Merry 'Click'mas

Interactive ads used to mean a polite ‘tap to know more,’ today, they’re nosy, playful, slightly chaotic and honestly, a little too good at pulling you in.

Take Zepto’s Secret Santa. What looked like a harmless festive feature quietly turned shopping into a game of curiosity and connection. You weren’t just ordering groceries; you were snooping, guessing, gifting, and participating in a shared inside joke with the app. Then there’s InstaStrange, Instamart’s deliciously clever Stranger Things inspired takeover. Instead of shouting about fast deliveries, the brand slipped into pop culture - remixing nostalgia, fandom, and product discovery into one scroll-stopping moment.

That’s the new currency of interactive advertising. It doesn’t sell ‘at’ you, it invites you into the story. And before you realise it, you’re no longer the audience. You’re part of the ad.

Interactive media is no longer just a buzzword, it’s a dynamic force that’s reshaping the way we engage with content. As people crave more than just a passive viewing experience, interactive media steps in to offer something truly captivating. Imagine watching an ad and being able to influence the storyline, or diving into a virtual world where you control the action.

Recently, Pepsodent launched its first immersive digital experience, Pepsodent Cavity Fighter, on Roblox, using gameplay to promote oral hygiene among kids and families. The interactive experience let users clean virtual teeth, complete challenges and earn rewards, making dental care fun and easy to understand. Through this initiative, the brand aimed to build oral health awareness in an engaging, gamified way.

The rise of AI, virtual reality, and other cutting-edge technologies has unlocked new possibilities, making content more immersive and personal than ever before. What was once a one-way conversation has evolved into a dialogue, where audiences are not just spectators but active participants.

For quick commerce players, interactivity has moved beyond screen-based engagement to physical touchpoints. Chandan Mendiratta, Chief Brand Officer, Zepto, says that in their earlier efforts, the ads were static, focused solely on educating customers about the products on the app. “Reflecting on how I used to read cereal boxes as a child, we decided that when customers receive their orders from Zepto, they should have a similar engaging experience,” he adds.

The Zepto delivery bags, often kept and reused at home, have evolved from being merely functional to being interactive. With QR codes on the bags that come alive, the company aims to make users feel connected to their local community, transforming Zepto into more than just another delivery service.

In recent times, interactivity is not just limited to advertisements, it has gone into every type of media - from television reality shows to sports broadcasts.

In 2024, JioStar leaned into interactive live content across sports and entertainment. During the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, it launched ‘Caught & Bold’, a live cricket show featuring legends like Harbhajan Singh and Sanjay Manjrekar, hosted by comedians Varun Thakur and Rohan Joshi, with creators as co-presenters. The show blended unfiltered banter with interactive segments, polls and quizzes.

Cricket also became a catalyst for advertising innovation, as Britannia’s 50-50 Golmaal campaign deployed an AI-powered chatbot that generated personalised video responses featuring Ravi Shastri—marking an early use of generative AI-driven personalisation in Indian advertising.

On the entertainment front, Season 6 of Bigg Boss Malayalam introduced real-time voting, polls and live chat on JioStar, later extended to Bigg Boss Tamil. Notably, similar interactive features had already been piloted on Bigg Boss Hindi in earlier seasons, signalling the franchise’s broader push towards live, participatory viewing across languages and regions.

While brands experiment with commerce-led interaction, broadcasters are embedding interactivity directly into live content consumption. Abhishek Surana, Product Head, Sony LIV, says that the core principles are simple: drive user engagement and monetise it. Interactivity has become essential as the market now expects more from digital experiences. While watching matches, viewers can access live scorecards and feeds, and our non-fiction content, like KBC and Shark Tank, enhances engagement by allowing users to actively participate in quizzes and shows, transforming passive viewers into active participants.

“This approach has led to significant user adoption, as seen with the success of KBC Play Along. We’ve also introduced interactive features in sports, like live scorecards and play-by-play updates, even on connected TVs, marking a first in the industry,” he adds.

Advertisers are now focusing on creating prompts or engagement tools that inspire immediate customer interaction, moving beyond simple message delivery. “The goal is to enhance relatability and engagement with the audience. This shift means ads are no longer passive; they’re designed to encourage actions such as shares, likes, or saves providing instant feedback on their effectiveness,” says Abhinay Bhasin, SVP – Product and Technology, Dentsu. “This approach mirrors what platforms do—using subtle nudges to keep users engaged longer by serving more relevant content and inspiring interaction,” he adds.

Azmat Habibulla, Ex-Managing Director and Head - Group Strategic Marketing & Communications, DBS Bank India, notes that one of their interactive campaigns achieved a View Through Rate (VTR) of 43%- 90% across different ads. DBS Bank consistently pioneers innovative ways to engage consumers, whether by tapping into the excitement of the IPL with creative ads or by offering personalised banking solutions tailored to manufacturers.

“Beyond engagement, these interactive ads are proving to be significant drivers of leads for our SME banking business, with digital marketing channels contributing approximately 15% to our lead funnel for this segment. Accordingly, about 15% of our marketing budget for this customer segment is allocated to interactive digital performance marketing campaigns. We have also integrated interactive ads into our flagship events, enabling us to measure key metrics like awareness through surveys and dipsticks,” she adds.

