Brands get into festive season mode with Rakhi; marketers bullish on ad spends

After a very subdued Onam this year due to the devastating floods in Kerala, the festive season is gradually looking up. Raksha Bandhan, which was celebrated on Sunday (August 26, 2018), saw brands roll out a slew of campaigns and offers. 

With brands’ aggressive marketing strategies and hiking of spends, even traditional occasions like Raksha Bandhan, Karwa Chauth, Akshaya Tritiya, have turned into lucrative marketing opportunities. 

Consumer buying sentiment this year 

With the effects of demonetisation and GST implementation stabilising, marketers are looking forward to positive festive season sentiments this year. 

As shared by Mayank Shah, Category Head, Parle Products, “We are very hopeful about this particular year. Though the monsoon was good in the last two years and we were expecting good consumer sentiment, however some factors like GST kept us away from driving the full potential. This year, we don’t see any major changes happening from government’s side as well and with the good monsoon, we are expecting decent growth in income from both urban and rural markets.” 

He further added, “Typically, the festive season starts with Raksha Bandhan, but at Parle, we started it from Independence Day with the latest digital campaign – #YouAreMyParleG. With this, we have seen a very good response in terms of increase in demand and of sales velocity for the products during the big days, which have been very encouraging and that makes us believe that going forward during the festive season we will probably see good increase in demand. This would probably be one of the best years. Festivals give a major boost to demand. With all this, overall, we are expecting good uptake in sales in this particular year, especially during the festive season. During the festive season, you get this opportunity to push your product.” 

Reflecting similar views, Ramakant Khandelwal, CMO, Payback India, remarked, “Consumer sentiment seems quite positive, as can be gauged from the improving purchase trends since the beginning of the festive season. Most brands across online and offline have reported strong figures during the Independence Day sales. This will further get boosted during the Raksha Bandhan festival, largely across North and West India. At Payback, we have seen members shopping across all major spend categories using Payback Points, Vouchers and cash.” 

He further added, “We see a 20-25 per cent growth in festival shopping this season, with key categories being electronics and apparel. The growth may be more pronounced in the online segment, backed by offers and discounting. In order to tap the festive sentiment and delight our customers, we ensure that our millions of members get access to best of deals and offers, in addition to exclusive sale previews at some of our retail partners Although all successful brands and marketers keep in touch with their customers throughout the year, but festivals are that special period of the year when every marketer wants to maximise interaction with existing customers and woo the potential ones. It also helps brands introduce new products/ offerings or services for customers, which if well accepted can become a mainstay for brand.” 

Brand Cadbury from Mondelez India is very active during the festive season, promoting its chocolate range as the perfect gifting option. The brand has also been pushing for chocolate consumption instead of traditional sweets during festivals with its ‘Kush Meetha Ho Jaye’ proposition. Anil Viswanathan, Director - Marketing (Chocolates), Mondelez India, pointed out, “Over the years, Mondelez India has been an intrinsic part of festivals with Cadbury Celebrations becoming India’s favourite gifting option. Cadbury Celebrations brings alive the joy of gifting by getting people together and strengthening relationships especially during festivals like Raksha Bandhan. We aim to bank on the Cadbury Celebrations Premium Selection chocolates with revamped and premium packaging to help us connect with our consumers this festive season. Our Raksha Bandhan TVC, in a heart-warming set up, highlights the innocent brother-sister relation and how a pack of Cadbury Celebrations brings them closer to each other, than ever. Linking in with the recently launched Cadbury Dairy Milk Generosity Campaign, this Rakhi commercial also brings alive the acts of generosity that makes our festivals full or warmth and renewed good feelings amongst relationships far and close.” 

“Financial services are considered a high involvement purchase, therefore, our business is not impacted by festive season positively or negatively. Overall, we have been seeing good growth for our business since the last couple of years,” remarked Rakesh Wadhwa, CMO Generali India Life Insurance. 

He further noted that festivals are generally associated with happy moments and positive engagements. He stressed that it is important for brands to be a part of these celebrations with relevant offerings for the customers. “Marketers vie to be a part of customers’ lives. Festivals offer opportunities to make these moments special,” Wadhwa added. 

Marketers bullish on festive season ad spends 

Festive ad spends constitutes a major proportion of brands’ overall annual ad spends. Talking about Payback India’s spends strategy, Khandelwal said, “Payback has a vibrant digital marketing platform with a wide access to its members. This year, we intend to spend around 25 per cent more along with our partners to promote the offers that we have created.” 

He further said, “Payback this year will sweeten the celebrations with the first anniversary sale of its popular instant voucher platform, VoucherWorld, where Payback members can get exciting offers with up to 50 per cent extra on vouchers of leading brands like Myntra, Woodland, Levi’s, Shoppers Stop and more. Members can also earn and redeem points on all their purchases. We are also running a special shoppers’ contest, where every week one lucky winner wins 25,000 bonus points and by month-end, lucky winner wins 1 lakh bonus Payback points.” 

At Generali India Life Insurance, this year the ad spends are 3X over last year. Wadhwa informed, “This year, we had a relevant message for our customers and hence, we decided to launch a digital film and offline activation.” 

“This is the first year that we have launched a campaign for Raksha Bandhan as we have a strong story to tell to our customers. The film we launched is a sequel to our first film that was released on Father’s Day, where we got fathers to make a health promise to their children. Knowing well that health promises are easily broken, we planned to remind him of the same on Raksha Bandhan through the sister. It is an interesting narrative and we are receiving very good response so far,” he added. 

This year, ParleG is expecting a 20-25 per cent growth in its ad spends over last year, as informed by Parle Products’ Mayank Shah. 

Raksha Bandhan through the campaign lens 

Rakshan Bandhan has traditionally celebrated the bond between brothers and sisters, with brothers promising to protect their sisters from all harm. Brand campaigns have been taking the emotional route to connect with consumers with their Rakshan Bandhan campaigns. However, now one is witnessing a more progressive note in the campaigns as the ads speak of women empowerment, respecting women and more of ‘Suraksha Bandhan’. 

As observed by KV Sridhar, Founder & CCO, HyperCollective, “Earlier, it was more about brother and sister celebrating Rakhi, but today the picture has changed because we see sisters too tying Rakhi on their brothers. It has changed in terms of tradition that girls need to be protected, now it has become more like the younger or the weaker ones need to be protected. Over the years, this shift has happened and we see a couple of brands doing commercials in this direction and that’s the most visible cultural shift that has happened over the years, according to me.” 

 

Giving his take on the shift in Raksha Bandhan campaigns, Titus Upputuru, National Creative Director, Dentsu One, pointed out, “Earlier, the ads for Raksha Bandhan were strictly between the emotional bond that is shared between a brother and a sister. But with time, we see the basic idea of the festival extending to other relationships. It’s a good progression, after all, the feeling of being secure is a feeling that needn’t be just restricted to the idea of young vulnerable women. With women coming of age and standing up for themselves in our societies, the idea of an ‘abla naari’ is no longer relevant. Thus, the cliché of women needing protection from a ‘superior’, ‘stronger’ brother is antiquated. The newer ads depict this societal change, without losing the tenderness of the emotion attached to the festival.”

“Rakhsa Bandhan has always had the potential for rich storytelling, that illustrates the beautiful bond between siblings. Over the years, many brands have done some charming commercials either with beautiful stories or even a social message. Today most commercials are capturing the evolving nature of the relationships - which is not just about the brother protecting the sister but about the bonds they have shared or the lightness in the relationships. The campaign are becoming more real and less preachy", said Nisha Singhania, Co-founder & Director, Infectious.