Experts Speak: Data, tech and AI to shape festive marketing in 2023

In this webinar, experts discuss how brands are leveraging video marketing and enhancing customer engagement during the Festive Season in India.

Festive Marketing is one of the biggest seasons for advertisers and marketers in India. This is the time when consumers are eager to spend and brands gear up to leverage this consumer want. 

Experts dive into the power of video marketing and promoted answers on Quora, and explored how these strategies can enhance the customer experience with your brand during the festive season in India.

Speakers:

• Priyal Jain - Head - APAC & MEA Growth Partnerships at Quora
• Viju P Nair - Senior Client Partner - APAC at Quora

• Abhishek Upadhya Vice President of Digital Strategy & Innovation at HiveMinds
• Hemal Majithia, Founder & Chief Oktomind, OktoBuzz
• Siddesh Kerkar, Head of Marketing, Aditya Birla Finance Udyog Plus
• Shradha Agarwal, Co-Founder & CEO, grapes

Leveraging Quora

In a masterclass was hosted by Viju P Nair - Senior Client Partner - APAC at Quora and Priyal Jain - Head - APAC & MEA Growth Partnerships at Quora, the duo gave insights on how to best leverage Quora during the festive time and explained the Ad products and targeting solutions to best fit the brand’s campaigns. 

As the festive season unpacks, gift-giving sees an uptake in India. This is the time when the Indian market sees a surge in verticals like tech, electronics, automobiles and fashion. 

Last year 97% surge was seen in the total sales of apparel, footwear and accessories, 25-30% jump in electronic products, and 28% rise in year-on-year sales of automobiles.

The user mindset on Quora is active learning, researching and investigating. They look for personal experiences for their queries. 

Global Web Index report states that 65% of Quora users in India conduct research regularly before making their purchase decisions. Thus, brands can leverage this prime time moment to influence the consumers' next move. 

Quora’s research shows that conversations on festive shopping see an upward trend through October and November. 

Some of the questions include:

• 6X growth in questions related to mobile phone recommendations in Nov 
• +60% questions about laptop recommendations in Nov
• +63% questions about household appliances in Oct
• 9X growth in questions related to automobile recommendations in Nov
• +62% questions about clothing and apparel in Oct
• +52% questions about Fashion and Style in Oct

Also Read: Brands zoom in on the ‘Apple Vision Pro Launch’ moment

Digital trends shaping festive marketing in 2023

Speaking about digital marketing trends for the festive season, Hemal Majithia mentioned that revenge buying and regional languages will play a huge role in festive marketing this year. 

Shradha Agarwal weighed in by saying that consumers will focus on putting in effort in the lower funnel of the consumer journey, eg. building a cart way ahead of a sale starts. On the other hand, Siddesh Kerkar added that due to gift-giving being at the centre of the festive season, research from the get-go is going to be crucial. Additionally, manufacturers are slated to shine this year. 

Use of Data & Tech

Experts weighed in on the use of data and tech in the coming festive season and mentioned how brands can use them for the better. 

• Model + product tends to perform better on platforms like Quora. 
• The art of moment marketing is something the brands need to nail. 
• Brands need to layer in terms of communication. 

Approaching festive marketing the correct way

Experts share suggestions and learnings to young marketing professionals on how they should approach festive marketing. 

Hemal Majithia said, “I always suggest that farm, not hunt. In farming, you care about both sides and dig deep and it's the same with marketing as well.”

Abhishek Upadhya added, “Bringing in the joy of the festive season into your own work, be it content, copy or otherwise. Just have fun with the content that you’re creating during the festive.”

Shradha Agarwal concluded by saying, “Don’t go after every possible segment. Be very clear about your mapping of budget to objective and the returns you are trying to get.” 

Siddesh Kerkar agreed and added, “Stay focused on your objective and go all over the place.”