Amaresh Godbole, CEO - Digital Technology Business, Publicis Groupe India, notes that in terms of ROI, the agencies generally pitch interactive ads as an engagement driver rather than a reach driver and that it is actually the number of users engaged along with first-party data collected that are the more relevant measures.

Talking about their agency, the Leo India campaign for ‘Say It with Oreo’ went far beyond messaging. It gave people a chance to get personalised voice notes from actor Farhan Akhtar, which included witty responses to their real-life quandaries. “All of this was powered by AI and delivered on WhatsApp. The opportunity to get these notes from a loved celebrity meant that consumers were more than happy to share their first-party data, as it created true value,” he adds.

Digital is one of the most preferred media for these ads but brands like Zepto and Blinkit have taken to their bags to utilise their potential offline. Chandan Mendiratta notes that just two to three months after launching the QR delivery bags initiative, the bags experienced over a million scans. “Without implementing the QR code and AR features, we would have missed these entirely. While these were existing customers, I’m confident this innovation will attract new ones. Additionally, we’ve gained significant earned media, as customers share screenshots on social media, spreading awareness of our AR initiatives within their networks,” he adds.

Other than interactive delivery bags, Zepto has several other interactive ad campaigns. Zepto’s 4th birthday campaign with Hershey’s India turned a traditional OOH ad into an interactive experience. The brand had created a giant billboard made of Hershey’s Kisses, which people could pick from, slowly revealing a message underneath. The playful stunt transformed a static ad into a shareable moment, reinforcing both brands’ appeal for instant, impulse cravings and gaining strong traction on social media.

Devarshy Ganguly, Ex Head of Marketing, Magicbricks, says that interactive advertisements can be deployed across various platforms and media, encompassing both static and dynamic formats. For instance, static ads, such as print advertisements, can incorporate QR codes to facilitate direct interaction. Additionally, augmented reality (AR) can be integrated to animate the creative content, enhancing user engagement.

“Moreover, interactive assets such as embedded video playback banners with custom form-fills, clickable options can be customised as per user type and placement. These elements can be combined with techniques such as Appography (a mobile advertising strategy that segments users based on the types of apps they use and their in-app behaviours) to optimise click-through rates (CTR) and overall engagement,” he adds.

Magicbricks’ Magic Interior Fest was an on-ground event meant to showcase home-interior services offered by top home-interior partners under one roof in different cities. The brand had a series of multi-channel interactive ads in 2024 which contributed to ~70% of the registrations. In 2024, on an average, 30-40% of the brand’s digital advertising budget was used to drive campaigns that have interactive ads.

According to a Pidilite spokesperson, “By offering a more engaging experience, interactive ads can lead to higher conversion rates and a more personalised user experience. We have been using this medium for quite some time now. For instance, for our growing tile adhesive brand, Roff, we used the interactive format and saw some extremely positive results. The format was intriguing, interactive, and resonated well with the audiences. We saw the awareness levels improve for the brand.”

One of the biggest challenges in creating and implementing interactive ads in India is ensuring a seamless user experience, particularly in areas with slower internet speeds or connectivity issues. If a consumer is prompted to scan a QR code in such conditions, it can disrupt the interaction and turn the ad into an irritant rather than an engaging experience. The key challenge is scaling these ads effectively while ensuring they reach the right audience without compromising the user journey.

“Zepto offers bags in 7-8 dimensions and various materials (both paper and reusable plastic), and our customers use various devices with differing levels of AR compatibility. To ensure that all phones, regardless of their capabilities, can access these AR filters, we use the most compatible AR hosting available,” explains Mendiratta. “The challenge, however, is integrating AR filters that function seamlessly across the different bag dimensions and device capabilities. Fortunately, our agency and media partners have been instrumental in overcoming these challenges, consistently delivering effective solutions for each bag,” he notes.

Google Pay rolled out popular seasonal campaigns such as ‘Diwali Rangoli’ and ‘Go India’, where users collected unique virtual stamps by completing everyday actions like making payments, paying bills or sending money. Finishing the full set unlocked rewards or entries into lucky draws, turning routine transactions into engaging challenges.
For broadcast media there are operational and logistical challenges, especially with live events like the Euro, where multi-cam setups require extensive simulations and preparations before the actual match day. Abhishek Surana says, “Since real data only comes in during the event, we must ensure everything works seamlessly when it goes live. This involves meticulous preparation, testing, and integration to handle the scale. Similarly, with shows like KBC and Shark Tank, which run alongside TV broadcasts, it’s crucial to keep the digital experience perfectly in sync with the video feed, requiring strong technical capabilities and precise operational execution to ensure a flawless user experience.”

Interactivity isn’t just a feature—it’s a necessity. It’s how the brands make customers feel truly connected, not just to the products, but to the communities they serve. It’s about turning passive consumption into active engagement, and that’s where the real magic happens. As Scott D. Cook puts it, “A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is - it is what consumers tell each other it is.”