Festive Marketing IP – The art of selling the sale

A lot rides on the festive sale - not only do they drive a huge chunk of the revenue but also mark an important communication touchpoint. Nilesh Gupta of Meesho and Sowmya Iyer of DViO Digital take us through what it takes to create a sustainable festive marketing IP that can support the yearly sale.

Mega Blockbuster, the festive sale IP by Meesho, resulted in 87.6L orders. During the launch phase, the campaign had created a stir for various reasons ranging from the campaign's authenticity to a goof-up by one of the endorsers, but managed to create brand awareness and garnered sales.

Nilesh Gupta, Senior Director - Growth, Meesho and Sowmya Iyer – Founder & CEO, DViO Digital give an understanding of what it takes to create and sustain a festive marketing IP.

The Essence Of Festive IP

Nilesh Gupta shares, "While it is important to get people on the platform, it can't take away from your core value proposition and what you stand for. We didn't want to lose the market flavor at all and 'market' as a word was very important for us".

He shares that Meesho represents authenticity and regional peculiarities that the campaign was able to blend with the promotional aspect of the communication. The campaign presented the celebrities as sellers, as the set-up of the market was important for the concept, and to highlight "Your everyday market is at the best price".

Sowmya Iyer mentions communication, construct, and storytelling are significant to break through the clutter from an IP perspective. She stressed the practice that brands should not think of it as a festive sale campaign because at the end of the day everyone is going on sale this season.

Remarking on the 'Mega Blockbuster' campaign she said that it was also looked at as a brand-building opportunity that does not focus on the sale but creates an experience of a local bazaar with a variety of the rarest finds.

Also Read: Lighting the creative fireworks: Crafting unique campaigns in the cluttered festive season

The Festive Growth

Here are some highlights from the growth Meesho experienced through the 'Mega Blockbuster' campaign:

• 80% YoY growth from the previous year's sale, the highest-ever number posted by the company in a single day
• Small business participation surged 360% YoY, with 75% sellers from Tier 2+ cities and beyond
• Tier 2, 3, and 4 cities accounted for nearly 85% of orders on day one
• Fashion, Beauty & Personal Care, Home & Kitchen, and Electronic Accessories were the top-selling categories

Nilesh described these numbers as the "celebration of consumer spirit coming back". A practice that he focussed on was tracking things granularly and improving the execution in real time. Media was an
integral part and a cross-functional sales pod was built.

The conversion part of the campaign needs the tech system to be scaled up, says Nilesh. The peak of 87 lakh orders requires coordination with suppliers, having an efficient infrastructure in place, and managing third-party logistics. He adds that 60 lakhs orders were shipped on the second day.

Driving awareness and consideration on the branding side, along with performance marketing with a heavy focus on regionalization and personalization, ATL for major geographies, and TV for awareness and a digital plan for TV-dark audiences, were a few major elements of the campaign.

Sowmya Iyer shares that, "While everyone works on 360-degree campaigns in the festive season, there is a need to use channels or platforms in a way that it is native to them", a core communication that translates on each platform.

She adds that we need to talk about intersecting brands and performance. "As a purist would say performance does not lead to brand building" but both need to go hand-in-hand. The fundamental of brand building is the need to be consistent. The eye has to be on the numbers but there has to be enough agility during the execution of campaigns to react and respond according to how the sales numbers are coming in.

Key Learnings From The Meesho Festive IP

• Clarity plus consistency is the key
• Short-format is doing maximum reach today
• There are mental models emerging in short-format videos
• Leverage authenticity
• Brand DNA, price, and convenience are the important elements of a festive sale IP
• Stick to your core value proposition
• Do not let performance go under the radar
• Structure your campaigns for a PAN-India audience or a regional audience, do not take the route in the middle
• Experimentation with performance helps
• The IP has to be rooted in your brand and your purpose, don't just do a sale for the sake of doing a sale