The Challenge
The Little Farm Co had built a loyal following of 80K on Instagram with their artisanal pickles, chutneys, and preserves — but growth was hitting a ceiling. Sales were stagnating despite consistent content output, and the brand needed to break out of its Mumbai bubble.
The core problems were compounding:
- Strong Instagram following (80K) but stagnant sales growth — engagement was high but conversion had plateaued, with the same audience seeing the same content repeatedly.
- CAC rising on Meta — customer acquisition costs on Facebook and Instagram had increased 60% year-over-year, making paid social increasingly unviable for a premium product.
- Audience limited to Mumbai — over 85% of orders came from Mumbai, despite the product being shippable nationwide.
- Needed brand awareness in new cities (Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad) without opening physical distribution — the D2C model meant they could ship anywhere, but nobody outside Mumbai knew the brand.
- Premium product (₹500–1500 jars) requires trust-building that social ads alone cannot deliver — at this price point, customers need to perceive quality and authenticity before purchasing, which 6-second mobile ads struggle to convey.
The Solution
The Little Farm Co partnered with CTV AI to run 15-second video ads on Hotstar and JioCinema, targeting health-conscious women aged 25–45 in 5 Tier 1 cities watching cooking, lifestyle, and wellness content.
- Audience targeting: Women aged 25–45 in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, and Hyderabad who watch cooking shows, lifestyle vlogs, and wellness content on OTT platforms.
- Platform selection: Hotstar and JioCinema — chosen for their strong lifestyle and cooking content libraries with high female viewership in the target demographic.
- Creative approach: 15-second video ads showcasing products being used in everyday life — morning routines, breakfast tables, gifting moments — rather than standard product-only showcases.
- Budget: ₹15,000/month — lean enough to test without risk, substantial enough to generate meaningful data across 5 cities.
The Execution
Week 1–2: Creative testing
Ran two creative variants simultaneously — one featuring a standard product showcase (jars on a styled table with ingredient close-ups) and another showing a lifestyle/usage creative (products being incorporated into a morning routine — spreading chutney on toast, adding pickle to a lunch box). The lifestyle creative won decisively, delivering 40% higher completion rates. Viewers responded to seeing the product in context rather than isolation.
Week 3–4: Geographic expansion with festive angle
Expanded the winning lifestyle creative to all 5 target cities. Added a festive gifting angle for the approaching Holi season — positioning the premium jar sets as thoughtful, health-conscious gifts. This seasonal relevance boosted engagement further and drove a spike in multi-jar bundle orders from new cities.
"We went from being a Mumbai brand to getting orders from Bangalore and Delhi within 2 weeks of our first CTV campaign. The big-screen effect is real — people associate you with quality when they see you on TV."
— Aanchal Agrawal, Founder, The Little Farm Co
The Results
After running CTV campaigns for 4 weeks across 5 cities:
- Expanded brand awareness to 5 cities (up from 1) — Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, and Hyderabad all showed measurable brand recognition for the first time.
- 3.1 lakh+ impressions delivered on premium OTT inventory (Hotstar, JioCinema)
- 38% increase in branded search volume — Google Trends data showed a clear uplift in "The Little Farm Co" searches correlating with campaign start dates in each city.
- 45% of new orders from non-Mumbai cities during the campaign period — proving that awareness translated directly into purchase behaviour.
- ₹0 production cost — all creatives generated by AI, saving an estimated ₹1–2L in professional video production costs.
Key Takeaways
- CTV accelerates geographic expansion without physical distribution — for D2C brands that can ship anywhere, the only barrier to new markets is awareness. CTV solves that efficiently.
- Premium brands benefit from premium placement (association) — appearing on the big screen alongside premium content elevates brand perception, which is critical for products priced at ₹500+.
- Lifestyle/usage creatives outperform product-only creatives on big screen — viewers watching TV are in a relaxed, receptive state. Showing products in real-life context resonates more than studio-style product shots.
- ₹15K/month is sufficient for multi-city brand building when targeting is narrow — by focusing on a specific demographic (health-conscious women 25–45) and specific content genres (cooking, wellness), every rupee reached the right audience.