Festive marketing: Narratives brands should tell

When it comes to the festive season, the larger focus for hard-hitting campaigns is to build a connection with the audience through emotional messaging. If we look at it, storytelling, for consumers is about driving emotions through these advertising campaigns. However, brands go about it differently.

The panel discussion at Social Samosa’s Festive Marketing Camp 2023 on ‘The Festive Narrative: Tales Brands Should Tell’ provides insights into what kind of campaigns strike the cord within audiences to drive sales, the importance of creating fresh and risky campaigns and more. 

Panellists:

Neville Shah, Senior Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy India

Pallavi Chakravarti, Founder & CCO, Fundamental

Ram Jayaraman Chief Creative Officer at Mullen Lintas, India

Sahil Siddiqui, Group Executive Creative Director, DENTSU CREATIVE India

Festivals - An extension of Moment Marketing

Neville Shah, Senior Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy India believes the narratives built around moving people through emotions is a lie. He goes on to say that great works are actually far and few, since nothing drives equity anymore, rather it all drives numbers. 

Citing the example of the famous Cadbury Celebrations ‘Shah Rukh Khan - My Ad’, he mentions that while the ad was equity-driven as it moved the audience, the larger objective was that it did numbers, from a business perspective.

“Everything is converted into a festival today. Whether it be the World Cup, IPL or Mother's Day. It has evolved from an emotion to 'every' day,” he continues.

Ram Jayaraman, Chief Creative Officer at Mullen Lintas, India adds to this saying, “Today, festival is an extended version of a moment marketing.” When a campaign hits the sweet spot where emotions can land it is beautiful. But it is also about creating a balance, according to Jayaraman. 

He goes on to say that the campaigns Tanishq has done over the years have built a balance. 

“When the balance is right, you understand that the brand has given the festival a context but at the same time, let the festival shine.” 

Standing out during the festive season

Sahil Siddiqui, Group Executive Creative Director, Dentsu Creative India believes Indians tend to be emotionally driven, so campaigns that rely on them tend to do well.

Giving an example, he talks about the brands that don’t necessarily have anything to sell like Google. The Google Reunion ad campaign was a ‘deeply political’ ad that struck the viewers, but at the end of the day, it was about the product itself.

“Although the reason festive campaigns exist is to sell, brands need to stand out to stick with the audience's psyche,” Siddiqui elaborates.

The question is how can they do that? Mullen Lintas’ Ram Jayaraman says that everyday brands and agencies worry about coming up with better ideas and stories. But, there has to be a brand truth and it has to be authentic, he asserts. 

“The challenge for us is to chase the truth wherever we can find it. We sometimes find the visible stories in the invisible places.”

Fundamental’s Pallavi Chakravarti cites a saying that read, “Don't go looking for originality, look for freshness.”

Expounding on that idea, she mentions that Pepperfry released a campaign ‘Don’t wait for Diwali’ which used an insight where Indian consumers’ spending behaviour depends on the festival. And, the brand built a narrative that said consumers don’t have to wait for the festival to indulge themselves. 

“For festive campaigns, using the crux of the festival to push the same conversation, in this case, the buying sentiment, is the way to go,” Chakravarti suggests.

Ogilvy’s Neville Shah adds to this by saying that the pool of insights isn’t limited, we as a society are evolving. He says that evolutions are helping build conversations. He believes that evolution will help brands use truthfulness and freshness. 

Reimagining perspectives

The answers to the kind of storytelling that goes into an ad campaign comes down to the skillsets and insights that brands and agencies possess, says Dentsu’s Sahil Siddiqui. 

“How you skim from the mass stories, makes the business exciting. We aren't taking enough risks to showcase stories today, and that needs to change.”

However, when it comes to festive campaigns, lots of brands with their creatives and campaigns will be sceptical about creating risky narratives that would to backlash from the audience. 

Neville Shah mentions that Politics, Sex and Religion are something brands and agencies are never going to get on board with, at least in the near future. It's just the way the nation is, he comments.

“If you're not veering into areas that you don't dwell into usually, you'll be fine as a brand,” Shah continues. 

Ram Jayaraman mentions that when it comes to festive marketing, brands should be serving the festival and not go about usurping it. 

Pallavi Chakravarti on the other hand, believes that there isn't a real or full-proof way of not hurting sentiments. She says that as communicators and marketers, brands shouldn’t be operating from a place of fear.

Brands should also understand that they are not in control of the idea, once it's out in the world. They just have to be ready for what's to come, since they cannot be sure of what will turn into controversy, as per Sahil Siddiqui.

The AI narrative

When it comes to having AI at your disposal, Pallavi Chakravarti affirms that crafting a narrative gets easier, but it won't let you relegate the narrative through these 'tools'.

Ram Jayaraman agrees with that statement and says that AI is a tool and a canvas that can't substitute human intelligence. 

Sahil Siddiqui, on the other hand, believes that data should always be in service with the gut feeling. 

He concludes, “If we reduce the AI conversation to prompts, then you're actually not having AI conversations.”

This panel discussion was a part of Social Samosa's Festive Marketing Camp and featured the following gifting partners - The Body Shop, French Essence, and The Love Co.