More walk, less talk for brand campaigns this festive season

With normalcy returning, Diwali has been big this year. To capitalise on the positive sentiments, brands have leveraged the opportunity to dish out some truly creative campaigns with social consciousness. Instead of sounding preachy, the brands have put the money where the mouth is. 

With ads from big brands trying to create a change in people’s life like #Shopforshopless from Cadbury and HP India Campaign ‘Iss Diwali, Thodi si Jagah Bana lo’ and many more doing rounds on the internet, what seems to be catching eyeballs is the efforts by these brands to light up the faces and bring smiles to people in real life and not only in their ad campaigns.

As the Diwali season ends this week, exchange4Media reached out to experts from the advertising industry to talk about the creative trends that worked out for the brands to reach the audience.

Hearts in the right place

Speaking about this approach, Amit Wadhwa, Chief Executive Officer at Dentsu Creative India, said, “When it comes to this time of the year, people tend to create topical creative. At the same time, there is new communication that is launched this time not necessarily on Diwali but because people are happy and want to shop.”

“There is no trend as such I see in the market as such, having said that every year brands try to encash happiness and the festivities around. We are getting back to normal this year. Everyone is getting back to the zone of normal happy Diwali and getting out of the pandemic zone”, he added.

On the other hand, Mukund Olety, Chief Creative Officer at VMLY&R, said: “This year, I see brands taking ‘Generosity’ to a next level, and that's an emerging theme. Certain broad themes like family, homecoming, and friends get to gather, these themes are constant. With this generosity, gratitude mixed with these themes creates different storytelling.”

“Earlier brands used to recognize people, for example, the postman, but they never use do anything. Now they are doing stuff for example the ShopforShopless ad by Cadbury.”

Experimenting with the content and platforms

Almost every ad campaign this festive season has underlying themes of love, togetherness, generosity empathy and gratitude. What is interesting is the modes that are used to reach the consumers -- by following their digital footprints. Supporting the same, Dimpy Yadav, General Manager, said, “The adoption of unique themes and innovation possibilities is a consistent trend so long as it unites the brand and the culture it portrays. In regards to trends and strategies, marketers are looking beyond last-mile marketing and are driving brand fundamentals by staying top-of-mind throughout the consumer’s digital journey.”

Similarly, Olety said: “People have not stopped experimenting with the treatment, but their using tools and mediums to experiment. For example, WPP is doing Diwali Celebration in the Metaverse. Celebrating diversity, love, and families, maybe they are not telling stories in a conventional way but they are pushing boundaries.”

Understanding Gen Z

There is a sea of discussion on Gen Zs and marketers trying to decipher what they want and how one can reach them. Gen Z is inevitably avoided as a consumer as they are the or the next generation of power buyers as well as they are people that rule the internet as of now.

On the same, Nisheeth Srivastava, Group Head- Creative, Mullen Lintas Delhi, said, “The ever so elusive universe of Gen Zs is being targeted by ads and content in their own world. Everyone is spending millions of dollars to understand what they like, prefer, and love. In the sea of data, what we tend to overlook is that Gen Z is also human. Basic human traits like survival, and love have not changed.”

Wadhwa of Dentsu Creative India, said, “First of all, we have to start talking to them. We have to start making communications keeping them in mind. I don’t think they are aliens; they are all around us. There are data available to understand them. My brand's essence should stay the same and it should communicate with them the way it has been."