How brands can ride on consumer sentiment and celebrate the festive season
The new reality has put a hold on social events like festival celebrations. To compensate, though, people have tried their best to celebrate virtually with loved ones, leading to the rise of online aartis, darshans, iftaar parties and other celebrations like family poojas on Zoom, e-gifts and e-rakhis, and even Ganpati visarjan close to devotees’ homes*.
Despite these wide-ranging changes and the constraints of the lockdown, consumers have found some reason to stay positive. What hasn’t changed is the need to celebrate with the family and to remain connected with other people they value.
This is why social media conversations around festivals have increased this year. According to The Distillery, Star India’s intelligence centre for data-driven business decisions powered by technology, conversations around the Ganpati festival rose 4.5 times compared to last year while those around Raksha Bandhan rose 3.9 times. Overall, there was a 46% rise around festival celebrations and wishes, with a 49% rise in discussions around shopping plans.
Nostalgia around celebrations of the past was the key sentiment. Also important were topics like feasts at home and the joy of spending time with the family during festivals – celebrating the new normal in a new way.
As one would expect, many of the conversations were around gifting and shopping with great interest in online launches and discounts. Topmost on consumers’ minds were automobiles – both, two-wheelers and cars – as well as consumer durables like refrigerators, flat-screen TVs and electronics like laptops and headphones.
Some of the largest rises in conversations were around e-gifting (40%), digital payments (69%), do-it-yourself or homemade gifts (125%) and a six-fold increase around products made locally. The chatter extended to platforms like e-commerce sites for sending gifts to loved ones^.
With consumer sentiment riding high, brands looking to maximise return on investment during the festive season are finding a natural partner in Disney+ Hotstar when it comes to:
- Building rapid awareness around new brands, products and variant launches
- Driving regional impact to maximise presence in priority markets through premium associations
- Driving salience by breaking through the media clutter
- Engaging the Dream11 Indian Premier League (IPL) audience through brand stories to drive lower-funnel metrics
Disney+ Hotstar is a OTT partner for brands, especially during the festive season. Apart from fulfilling the aforementioned marketing objectives, brands can also partner influencers that are most suited to their audiences, reach highly engaged viewers across geographies, benefit from Disney+ Hotstar’s differentiated planning and deployment mix – show sponsorships and ad integrations, for instance – and maximise on the efficacy of their marketing investments.
While there is little doubt that the pandemic has negatively affected many aspects of our lives, there is a significant uptick in consumer sentiment around festivals and other celebrations as they adjust to the new normal. Brands can capitalise on this positive sentiment by connecting with consumers on Disney+ Hotstar ahead of and during the upcoming festive season.
