#Holi2022: People are rooting for culturally relevant brands #OnlyOnTwitter

Over the past few years, we’ve seen increasingly more people come together virtually to celebrate festivals – connecting with friends, exchanging wishes and sharing their best memories of the festivities online. Unsurprisingly, this has led to a preference for culturally inclined content, presenting brands with an opportunity to drive both relevance among audiences as well as business results. Since Twitter is where India comes together and where culture takes shape, the service has become the go-to place for brands to connect with audiences around festive moments. As per a study by Kantar and Twitter, there exists a 73% correlation between a brand’s cultural relevance and its revenue, and there’s an 88% correlation between a brands Twitter spends and its perceived cultural relevance.

With #Holi2022 just around the corner, Indians are colouring their timelines in festive colours, and brands have a massive window of opportunity to connect with the moment and celebrate where their audiences are celebrating.

Holi is the festival of joy and people love to share this joy online. Brands, load your Holi water guns with happy colours!

• As per the Brandwatch insights on conversations around Holi, people online are excited about Holi, and the conversation around the festival of colours begins to accelerate 10 days before and peaks just two days prior – making that the best time for brands to connect with this culturally charged-up moment.

Bringing back the Holi picture because it’s literally a tradition now. Don’t even ask how old is it, I honestly don’t remember anymore #NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/5OzlVST6hu

— Pallavi (@ThatDesiGirl) March 14, 2022

• That said, not only are people talking about Holi, they’re talking about it a lot! In 2021, more than 459K people on Twitter in India sent over 2 million Tweets about Holi in just the week of the festival (Source: Brandwatch, 20 March - 01 April 2021) – spreading festive cheer across timelines.

• 81% mentions around Holi are linked to ‘joy’, and conversations around the festival convey a 93% positive/neutral sentiment – making Holi a truly brand-safe moment on Twitter.

Happy #Holi to folk celebrating and to anyone else who might appreciate its sentiment as a festival of colour and love! 🌈💖 pic.twitter.com/4YMfB6Hopn

— Harsha Patel (@HarshaPatel_) March 13, 2022

Some of the most Tweeted hashtags from last year’s Holi conversation were:

• #आओ_होली_ऐसेमनाएं
• #holi
• #happyholi
• #holi2021
• #होली
• #happyholi2021

How can brands celebrate Holi with audiences? Customised, relatable, and visually engaging content is the way to go.

• People’s inclination towards Tweeting with multi-lingual hashtags makes it evident that they’re seeking authenticity and relatability. Brands can lean towards this preference and produce content that is culturally contextualised as per audiences’ inclinations.

Realizing it is Realizing it is
Monday again Holi this Friday pic.twitter.com/gKWtk6zYVx

— Netflix India South (@Netflix_INSouth) March 14, 2022

• Audiences are at their most cheerful around Holi, and look forward to vibrant and joyful content from brands. Creativity and cultural nuance embedded in video content will give brands an edge when looking to engage audiences and make their presence felt.

Celebrate your Holi with Amul sweets that makes your happy moments more tasteful and memorable pic.twitter.com/MWqMDlipcw

— Amul.coop (@Amul_Coop) March 14, 2022

• Through video and Twitter live, brands have the opportunity to encourage audience participation, and even drive purchase behaviour at a time when people are willing to try new products, spend more, and are evidently influenced by promotions and exciting offers.

Celebrate the festival of colours without worrying about your skin and hair. Brighten your skin & strengthen your hair with Soulflower Holi essentials & get up to 50% off. #Holi #KhushiyanDelivered #Holi22 #HoliHai #HappyHoli pic.twitter.com/O5c9vbhZkt

— Amazon India (@amazonIN) March 12, 2022

• With audiences being super pumped around Holi, brands can leverage the moment to invite them to participate in conversations through creatively crafted formats – letting them feel involved and valued. By leveraging ArtHouse and Twitter Next – Twitter’s in-house teams – to create customised, tech-driven content and engagement solutions (such as the State Bank of India’s Holi thread), brands are bringing their best game forward to connect with audiences.

This Holi, come join us as we celebrate the many colourful wonders of India ❤️

Scroll through our Holi thread, press ❤️ on the colour you love and get your Holi Postcard from one of India’s colourful wonders 💙💚💛💗❤️🧡 pic.twitter.com/jsjFIgOXfj

— State Bank of India (@TheOfficialSBI) March 11, 2022

• Twitter’s Amplify Sponsorships, which lets brands align their message from premium video content from publishers on the service, is another way that brands can lean into the Holi conversation through engaging topical content.

For brands looking to build cultural relevance and stay top of mind, Holi is an unmissable moment. Brands must lean into it, join the conversations, and own the moment #OnlyOnTwitter.