61% netizens will be using a lot more social media during festival season: Kanika Mittal

The marketing world moves at the speed of light. But after the pandemic that speed has further increased as brands are enthusiastically geared up for the festive season this year.

Adgully held its premier event for marketers – CMOs’ CHARCHA – on August 10, 2022, in Bengaluru with the overarching theme of ‘The Festive Blueprint for Brands’.

No one can deny the power of social media today. A tweet sent by a customer, a brand, or an individual today can actually influence the share price, and it can also have a significant impact on social media discourse. It might also start a brand-new movement tomorrow. How can brands then stand back, genuinely choose to participate in culture, and not just leave it to chance, given how influential their tweets may be.

Delivering the keynote address at CMOs’ Charcha 2022, Kanika Mittal, Country Lead, Large Client Solutions, Twitter India, dwelled on the topic – ‘How brands can capitalise on festive cheer to enhance brand recall and drive full-funnel results’. Mittal spoke about the key festival trends and insights on Twitter, what are the kinds of conversations that happen, why it’s important to connect with what’s happening, how to really make the best use of the spike in these conversations, how to go from branding, to shopping and create impact through social commerce and more.

She noted, “The biggest insight that we see coming through on the platform is that entertainment is also shifting to social and 61% will be using a lot more of social media during the festival season. On top of that, a vast majority would be using more shopping apps such as Flipkart, Myntra or Amazon or any of the other shopping apps and also food delivery apps like Swiggy, Zomato Dunzo, etc., a lot more during the festive season. The numbers are as high as 32% in terms of what people are really looking for this festival season. We can say with confidence that brands are actually expected to provide consumers with not just information on discounts, etc., but also relevant and entertaining content.”

While giving more insights on the engagement on Twitter, she elaborated, “Consumers are showing greater affinity towards brands where they find an intimation towards the content. They find it humorous, emotional, relatable, or any of those things. Some of the things that really work are how to celebrate virtually, how to do more sustainable gifting or how to really get together in a way that you can create impact not just for your family, but for the ecosystem around you and, therefore, a sense of purpose and cause during this festival season, which can help you stand apart. Like I said before, when we look at all of these insights, it’s also important for us to understand those deeply as well as why we need to connect with what’s happening and what has really changed.”

Mittal asserted that Twitter is the best place to connect with what is happening and learn something new and how custard relevance has become such a strong pillar. And in order to do that, brands need to connect with what’s happening.

“Twitter commissioned a very detailed search with two leading agencies and came up with very interesting insights,” she informed, adding, “We were trying to find out what really drives purchase. And the top three things that came fourth were as follows. One was, of course, price, and that is a factor of supply & demand and many other key pieces. The other, of course, was brand perception, and that could take years to create and years to shift. The third one is cultural relevance. What we discovered for cultural relevance is that if you connect with what’s happening, you know what your consumers are talking about, and you can be a part of those conversations. You can create impact with just a single campaign. And the lift and the metrics are really amazing, as high as 23% when it comes to how cultural relevance is a key driver in making a consumer make a final purchase decision.”

These are edited excerpts. For the complete keynote address watch below:

https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6963084594065629184/