With half of the year completed, brands’ and agencies’ attention has shifted to the upcoming holiday season. Despite the fact that the peak festive season of Dussehra-Durga Puja-Diwali is still about three months away, preparations are already underway to entice consumers with various promotional strategies.
The festive season has shifted from the traditional period of Dussehra-Durga Puja-Diwali to August, coinciding with the Independence Day marketing frenzy, followed by Raksha Bandhan. This then progresses to cover the entire Onam period, which, while traditionally Kerala’s biggest festival, has now taken on a more pan-India significance. The festive season no longer ends with Diwali, but marketers have begun to incorporate the mostly Western festive concepts of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Lohri, Pongal, Makar Sankranti, and Magh Bihu, which are traditionally harvest-based festivals, are also being tapped as occasions for festive shopping in January, albeit on a smaller scale. Republic Day has also become a major shopping holiday. Aside from these, Holi and Poila Boishakh/ Rongali Bihu see an increase in shopping in regional markets, particularly West Bengal and Assam.
On top of that, e-commerce platforms keep the sale season going all year long with some sort of offer or another. While the two years of Covid disruptions dampened the festive spirit in the market, with the IPL tournament being held during the festive seasons in 2020 and 2021, brand spends were at an all-time high during this period, even though consumers largely avoided offline retail outlets.
Kamla Adhikari, Senior Business Director, Carat India, speaks with Adgully about the positive advertiser and consumer sentiment this holiday season, how India’s massive vaccination drive has helped to retain customer confidence, and much more. This holiday season will also see double-digit growth in the industry. Ad volume has already begun to increase, with overall mainline spends increasing by 10% in Q1’22 over Q1’21, and Q2 spends increasing dramatically year on year due to the IPL event.
The decrease in Covid-19 cases and the ongoing vaccination campaign in the country have helped to maintain consumer trust. With a sense of normalcy, consumers have begun to take vacations and engage in many OOH activities such as shopping, dining out, and watching movies.
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