digital and CTV add precision. Winning brands plan both together.
What Is the Cost of Running a TV Ad in India?
Television pricing in India varies widely by channel and time band. A 30-second TV spot costs between ₹5,000 and ₹15 lakh per airing.
National Hindi GEC prime time on channels such as Star Plus ranges from ₹12 to ₹15 lakh. Hindi GEC daytime slots on channels such as Colors cost ₹1 to ₹2 lakh.
Popular news channels charge ₹50,000 to ₹2 lakh. Regional prime time slots on channels such as Zee Marathi range from ₹1.5 to ₹2 lakh. Local channels can cost as little as ₹5,000.
Tier one city rates have risen by around 12 per cent, while tier two and three markets remain 30 to 40 per cent cheaper.
Buying is often planned on a per second basis. GRP measures reach multiplied by frequency, while TRP focuses on the target audience.
(Source)
Why Excellent Publicity is the Right Partner to Create Your TV Ad
Excellent Publicity positions itself as one of the leading TV advertising agency options in India, with a focus on television-led growth.
The agency maintains strong partnerships with major TV channels, secures premium slots, and plans campaigns with careful budget control. We work on concept development, scriptwriting, voice selection, visual styling, and jingle creation.
Excellent Publicity treats television airtime as valuable inventory where message quality matters as much as placement. We also use technology to track campaign effectiveness and refine performance.
For brands seeking end-to-end execution, Excellent Publicity offers the concept of production to media buying under one roof, balancing reach, targeting, and ROI.
Conclusion
In 2025, television remained the central storytelling screen for Indian brands. The most successful TV advertisement examples show that strong results come from culturally grounded stories, emotional clarity, and disciplined execution.
Campaigns from Surf Excel, Samsung, Pepsi, and ACKO follow a consistent playbook. They identify a real consumer tension, dramatise it through relatable storytelling, integrate the product naturally, and extend impact through digital and CTV.
For marketers in the consideration stage, the question is no longer about choosing between TV and digital. It revolves around deciding which stories belong on television and how to connect them to measurable outcomes.
A skilled TV advertising agency plays a decisive role here. With a deep understanding of India’s media ecosystem, Excellent Publicity helps brands convert big-screen emotion into sustained business growth.
Most brands begin to see impact within two to six weeks, depending on category, frequency, and media mix. FMCG and insurance campaigns often show early recall, while high involvement categories such as automobiles benefit from longer bursts to build trust and consideration.
Yes. Shorter formats work well when the brand already has familiarity or a strong platform. Many TV ads examples now use 10 or 15-second edits to reinforce recall, while longer films establish the main story. Media plans often combine both formats for efficiency.
Regional television performs strongly when the message reflects local culture and context. Many successful television advertisement examples in India achieve higher engagement through regional GECs, especially in tier two and tier three markets, where viewership loyalty remains high.
Brands commonly use pre-testing methods such as creative diagnostics, focus groups, and ad recall testing. Some campaigns also release shorter edits on CTV or limited regional markets before scaling nationally, helping refine messaging before larger spends.
Television can work for new brands when the proposition is clear, and the media plan is focused. Many emerging brands start with selective regional TV, supported by digital, before expanding nationally with the help of an experienced TV advertising agency.