[Live Blog] Highlights from Festive Marketing Camp 2024

Welcome to the live blog coverage of the Festive Marketing Camp 2024, where Social Samosa brings together professionals from India’s advertising, marketing, and media industries for a day packed with insights, strategies, and inspiration.

Today’s event, live from Mumbai, promises a deep dive into festive marketing, with expert sessions on evolving consumer behaviours, emerging trends, and media strategies to win over consumers during the vibrant festive season.

Join the discussions and tune in live for key sessions.

3:22 PM -  We're live! Tune in to Social Samosa's Festive Marketing Camp for a day of industry insights and expert discussions. 

3:26 PM- The Emcee welcomes Hitesh Rajwani, CEO of Social Samosa Network on the stage. He wlecomes the audience to the Festive Marketing Camp.

3:30 PM - Gunjan Khetan, CMO, Perfetti Van Melle, India, takes the stage to deliver a keynote speech on Leveraging the Festive Economy.

3:37 PM- We are talking about festivities. India celebrates almost thousand festivals every year. We are a culture of celebration and that is important from a brand marketer's perspective. - Gunjan Khetan

3:56PM - The Emcee welcomes Hayden Scott, Creative Head - APAC, Virtue Worldwide. Roch Dsouza, Senior Vice President Marketing, Metro Brands. Madhu S. Dutta, Head Marketing Communication and Content Raymond Lifestyle Limited and Swati Balani Executive Creative Director, BBH India. For a panel discussion on Festive Storytelling Frameworks to standout and break through the clutter.

4:00 PM - Everyone at this time of the year gets the same brief, looking at the same insights and is celebrating the same festival. -Hayden Scott

4:06 PM- While we all look at the same insights and the same conversations, what differentiates us is how it is relevant at that particular time. - Swati Balani

4:08 PM- We need to look at hoe the consumption story has eveilved. Brands need to understand that you don't need to pump all your money during the season but need to be relevant. - Roch Dsouza

4:09 PM- Its not the selling story that important. The most important things during the festive season, is to build that bond with the customers. That is what stays with the customers. - Madhu S. Dutta

4:11 PM- Not every trend is for you and that's absolutely fine. You need to understand what your brand stands for and doesn't. - Swati Balani

4:13 PM - It's more the content, more the story and more the emotion that connects with the consumers. The brand should have it's own identity.- Madhu S. Dutta

4:15 PM - The rule I have made for myself is that I am not going to speak about festive during festive. Diwali today is not just a festival, it's a celebration. For us, what is important is you are looking at the celebrations. We would rather not be focusing only on festive but we go beyond it. - Roch Dsouza

4:37 PM- The Emcee invites Abhishansa Mathur, founder of Local Samosa to felicitate the panelists.

4:40 PM - The Emcee invites Deepali Naair, Group CMO, CK Birla Group and Hitesh Rajwani, CEO of Social Samosa Network on the stage for the Fireside Chat on 'Unboxing the Power of Generative AI for Festive Marketing'.

4:48 PM - In my mind, tomorrow, you will find certain martech disappearing or morphing themselves. - Deepali Naair

4:50 PM - Even if it is gimmicky and shortlived, you should use AI if it offers you the opportunity. - Deepali Naair

4:55 PM - There are a few things that have happened since AI came into marketing. One is the use of prompt engineering and the other being the upgradation of a role, going from a creative to creative technologist. - Hitesh Rajwani

4:59 PM - You should not be building a relationship only during the festive time, but build a relationship throughout the year that during the festive period, so much so that your brand is the one that comes to mind for consumers. -Deepali Naair

5:06 PM - Hitesh Rajwani felicitates Deepali Nair and ends the session.

5:14 PM-  The Emcee invites on stage, Seema Walia, National Head - Agency, ShareChat & Moj joins us to talk about leveraging short from videos during the festive season in this quick discussion on "Short Form Big Impact: Unlocking the Power of Celebration".

5:18 PM - We are all living in a world where we want the audience attention. What WhatsApp and UPI have done to communication and transactions, short form videos have done the same to the way we consume content. - Seema Walia

5:23 PM - The soul of any short form video today is the use of vernacular and regional languages when communicating with the consumer. -Seema Walia

5:26 PM - 89% of India proactively plans their festive purchases, it's no more an impulse decision. - Seema Walia

5:40 PM : The evening moves into our next session on 'The Festive Media Checklist for Marketers' to uncover the secrets of how to maximize your ROI during the festive season. 

The session chair is Unmisha Bhatt, Co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer at Tonic Worldwide with the rest of the panel, including Jahid Ahmed, Sr. VP & Head of Digital Acquisition, Website, Content & Social Media Marketing at HDFC Bank and Paresh Karan, Marketing Lead at Finolex Industries Ltd.

