IGP’s real-time interactive billboard turns Carter Road into a live love canvas

With Valentine's Week concluding last week, seasonal moments like these grow increasingly competitive, and brands are looking beyond discounts and traditional messaging to create more participatory and culturally relevant experiences.

Within this landscape, a D2C gifting platform, IGP, sought to reposition Valentine’s Day communication from product-led promotion to real-time emotional engagement. Through its 2026 campaign, 'In My Lover Era,' the brand introduced an interactive digital billboard at Bandra’s Carter Road that enabled people to post live love messages via QR code and WhatsApp, turning outdoor advertising into a two-way public interaction.

The campaign was supported by a Valentine’s Day song, influencer-led digital amplification and brand collaborations, aiming to blend technology, culture and immediacy.

Category introduction

The Indian gifting and experiential marketing space is witnessing rapid growth, driven by digital-first consumers, quick-commerce adoption, and occasion-led purchasing behaviour. Valentine’s Day continues to be one of the biggest seasonal spikes for the category, with consumers increasingly seeking personalised, emotionally meaningful gifts and experiences over transactional purchases. 

Brand introduction

IGP, a global D2C multi-category gifting platform, offers a range of flowers, cakes, personalised products, curated hampers, and experiences across occasions. The brand’s core promise is enriching relationships through thoughtfully curated gifts that help people express emotions.

The brand believes that gifting is not just about what is sent, but when it is delivered. It believes that true emotional impact is created when a gift reaches someone at the exact moment the feeling is felt- not before and not after. This philosophy is powered by the brand’s operational backbone and connectivity, enabling 30-minute, 60-minute, same-day, and midnight delivery services across multiple cities in India.

By combining speed, scale, and emotional intent, the brand aims to make spontaneous expressions of love possible, turning fleeting feelings into real, timely moments.

Summary

For Valentine’s Day 2026, the brand launched ‘In My Lover Era’, a culturally rooted campaign that celebrated emotional expression as aspirational and bold. At the heart of the campaign was an interactive digital billboard activation that allowed people to send real-time love messages via QR code or WhatsApp, which then appeared live on a giant public screen within seconds.

By transforming a regular hoarding into a Live Love Billboard, the brand turned personal emotions into shared public moments, blending technology, culture, and emotion to create high-impact engagement and organic social amplification.

Amplifying the campaign further, the brand also released its Valentine’s Day song ‘In My Lover Era’, designed to reflect how people express love today openly and unapologetically. Available across multiple streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music, the track added a culturally relevant audio layer to the campaign.

Additionally, the brand partnered with several brands to launch a co-curated Valentine’s Day hamper, amplified through a digital-first rollout featuring influencer-led content and social engagement.

Problem statement/Objective

Valentine’s Day is one of the most cluttered marketing moments of the year, with brands competing heavily on discounts and predictable romantic storytelling. IGP aimed to break through this clutter by shifting focus from products to emotional participation.

The campaign was designed to

• Make emotional expression instant and effortless
• Encourage people to stop, scan, and actively participate
• Enable real-time message sharing on a public platform
• Position itself as the brand that helps people express emotions the moment they feel them
• Create a high-impact activation that is talked about, clicked, and widely shared on social media

The challenge was to transform OOH from a passive visibility medium into a two-way emotional experience.

Creative idea

‘In My Lover Era’ represented a mindset shift where vulnerability is confidence, effort is attractive, and emotional honesty is aspirational. The campaign invited people to step into their lover era - whether it’s romantic love, friendship, family bonds, or self-love - and express it openly without hesitation.

At its core, the idea was: love deserves to be expressed, not edited.

Hero activation: Interactive Digital Billboard - the brand transformed a high-traffic digital hoarding into a real-time emotional canvas for the city. (Location: Bandra Carter Road)

People can

• Scan a QR code or send a message via WhatsApp/SMS
• Type their love note
• See their message appear live on the billboard in less than a minute

The city became a part of love story from secret crushes and heartfelt dedications to public proposals and friendship shoutouts.

Rather than just media, it was emotion in motion, where the brand aimed to turn thoughts into moments.

Challenges

• Ensuring real-time technical reliability for instant message display
• Managing high volumes of Valentine’s Day traffic without delays
• Maintaining content moderation and brand safety while keeping turnaround time minimal
• Encouraging public participation with an OOH format, traditionally seen as one-way communication
• Balancing emotional authenticity with platform control

Execution

OOH + On-Ground Activation:

• A high-footfall digital billboard was selected for maximum visibility
• Call-to-action messaging encouraged people to ‘Send Your Love Live.’
• QR codes and WhatsApp integration enabled frictionless participation
• A backend moderation system filtered messages while ensuring minimal display delay
• Messages went live within a minute, aimed at creating gratification and crowd engagement

The billboard became a live expression of the city’s emotions throughout Valentine’s week.

Social media amplification

Platforms: Instagram, LinkedIn

• Real-time content capture of billboard moments and crowd reactions
• Short-form video content and Reels showcasing emotional messages
• Influencer and creator collaborations experiencing the activation live
• Amplification of user-generated content from participants sharing their billboard moments

Results

• 500+ scans in a span of 7 days
• 1000+ messages received from customers
• 800+ customers engaged with in and around Carter Road

Amplification

• •       20+ Meme Content Pages activated, generating 2.7Mn+ views  
• 10+ Influencers activated, generating over 100K+ views
• 10+ coverages on PR with 1.1 Mn+ readership
• Social Samosa covering the billboard with 1.1 Mn + Views

Quote

Tarun Joshi, Founder & CEO, IGP, said, “At IGP, we’ve always believed that gifting is most powerful when it creates a moment, not just a delivery. With In My Lover Era, we wanted to bring that philosophy into the public space. Turning a digital billboard into a live canvas for real-time love messages allowed us to blend technology, culture, and emotion in a way that felt immediate and authentic. Seeing over thousands of messages being shared and hundreds of people engaging on-ground in just a week reinforced something we’ve always known - when you make emotional expression effortless, people respond. For us, speed isn’t just operational efficiency; it’s about helping people express emotions in the moment and enabling more thoughtful, meaningful gifting experiences.”