Mamaearth becomes first Indian brand to advertise on ChatGPT

MUMBAI: Mamaearth is moving from search bars to chat bars. Honasa Consumer Ltd has partnered with commerce media company Criteo to advertise its flagship beauty brand on ChatGPT, making it the first Indian company to advertise on the AI platform, according to co-founder Ghazal Alagh.

The move puts Mamaearth into ChatGPT’s emerging advertising ecosystem just as product discovery begins stretching beyond conventional search engines and social feeds into conversations with AI assistants. Through its integration with OpenAI, Criteo allows advertisers to access ChatGPT advertising inventory as part of their wider digital campaigns.

Announcing the partnership on LinkedIn, Alagh said the way consumers discover brands is changing as AI becomes a bigger part of the purchase journey.

“For years, consumers have searched, scrolled, compared and reviewed before making a purchase. Today, more of those questions are moving into conversations with AI,” she said, pointing to queries ranging from what consumers should use for their skin to which products might suit them.

For Honasa, the experiment is less about adding another advertising channel and more about getting an early look at a new consumer habit. Alagh said the partnership with Criteo would allow the company to understand how technology could make brand discovery more relevant as conversational product research grows.

The Mamaearth campaign arrives shortly after OpenAI expanded ChatGPT Ads to India.

Ads are available to logged-in adult users on ChatGPT’s Free and Go plans, while Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education users remain ad-free.

OpenAI has said more than 50 brands were scheduled to begin advertising during the initial India rollout, with WPP and Omnicom serving as its first agency partners in the market.

The company is also opening self-serve access to ChatGPT Ads Manager in India from September 4, with daily advertising budgets starting at Rs 725.

Ads are clearly labelled and displayed separately from ChatGPT’s responses. OpenAI has said advertising does not influence the answers generated by ChatGPT.

Criteo has been involved in OpenAI’s advertising push since March 2026, when it became the first advertising technology partner to integrate with the ChatGPT advertising pilot.

The partnership subsequently expanded across more markets, and Criteo said more than 2,000 brands were advertising on ChatGPT through its technology as of June, with beauty among the leading categories.

Early figures cited by Criteo suggest advertisers are seeing different behaviour from users in the conversational environment. The company said click-through rates were two to three times higher than comparable formats elsewhere, while more than 80 per cent of ad-driven ChatGPT traffic was coming from new customers.

That makes the format particularly interesting for consumer brands. Instead of appearing only after someone types a conventional search query or scrolls through a feed, advertising can enter the picture while consumers are researching, comparing and considering products through a conversation.

Honasa has described the Mamaearth campaign as an opportunity to “learn, experiment and explore” how AI can make brand discovery more useful and relevant. It has not disclosed the size of its advertising investment in the campaign.

For Mamaearth, being early offers a chance to test whether conversational AI can become another meaningful discovery channel. For India’s wider advertising market, the experiment will provide an early indication of whether the next fight for consumer attention moves from the search box into the chat box.