The Challenge
Lotus Herbals was already running linear TV campaigns (₹20L+/quarter) but measurement was opaque. The brand couldn't attribute sales to TV spend and needed a way to test new product launches with measurable TV exposure before committing full linear budgets.
The core problems were compounding:
- No attribution from linear TV — spending ₹20L+ per quarter on traditional TV with no way to measure which impressions drove sales or brand recall.
- New product launch risk — committing full linear budgets to unproven creatives meant ₹20L+ at stake with no way to test effectiveness first.
- Cord-cutter blind spot — their core growth demographic (women 18–35) was increasingly unreachable via traditional TV as they shifted to OTT platforms.
- No completion rate visibility — linear TV offered no equivalent of video completion metrics, making it impossible to know if viewers actually watched the ad or changed the channel.
The Solution
Lotus Herbals used CTV AI as a test-and-learn channel for their new sunscreen launch. The goal was to validate creative performance and audience response at a fraction of linear TV cost before scaling.
- Audience targeting: Women aged 18–35 across top 10 cities — the cord-cutter demographic that doesn't watch traditional TV.
- Platform selection: Hotstar, JioCinema, and SonyLIV — chosen for their strong female viewership in the 18–35 segment and premium content environments.
- Creative approach: 15-second product demo creative showcasing the new sunscreen's key benefits — lightweight texture, SPF 50, and natural ingredients.
- Campaign timing: 2-week burst campaign timed to pre-summer (February) when sunscreen purchase intent peaks.
- Budget: ₹2.5L for 2 weeks — 1/8th of their quarterly linear TV spend, designed as a low-risk test.
The Execution
Week 1: Multi-platform launch with geographic splits
Ran the 15-second product demo creative across all 3 platforms simultaneously. Used geographic splits to measure lift — 5 cities received CTV + linear TV while 5 cities received linear TV only. This enabled true attribution by isolating CTV's incremental impact on brand recall and search volume.
Week 2: Optimization based on real data
Optimized frequency caps and platform mix based on Week 1 completion rate data. JioCinema showed highest completion rates (72%) so received increased budget allocation. Reduced frequency on SonyLIV where diminishing returns appeared after 3 exposures per user. The geographic split data was already showing measurable differences in brand recall between CTV-exposed and control cities.
"For the first time, we could see exactly how many people watched our ad to completion, in which city, on which platform. CTV gave us the reach of TV with the measurability of digital."
— Marketing Head, Lotus Herbals
The Results
After running CTV campaigns across 10 cities for 14 days:
- 10L+ unique reach in 14 days across 10 cities
- 60% lower cost-per-reach vs their linear TV benchmark
- 68% video completion rate (linear TV has no equivalent metric)
- 22% higher brand recall in CTV-exposed cities (survey)
- Informed their ₹40L Q2 linear TV strategy with platform and creative learnings from the CTV test
Key Takeaways
- CTV is ideal for test-and-learn before committing large linear budgets — at 1/8th the cost, Lotus Herbals validated their creative and audience strategy before scaling to ₹40L in Q2.
- Geographic split testing enables attribution that linear TV can't provide — by running CTV in select cities alongside linear, they isolated CTV's incremental impact with statistical confidence.
- Cord-cutter audiences (18–35) are only reachable via CTV/OTT — this demographic has largely abandoned traditional TV, making CTV the only big-screen channel to reach them.
- Premium completion rates prove audience attention — not just exposure — 68% completion means viewers actively watched the full ad, a metric linear TV simply cannot offer.