Adtech firm Kargo has announced an integration with ChatGPT, making it one of a select group of technology partners enabling brands to advertise within the AI chatbot. In this StopPress-exclusive Q&A, we spoke to Arnaud Calonne, Kargo sales director, New Zealand, to find out more about what the new partnership means.
Q: What does Kargo’s integration with ChatGPT involve?
Kargo is one of a select group of technology partners enabling brands to advertise within ChatGPT. The integration gives advertisers access to a new AI-native environment where people are actively researching, comparing products, and making decisions. Rather than relying on traditional search or display advertising, brands can now engage consumers in the moment they’re seeking answers and evaluating options.
As AI continues to reshape how people discover information, we’re extending Kargo’s platform to help brands show up naturally within those conversational experiences. It’s about giving advertisers the opportunity to be present where decisions are increasingly being made.
Q: How does advertising on AI platforms work?
Advertising in AI-native environments is driven by intent rather than traditional keyword matching. When someone asks ChatGPT a question, the platform understands the context and meaning behind that conversation. Relevant, brand-safe ads can then be matched to the user’s intent, creating a more helpful and contextual experience.
Instead of interrupting the user journey, brands become part of it, appearing while consumers are researching, comparing options, or exploring solutions. It’s a shift from targeting passive impressions to engaging people at moments of genuine consideration.
Q: What can Kargo offer advertisers as a ChatGPT technology partner?
Our role goes beyond simply providing access to inventory. We offer advertisers a fully managed solution that combines strategy, creative development, campaign activation, optimisation and reporting.
Advertisers can run campaigns focused on brand awareness, product promotion or localised messaging, while benefiting from Kargo’s expertise in premium creative and campaign execution. More importantly, we’re helping brands understand and test what effective advertising looks like in this emerging AI environment as it continues to evolve.
Q: How does this connect with Kargo’s broader adtech offerings?
This is a natural extension of Kargo’s broader platform. Our goal has always been to help brands connect with audiences across premium environments, whether that’s CTV, retail media, the open web, social platforms or now, conversational AI.
As consumer behaviour evolves, we’re ensuring advertisers can activate AI-native campaigns alongside their broader media strategies through a unified platform, backed by the same creative intelligence and campaign management that powers the rest of our offering.
Q: What do advertisers need to do differently in AI-native environments?
The biggest shift is thinking beyond keywords and focusing on user intent. Consumers are no longer typing short search queries, they’re having conversations and asking detailed questions.
That means advertisers need creative that is relevant, adaptable and genuinely useful within those conversations. Strong landing pages, clear value propositions and messaging that aligns with the user’s intent become increasingly important. Brands that focus on being helpful, rather than simply being seen, will be best positioned to succeed in AI-native environments.
Q: What is Kargo’s Creative Science tool?
Creative Science is the intelligence layer that powers Kargo’s platform, combining AI, automation and creative expertise to help brands develop, localise and optimise campaigns at scale.
It enables advertisers to rapidly generate creative variations, test messaging more efficiently and simplify campaign activation across managed and self-serve workflows. As media becomes increasingly AI-driven, Creative Science helps brands deliver more relevant creative experiences without adding complexity.
Q: How will Creative Science be used in the ChatGPT integration?
Advertising within conversational AI requires creative that can adapt to different user intents and contexts. Creative Science supports this by helping brands rapidly generate localised creative, produce and test multiple variations using AI, and efficiently scale campaigns across AI-native environments.
Ultimately, it allows advertisers to participate in conversational experiences with messaging that is relevant to what users are asking, while simplifying the process of creating and managing creative at scale.
