Ganesha Chaturthi & Gowri Habba to herald a blessed festive season for brands in K'taka?

It's time for celebrations in Karnataka with Ganesha Chaturthi and Gowri Habba marking the beginning of the festive season. Quite naturally, brands have been leveraging the opportunity to kickstart their festive ad spending as well to grab consumer attention in the state.

Gowri Habba is usually celebrated a day before Ganesh Chaturthi in Karnataka where the mother of Lord Ganesha and wife of Lord Shiva, Goddess Gowri is worshipped by several devotees. The next day is celebrated as Ganesh Chaturthi.

Karnataka is becoming a big market for brands during this festival as the state and especially its capital city Bangalore go all out in celebrating these two festivals to mark the beginning of the season.

"Karnataka, particularly Bangalore and Mysore, has emerged as a significant hub for Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations. Over the years, the response has been impressive, with communities coming together to celebrate this auspicious festival,” says Tyron Doll, Vice President – Marketing, Kaleesuwari Refinery Private Limited.

“With a good portion of families regularly purchasing Kaleesuwari products from the Karnataka region, we know we are loved in Bengaluru, Mysuru and Rest of Karnataka regions. Our aspiration is to see a greater number of people across the entire state of Karnataka embracing Dheepam oil for their Puja rituals and incorporating our brands like Gold Winner, Cardia and Orysa to craft sumptuous and delectable festival meals, adding a delightful and flavourful touch to their celebrations,” Doll adds.

Speaking about their plans around the two festivals in Karnataka, Sujata Biswas, Co-Founder, Suta says, “Ganesh Habba is very special for us, at Suta, as it marks the start of the festive season. We’re so excited to bring our brand-new festive collections to our stores, website and app. This year, we’ve revisited traditional crafts and weaves, including Chanderi, Jamdani, Chikankari and Mashru, adding our own design twist, to appeal to wearers of all tastes, ages and sensibilities.”

Biswas also tells us about how much ad spend they are looking at for Ganesh Habba in Karnataka. “Our ad spends for Karnataka during Ganesh Habba will comprise 10% of our total ad spends. In terms of our media mix, we are investing in hoardings, social media marketing, email marketing, push marketing, WhatsApp marketing and newspaper ads.”

Doll also speaks about the way they are engaging the consumers in Karnataka to choose their products during the festivals. “While ads are placed in prominent newspapers cater to one section of society, we also have in place an aggressive social media campaign to attract the younger target consumers. Additionally, we actively foster meaningful connections with our consumers through extensive engagement on social media platforms. Presently, we are running a captivating Kolam Contest exclusively for our Karnataka consumers on our Dheepam Social Media page.

Furthermore, we highly value our retailers and trade partners, working closely with them to ensure product availability, emphasizing the importance of retailers and trade engagement.”

Although Ganesh Chaturthi is big in Maharashtra, the South market, especially Karnataka has massive celebrations planned around the state for the festival. Bangalore is usually lit up with big banners and lights across the city, giving brands a perfect set to showcase and sell their products.

Tina Garg, CEO and Chief Creative Storyteller, Pink Lemonade talks about the kind of campaigns that may come around during the two festivals and how brands are planning to blend in cultures to reach out to a larger scale of audiences. “Brands may also look at creating campaigns that celebrate the rich cultural diversity of Karnataka. For instance, they may highlight the blend of Kannada and Marathi traditions in the Gauri Habba celebrations in North Karnataka. This will resonate with a wider audience and showcase the brand’s inclusivity.”

Speaking about the ad spend in the Karnataka market, Garg says, “Many brands have reduced their budgets in the first 6 months of the year, hence the festive season will be a make or break for them with an expectation of increase in sales. The advertising spends are expected to go up by 10-15% depending on the size of the brand. The key categories will be e-commerce, automobile, fintech companies, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), online gaming such as fantasy sports, food-tech services, home decor and retail. While, start-up ecosystem will be cautious on spending with the ad spends significantly lower than the last 12-18 months.”