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The age of generic advertising is set to fade away as online streaming platforms, armed with a wealth of user data, are delivering highly personalised ads. From language preferences and demographic profiles to granular viewing habits, advertisers are transforming OTT platforms into prime real estate for brands. With the beginning of the cricket season and announcement of new content on various platforms, ad agencies noted that personalised ads on OTT platforms in India is a rapidly growing trend driven by increased OTT adoption, richer user data, and advanced ad tech.
Manish Solanki, Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Co-Founder of the TheBigSmallIdea media agency, said OTT is the current “flavor of the season” with the buzz around the Indian Premier Leageu (IPL) 2025 and the announcement of new content of popular shows on platforms. “Right now, if there is a brand which is focusing only to Gen Z crowds, or if it’s focusing on a specific target group or tracking to the click-through rate, TV will not be provide all that because you can’t click anything. But on an OTT app, you’re able to click and move out to a destination,” he said.
Even the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) 2025 report observed that sports, entertainment and news OTT platforms garnered 10 per cent of total digital ad revenues, led by Jio Cinema and Disney+ Hotstar. A prime reason why OTTs are becoming popular among brands is also the targeting done on the basis of viewing habits aside from forms of targeting like region, language, demographic, said Russhabh Thakkar, Founder and CEO of Frodoh World adtech agency. “If fitness is something you watch then then you are the right target audience for a wristband or a watch.
So it helps create the proper cohort to show personalised ads. Depending on one’s viewing interest, there can be a discussion on whether to show an ad for a yoga mat or a travel experience.” Giving another example of this, Aruna Daryanani, Director at Amazon MX Player, talked about how Amazon Shopping Signals spotted that 77 per cent of Aashram drama series viewers were tech savvy and 60 per cent were fashion-forward which is useful information for a brand.
When asked how personalised ads on OTT impact sales, Daryanani said, “We have seen correlations between such ads on OTT and sales performance. Since Amazon also has its shopping arm, we are seeing that, you know, when brands have sponsored some of our marquee shows, the search results for those products have actually gone up on the service. A new speaker brand launched a couple of months ago had come on Hip-Hop India season one.
We saw that while they were advertising on the service, the search results for the service went up on Amazon.” When asked whether OTT ads will persist as the popular trend for digital ads, Gurpreet Singh, Head of Performance, GroupM Nexus said, “OTT personalized ads can outperform website ads due to higher attention spans and immersive experiences. However, it’s not guaranteed.
Websites offer interactivity and are better for some goals. Success depends on campaign objectives, audience, and ad quality. OTT excels in brand awareness, websites in immediate action.
” While Singh acknowledged OTT ads provide precise targeting, higher engagement, and improved ROI for advertisers, he pointed out there are also challenges around data privacy, ad frequency. Talking about the risks, Subhendu Pattnaik, Chief Marketing Officer, Covasant, said “Lack of privacy we pay for the personalisation we seek. Personalised ads on OTT will definitely grow and continue to grow but the real risk is the creation of echo chambers where you end up seeing the same kind of content.
For example, if you watch a comedy show, you will keep seeing ads related to comedy and entertainment, little else. So companies will have to take a socially responsible role in terms of how much data to collect and how to use it.” Comments.
