Festive Mood: How brands are staying relevant & breaking through the clutter

Tanvi Bosmia, Associate Account Director, SoCheers, speaks to Adgully about the festive mood, post-pandemic scenario, marketing campaigns, new strategies, etc. Bosmia notes that with the effects of the pandemic waning, brands are gradually amping up their marketing efforts again. This has opened up opportunities for the agency to service several new clients. Excerpts from the interview:

How has SoCheers been coping with the COVID pandemic and its aftermath?

Even though the entire Cheer Squad adapted to working from home rather efficiently, we did miss working together in the same physical space. Now, we have been back in the office for more than six months, and the inter-team synergies are showing themselves in the impactful execution of the recent campaigns. We also took this time to grow our teams and move into a bigger space!

Moreover, with the effects of the pandemic waning, brands are gradually amping up their marketing efforts again. This has opened up opportunities for us to service several new clients. We have recently onboarded quite a few big names, across multiple market sectors, and are continuously working towards amplifying their growth.

What are the current campaigns that you would like to highlight?

The August-September period marks the start of the festive season across the nation, but it also brings along the Autumn-Winter (AW) fashion season in the apparel industry. So, one of our recent campaigns, ‘Out is In’, focuses on launching the new collection for Ed-a-mamma, the sustainable kids clothing brand. The campaign, shot in the serene outdoors of North India, highlights why and how “out” is fun and that this trend is “in” for the coming season.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/ChKPPYqFl9j/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Similarly, we also amplified the launch of Wacoal’s AW collection. The premium lingerie brand showcased its diverse collection with a star-studded, inclusive runway show, to bring out its central theme of ‘Comfortable Inside, Comfortable Outside’. The digital campaign around it helped take it from physical to “phygital”, expanding the reach to an online audience.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cg3p-JXjHAH/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Likewise, to mark last year’s festive season, Godrej Interio announced its festive sale: the Great Furniture Fest. To amplify its reach among the consumers, we conceptualised and executed the ‘Right Time To Buy Furniture’ campaign. The campaign successfully leveraged YouTube’s 20-second unskippable ad format to effectively communicate the message, by weaving a relatable story.

https://youtu.be/t_jmQuQUhDQ 

What are the new strategies that you’re incorporating or want to work on in the near future?

Our overarching strategy for the festive season is to combine a data-backed approach with relatable and engaging storytelling. Data allows us to expertly identify our target audience, but it also provides valuable insights into the relevance and significance of that particular festival for them. With such data points, we can craft the right communication strategy, which takes the consumers’ emotions associated with the occasion into consideration. It also helps us make the audience feel a part of the brand community.

Expanding further on the data-backed approach, our marketing strategies also include crafting personalised content for our current and upcoming campaigns to best reach out to the consumers, keeping in mind their changing online behaviour.

What are your plans for this festive season?

Video consumption and personalisation on all platforms saw an extreme rise during the pandemic and, even though we’re past the spike, the growth has sustained.

As ‘video’ is a powerful tool for communicating effective brand messaging and increasing consumer engagement, we plan to focus considerable energies on the video marketing efforts for our clients. Similarly, the consumer behaviour clearly points towards the significance of personalised content for the audience, therefore addressing these needs in creative executions make them that much more impactful.

Moreover, we plan to employ effective contextual advertising during the festive season to help the brands influence the consumers’ purchase decisions. To help us best carry out these plans, collecting and understanding the data will be crucial. It will help us in deriving which social media platforms are preferred by the brands’ target audience and which type of content they are consuming, among several other decisive data points.