The Challenge
Pinklay had built a strong organic following on Instagram, but performance marketing costs on Meta and Google were rising quarter over quarter. Their average CAC had increased 40% in 6 months, and they needed a new channel to reach high-intent audiences without breaking the bank.
Traditional TV advertising was out of the question — minimum spends start at ₹10L+, and production alone would cost ₹2–5L for a single creative. As a bootstrapped brand, they needed something affordable but premium.
The Solution
Pinklay signed up for CTV AI and had their first campaign live within 20 minutes:
- Niko analyzed their website and automatically pulled product images, brand colors, and key messaging to generate a 15-second HD video ad.
- Smart targeting placed their ad in front of 25–45 year old women in Tier 1 cities watching lifestyle and entertainment content on Hotstar and JioCinema.
- Budget control let them start with just ₹8,000 for a 2-week test, scaling to ₹25,000/month after seeing results.
The Execution
Week 1–2: Test phase
Ran two creative variants (one product-focused, one lifestyle-focused) across Hotstar and JioCinema. The lifestyle variant outperformed by 35% on video completion rate.
Week 3–4: Scale phase
Doubled budget on the winning creative. Added Zee5 as a third platform. Niko automatically generated a Hindi-language version that performed 22% better in non-metro markets.
"We thought TV advertising was only for big brands. CTV AI let us appear alongside major advertisers on Hotstar for less than what we spend on a single Instagram campaign."
— Priya Sharma, Founder, Pinklay
The Results
After 4 weeks of running CTV campaigns alongside their existing digital marketing:
- 4.2x ROAS — tracked via post-view attribution and promo code usage
- 1.8 lakh+ impressions on premium OTT inventory
- 62% video completion rate (industry average: 45%)
- 28% increase in branded search volume during campaign period
- Zero production cost — all creatives generated by AI
Key Takeaways
- CTV works for D2C brands with budgets as low as ₹8,000
- AI-generated creatives can match studio-quality output for 15-second formats
- Regional language variants significantly improve engagement outside metros
- Premium OTT placements drive brand lift and search volume alongside direct conversions