MUMBAI: The skincare aisle is getting a chatty new shelf. Sebamed, marketed in India by USV Pvt Ltd, is exploring ChatGPT as a new advertising environment with WPP Media, putting its products into an AI-led setting where consumers are already asking questions, weighing options and looking for answers.
The activation features Sebamed Gentle Facial Cleanser for oily and combination skin, built around the brand’s pH 5.5 proposition and its claim of cleansing without compromising the skin’s protective barrier.
Rather than relying only on conventional digital placements or audience targeting, the initiative is centred on context and intent. Sebamed is looking to connect its product with conversations around oily skin, cleansing, dryness and skin health, placing the brand closer to the point where consumers are actively considering what to buy.
Pranay Rao, Vice President – Marketing, USV Pvt Ltd, said the initiative reflects Sebamed’s focus on responding to changing consumer behaviour while staying aligned with its skincare positioning. He said the growing use of AI-led platforms for answers creates an opportunity to engage consumers when they are actively considering skincare choices.
WPP Media is similarly positioning the activation as an experiment in how advertising can work inside emerging AI-powered consumer journeys. Vishal Shah, Senior Vice President, Client Solutions, India, WPP Media, said AI is changing how people discover information, evaluate options and make decisions, creating opportunities for brands to appear within the topics consumers are actively researching.
That marks a subtle but important change in digital advertising. Instead of simply finding an audience and placing an ad in front of it, brands can increasingly look at the question being asked as the starting point for relevance.
For Sebamed, that means conversations around oily or combination skin can potentially become a route to product discovery, with its Gentle Facial Cleanser positioned within a context where consumers are already seeking information.
The move comes as AI-powered interfaces begin to influence how consumers search, compare and make everyday decisions. For marketers, that opens a new question: if the consumer journey starts with a conversation rather than a search box, should advertising move there too?
WPP Media said the Sebamed activation is part of its broader focus on turning emerging consumer behaviours into new media opportunities. For the brand, the experiment represents a move from advertising around consumers to exploring ways of being present where they are actively seeking answers.
As conversational AI becomes more embedded in digital behaviour, the campaign could offer an early glimpse of how the next generation of advertising may evolve — from interrupting the consumer journey to becoming part of the conversation itself.
