Gupshup launches Conversational Out-of-Home Ads

Gupshup, the leader in conversational messaging has launched conversational out-of-home ads. These phygital ad formats take traditional physical advertising surfaces like billboards, bus shelters, airport terminals, cabs and metro stations and trains and convert them into interactive surfaces with the addition of a QR code. The code, once scanned, opens a chat interface that connects the viewer with the branded bot in a 2-way conversation. This works on any device and needs no app download. The conversations are powered by Gupshup IP Messaging (GIP) which leverages Conversational AI to create interactive experiences. Gupshup aims to make OOH ads interactive and measurable for brands in order to increase advertising effectiveness and ROI. For media companies owning and selling advertising inventory, this technology can drive more inquiries and also help them offer more to brands than just inventory space.

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As a part of the campaign, Gupshup placed advertisements on financial literacy which, on scanning the QR code, take people to a chatbot that can offer customers access to financial literacy guides, education material and more. Another set of ads help provide people information on COVID 19 and vaccination (COVID 19 chatbot). All information was sourced from Government of India websites. The ads are placed in Mumbai at Andheri Link Road, Andheri Juhu Versova Link Road, the busiest bus stops, on the back of the cab seats, in metros as well as the Airports. (Link to OOH ads)

Conversational OOH ads have many advantages. They improve engagement. They help brands link offline to online. They help to re-target customers who look at physical ads. They enable the creation of detailed metrics on the people who view their ads. The conversations are dynamic and can adapt to the customer in real-time. They also enable commercial transactions wherein a person looking at the physical ad can interact with the brand via the bot, discover products and also buy them while chatting with the brand. 

“Brands that invest in OOH Advertising are looking for ways to make them interactive and measurable.  Agencies that own and sell advertising inventory need to provide more than space to brands and leverage conversational technology to generate more enquiries for unsold inventory”, explained Beerud Sheth, co-founder, and CEO, Gupshup. “Our Conversational OOH Ads make physical surfaces interactive. With a simple QR-code scan, chatbots powered by conversational AI improve customer engagement and make ads more measurable. It’s the perfect way to transition a physical 1-way customer experience to a digital 2-way conversation. We are committed to helping brands and media agencies leverage the power of conversational messaging to improve advertisement engagement and effectiveness”, he explained.

Gupshup, recently raised $100 million in funding from Tiger Global Management, propelling the company’s valuation to $1.4 billion. The company has long been the incumbent leader in business messaging in India. Most major brands in India across industries use Gupshup API for customer engagement across multiple messaging channels. Gupshup’s API enables over 100,000 developers and businesses to build messaging and conversational experiences delivering over 6 billion messages per month across 30+ messaging channels.