How ShopOS turned three shoots into 10,000 personalised retailer ads
About
Behind ten thousand counters
Van Heusen Innerwear sells through thousands of local shops that can’t make ads of their own. ShopOS gave every one a festive film, poster and voice call in its own name, town and language — across Onam, Durga Puja and Diwali.
Van Heusen Innerwear reaches most of its customers through local retailers — family stores in Kannur and Nashik, main-road shops in Kottayam and Ludhiana, town markets in Thrissur and Barasat. These are shopkeepers who know their customers by name. Festivals are when that relationship matters most, and when a brand-only film reaches it least. ShopOS built the platform to put the shop, not the brand, at the front of the festive message.
- Brand
- Van Heusen Innerwear
- Category
- Innerwear — retail
- Engagement
- 3 festivals, 3 languages
- Capability
- AI Personalisation
Van Heusen on ShopOS
- Retailers, each with an ad set in their own shop’s name
10,000
Retailers, each with an ad set in their own shop’s name
- Unique assets — five per shop, no two the same
50,000
Unique assets — five per shop, no two the same
- Shoot days across the year — one per festival
3
Shoot days across the year — one per festival
- Projected impressions across three festivals
2.9M–7.9M
Projected impressions across three festivals
The films
One master, ten thousand greetings
Onemasterfilm,tenthousandshopgreetings
Each festival’s films from the campaign — shot once, then personalised for every shop in the pipeline.
Onam
What changes per shop
- Brand greeting → the shop’s own name, spoken
- Generic location → the retailer’s actual town
- “From Van Heusen” → from the owner and his family
What stays constant
- Talent’s voice and performance — exact, every time
- The approved script — no new sentences
- Festive look and brand polish, no shortcuts
Scale without sounding inserted — every name sits in the talent’s own natural pause.
Why it matters
A recommendation, not an ad
Agreetingfromaknownshopisn’tanad—it’sarecommendation
Putting the retailer’s name first doesn’t just look personal. It changes who carries the message and how far it travels.
01
Reach that can’t be bought
WhatsApp status, customer lists and locality groups are networks no media plan can enter. The shopkeeper opens them for free.
02
Trust arrives with the message
The film comes from a shop the viewer already buys from, so it lands as a festive wish rather than a brand interruption.
03
Goodwill without margin
Recognition replaces discount. The trade relationship gets stronger without the cost showing up in the price.
04
The data compounds
Names, languages, consent and share behaviour improve every festival — a retailer asset the brand keeps.
The challenge
Every shop has a story
Everyshophasastory.Noneofthemcanmakeanad.
Festive trade marketing usually means one brand film, extra margin and paid media. At 10,000 retailers across three languages, that model leaves the most trusted voice in the market silent.
01
Retailers have no way to advertise
Shopkeepers carry the festive season but can’t produce a film, poster or campaign of their own.
02
Every festival rebuilt from scratch
Three festive campaigns a year, each briefed, shot and built again — spent once and gone by the next.
03
Three languages, three scripts
Malayalam, Bengali and Hindi attach case endings differently. Copy has to be written natively, not translated.
04
Paid reach stops at the budget
Media buys impressions at a price per thousand, from a brand, targeted by proxy — and reach ends when spend does.
05
Goodwill bought with margin
Trade schemes and discounts build loyalty, but every rupee comes straight out of price.
06
A name dropped in a slot sounds fake
At this scale, one detail decides everything: each film has to sound like a person speaking, not a mail merge.
The solution
Built once, run three times
Apersonalisationpipelinebuiltonce,runthreetimes
ShopOS ran the program end to end: a validated retailer database, one shoot day per festival, models trained on each talent’s recorded delivery, and a native-language review of every file before release. Every festival after the first is a shoot and a data refresh, not a rebuild — so the third festival costs a fraction of the first.
01
Retailer data & shoot
02
AI personalisation
03
Human review
04
Retailer distributes
Before
- One brand film per festival, the same for every market
- Each festive campaign briefed and built from scratch
- Local reach bought entirely through paid media
- Trade goodwill bought with margin and schemes
After
- 10,000 films, each naming the shop, town and owner
- One pipeline reused across Onam, Durga Puja and Diwali
- Retailers distribute through their own customer networks
- Goodwill earned through recognition, not discount
Retailer activation
Five assets, three moves
Fiveassetspershop,deliveredinthreemoves
How each of the 10,000 retailers received their festive kit — and why they shared it.
01
The WhatsApp kit
A warm message from the talent in the retailer’s language, carrying his personalised film, a status banner and a digital ad for his own social page.
02
The AI voice call
A few hours later, a 30–60 second call in the talent’s voice tells the owner his ad is ready and asks him to share it. One call per festival, retail hours, instant opt-out.
03
The counter poster
An A3 poster with the shop’s name in its own script, despatched with that festival’s stock consignment — ready for the counter.
04
Consent built in
Time-bound talent agreements, approved voice samples, and native-language, brand and legal sign-off before a single file went out.
Results
Projected reach
Millionsoffestiveimpressions,carriedbyshopkeepers
Total footprint
2.9M–7.9M
Online and in-store impressions
Unique people
1.3M–3.5M
Overlap across festivals discounted
Planning estimates from the reach model, not measured results.
The floor is fixed: 10,000 films, 10,000 posters and 10,000 calls go out regardless of behaviour. In-store posters drive 2M–5.2M impressions; WhatsApp status, local group forwards and resharing add 940K–2.7M online views. Talent’s own channels are excluded from every total.
Campaign voice
From the Onam film
“Every shop in our towns has its own story — shopkeepers who have known us for years, who call us by name. But none of them can make an ad of their own. This Onam, Van Heusen Innerwear and I are doing that for them. They are the ones sending the wish. We only helped make it.”
Next steps
Compounding the platform
Compoundingtheretailerplatform
- 01Feed share and call-completion data into the next festival’s retailer cut
- 02Extend coverage to more regional languages and festive moments
- 03Report delivery, views and display per retailer, per festival
- 04Layer product launches and end-of-season drops onto the same pipeline
See ShopOS on your retail network
Van Heusen gave 10,000 shopkeepers their own festive ad from three shoot days. Get a walkthrough on your own retailers and see a personalised film before you commit.
Book a Demo