5:45 PM - TV and digital the lines are blurred. There's an interesting mix of integrated approaches for the festive marketing mix. - Jahid Ahmed 

5:53 PM - The search is getting fragmented in different platforms. These platforms are becoming so data-led that we have amazing data cohorts. That's how we are changing the media mix with determinist planning. - Jahid Ahmed

5:55 PM - At Finolex, we particularly focus on brand building during the festive season. - Paresh Karan

5:57 PM - If I have to enable customers during their passion point, I have to be present when they are deciding their passion point. - Jahid Ahmed

6:01 PM- One of the constant themes that we keep consulting brands is about capturing the entire consumer journey, right from the research. Going for a consumer's passion point, their behaviour and being a part of their entire consumer journey is perfect for a festive calendar. - Unmisha Bhatt

6:03 PM - In a category like ours, we have been leveraging all the media vehicals and tools. We have also started using AI. Using AI for our creatives have given us 3X views and impressions. - Paresh Karan

6:06 PM - AI can enable personalisation of even the landing page. - Unmisha Bhatt

6:07 PM - While this panel is about media mix, there is a thin line between creative and media. Both have to go hand in hand. - Unmisha Bhatt

6:11 PM - For a category like pipes and fittings, the key is to leverage hyper localization during festive season. - Paresh Karan on the festive media mix framework.

6:12 PM - Not only branding, we focused on digital through local and micro influencers. It is based on the objectives. And that's how we work on the budget for the festive season. - Paresh Karan

7:03 PM-  Moving on, Nishanth Ananthram, Executive Creative Director, Grey Group joins us to share his take on "Masterclass: How much clutter could a clutter-breaking ad cut if a clutter-breaking ad could cut clutter".

7:08 PM- We are conditioned not to like ads because of bad ads. - Nishanth Ananthram

7:16 PM-  One of the most common ads during Diwali is sentimental ads because the sentiments are high. - Nishanth Ananthram

7:28 PM- We move ahead with a Panel Discussion on 'The Marketer’s Playbook to win on New Commerce Platforms.'

Joining us on stage is the session chair Meher Patel, Founder of Neon, a Wondrlab Co with panellists:  Anshul Garg, Managing Partner, Publicis Commerce, Publicis Groupe India and Zoher Kapuswala, Marketing Head, Pralines, Ferrero India.

7:30 PM- In India the retail market would be $1 trillion. The larger chunk of retail is still kirana stores. - Anshul Garg on the size of the new commerce landscape

7:34 PM- The entire landscape is helping consumers because consumers are able to get lot more products. The entire shopper journey is being replicated on e-commerce and quick commerce. - Zoher Kapuswala

7:40 PM - There are two things happening. First is q-com is increasing its footprint. At the same time, consumers are also shifting. This doesn't negate the role played by kirana. - Zoher Kapuswala

7:44 PM -  Product category is important. The need for necessary products including food can never be planned and these products will dominantly play in Q-com. - Zoher Kapuswala

7:47PM - Essentially, what brands need to ensure is what you want to communicate. The tonality and message needs to be consistent across platforms. You need to understand your customer really well. - Anshul Garg

7:57 PM- Q-com phenomenon started a few years back. Globally, they are still trying to find how it would work but in India, it is working beautifully. - Anshul Garg

8:00 PM- The next session begins. Masterclass: Communication Design For Target Cultures Instead Of Target Audiences

With Harshil Karia, Founder & MD, Schbang. Barry Schwarz, Co Founder, AddiktSchbang and Koen Van Ovoorde, Co Founder, AddiktSchbang

8:10 PM- You can only solve the problem if you understand the problem and for that you need context. - Barry Schwarz

8:11 PM- Design is a way of problem solving. - Barry Schwarz

8:17 PM- True cultural context is about division and design can solve that. - Harshil Karia

8:38 PM - We move to the final session of the Festive Marketing Camp with a Panel Discussion on 'Experiential Marketing sparkles to light up Brand experiences & customer delight.' With Panelists, Rahul Dutta, Country Director, Marketing, Microsoft India. Rima Kirtikar, Group Chief Marketing Officer, Runwal. Reshu Saraf, Head of Integrated Marketing & Communications at Godrej Interio and Sameer Tobaccowala, CEO, Shobiz Experiential Communication.

8:45 PM- Your thought behind how it going to be a feel factor for the audience. They always have the budget they need to find it. - Sameer Tobaccowala

8:46 PM- Brands always have the budget. It's important to see that what is the objective you are trying to drive.- Reshu Saraf

8:48 PM- We have moved from AI being a gimmick to now AI taking a center stage. AI is also mainstream in personalisation. That's what I recommend to marketers, move away from AI being a gimmick.-  Rahul Dutta

8:49 PM- When the technology is shown to you, with its use cases, it gives you confidence about its efficiency.- Rima Kirtikar

8:51 PM- When you talk about experiences, agencies come up with wacky ideas where some can be executed. We make sure the person is able to see an experience that is executed. - Rima Kirtikar

8:52 PM- The core thing I have seen is what's my core brand value and where my brand stands. Create an idea for a certain set of people and execute it well, if it is good, it will find its way. - Rahul Dutta

8:53 PM- It's important that you have small bonfires, you don't have to wait for huge opportunities, look for smaller opportunities. Second, look at the content you are going to put up there. - Reshu Saraf

8:54 PM- Ask a lot of questions at the start of a campaign, including what you want to achieve through a campaign. You have to make the brand a center point of every thought process. - Sameer Tobaccowala

9:15 PM - With this, we have successfully wrapped Social Samosa's Festive Marketing Camp 2024. We hope you have gained enough insights to plan and execute your strategies for the festive season!

We'd also like to thank all our partners for supporting this endeavor:

Co Powered By: 

• ShareChat & Moj 

Associate Partner:

• Shemaroo
  

Lanyard Parter: 

• Lemma 

Gifting Partners:

• 1868 by Tata Tea
• Fiore
• Osaa perfumes
• Damensch

Streaming Partner:

• 24Frames Digital