GroupM brings back India's largest online Diwali mela with a dhamaka

Following the success of the ‘Grand Diwali Mela’ in 2014, GroupM along with Google is bringing back India’s largest online Diwali celebration. This year the online festival initiative is bigger and better, with a new title sponsor Askmebazaar.com. The other brands to come on board are Lakme, Horlicks, Kurkure and Hungama.com renewing their partnership with the Grand Diwali Mela and new partners Eno and Godrej Securities.

Last year, the Grand Diwali Mela received over 5.5 Mn. visitors in a course of 30 days. Over 125,000 hours were spent browsing various online stalls in the ‘mela’ these stalls included products, food items, pooja needs, gaming and entertainment. The ‘Grand Diwali Mela’ emerged as the largest online sampling platform for brands. Over 150,000 samples were shipped across India, with 70 percent sample orders going to Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns. The samples ranged from make-up, skincare and household products.

Askmebazaar.com has a host of deals at the Grand Diwali Mela. With attractive discounts on home appliances, mobile phones, fashion apparels, home décor, personal care products, etc, Askmeaazaar.com has brought together all your Diwali purchases together at the click of a button.

For the spiritually inclined, this year the Grand Diwali Mela has the option of offering your prayers and receiving ‘prasad’ from a number of temples across India. Diwali is also about greeting your loved ones, and the Grand Diwali Mela makes this possible with a click of a button. Send festive greetings showing your ‘namkeen’ side with fun greeting cards from Kurkure.

Manav Sethi, Group CMO & Head, Digital Strategy, Askmebazaar, said, “"We are excited to be the presenting sponsor of Grand Diwali Mela 2015. One of its kind virtual mela; one stop destination for entertainment, best deals and best brands in the biggest festive season of India. A truly immersive experience in one destination for consumers. This year look forward to the BIG deals everyday delivered at your doorstep. From furniture to fashion, AskmeBazaar has curated the best deals to ensure every home lights up this Diwali. Askme Group looks forward to India joining us on the GDM, 2015; the biggest mela of the year!”

On the second season of the Grand Diwali Mela, CVL Srinivas, CEO, GroupM South Asia said, “After the success of the ‘Grand Diwali Mela in year one, we are excited to bring the online festival back again this year. We have a new naming partner on board AskMe.com as well and a range of new brands and products for consumers to choose from.” Speaking about the reach of the festival, Srinivas added, “With GDM, we were able to create a great platform for consumers to come and sample products and interact with brands. Last year we saw a clear spike in terms of mobile usage to access the Grand Diwali Mela. With a clear focus on taking the festival to not just metros, but also tier 2 and 3 towns, where the mobile phone is their window to the world, GroupM and our partners are integrating traditional print, TV and radio with mobile and digital marketing.”

Punitha Arumugam, Director Agency Business, Google SEA & India said, “Grand Diwali Mela organized by GroupM emerged as India’s largest online brand activation initiative during the festival season last year and surpassed any offline brand activation initiative in the country. As more and more consumer products companies embrace the Internet to drive sampling and consumer engagement, we’re delighted to partner Group M to scale this initiative further and help brands make the most of the opportunity online.”

Hungama.com, India’s leading music and video on demand service has come back on board as one of the partners of the ‘Grand Diwali Mela’. Last year Hungamam.com gave users access to films form their vast Indian and International movies catalogue, Users could also create a Grand Diwali Mela playlist of popular Bollywood numbers. This year Hungama.com brings on board ‘Hungama Play’ their premium video on demand service via the Grand Diwali Mela 2015.

Besides this, the Grand Diwali Mela is also running contests with exciting prizes to be won. GroupM is the leading global media investment management operation serving as the parent company to WPP media agencies including Mindshare, MEC, MediaCom, Maxus, and Motivator in India, each global operations in their own right with leading market positions.

GroupM’s primary purpose is to maximize performance of WPP’s media agencies by operating as leader and collaborator in trading, content creation, sports, digital, finance, proprietary tool development and other business-critical capabilities. GroupM’s focus is to deliver unrivaled marketplace advantage to its clients, stakeholders and people.