Online retailers are sparing no effort to woo consumers during their flagship festive season sales that have kickstarted in the first week of October. With continued vaccination drive, delayed third wave boosting consumer confidence and an overall shift towards online buying, e-commerce platforms are set to gain big this festive season.

According to media buyers estimates, these platforms are sparing no expense either, as they collectively are expected to spend upwards of Rs 250 crore across television, print, digital and social media platforms to highlight discounts and deals on offer.

"There is definitely a 20-25 percent jump in advertising spends over 2020," says Dinesh Rathod, chief executive of media agency Madison Media Omega. "All e-commerce have launched campaigns and promotions almost a week prior to their respective sales. It reflects the positive consumer sentiment and mood."

Companies boost marketing arsenal

Amazon India, for instance, announced this year’s Amazon Great Indian Festival from October 3 with early access for Prime members from October 2 with the theme of "Boxes of Happiness for every home". Amazon's festive ads are already being splashed across television, Indian Premier League (IPL) and digital platforms. "The campaign has gone live across mediums and we are encouraged with the positive response we have been receiving from our customers," a company spokesperson tells Storyboard.

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Snapdeal is also kickstarting its first "Toofani Sale" from October 3 -10, 2021. Currently, the platform is running a campaign across Gujarat and West Bengal markets, where the company has partnered with regional celebrities (Aarohi Patel and Shubhoshree Ganguly) to communicate about festive offers. The campaign is currently live in select markets on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and leading Indian OTTs.

"In the coming weeks, we'll have a campaign focussed on Hindi speaking markets and will also look into print and television. This year, we have also partnered with popular OTT channels and other programmatic and audio streaming platforms," says a Snapdeal spokesperson.

Go big or go home

For its Big Fashion Festival (BFF), slated to be held between October 3 and 10, Myntra has "Tyohar Ki Fashion Shopping, Only With India’s Fashion Expert” campaign with over 100 big celebrities and influencers. In addition to Myntra’s existing celebrity ambassadors, such as Hrithik Roshan, Vijay Deverakonda, Dulquer Salmaan, Silambarasan, Kiara Advani, Samantha Akkineni and Disha Patani, the audience will see other celebrities from Bollywood, such as Vaani Kapoor, Yami Gautam and Mallika Dua in region-specific engagements through various content formats such as reels, videos and stories. The 15-second celeb ad films are currently live across multiple leading TV channels, OTT, social and digital platforms.

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Harish Narayanan, chief marketing officer, Myntra, says that the current edition of the festival is their largest ever in terms of brands, selection and offers. "Thus, we have not only increased presence by targeting leading social, digital and electronic platforms, but also the frequency, to boost top-of-mind recall among various age groups, across the country,” he adds.

Meanwhile, Paytm Mall will be holding its flagship ‘Maha Shopping Festival (MSF)’ during October 6-15 which it is promoting through social media.

"From contests for our users to some engaging reels and quirky content, we want to celebrate this festive season with as many users as we can,” says Abhishek Rajan, COO at Paytm Mall. He adds, “It's not just about selling products for us, it's also about building #IndiaKaBharosa with #IndiaKaApnaMall and a sense of community for all our stakeholders."

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(Edited by : Jomy Jos Pullokaran)