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.
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.”
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.”
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’.
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.”