Every year as the festive season arrives, India turns into a dazzling stage for brands. From Diwali to Durga Puja, Navratri to Onam, it is not just homes that light up but also advertising calendars, marketing playbooks and consumer sentiment. For marketers, this is the busiest and most crucial window of the year, when ad spends swell and campaigns get bolder.
But this year the script is a little different. With an early Diwali compressing the festive window, muted overall AdEx growth, and the absence of a global cricket spectacle, marketers are recalibrating strategies, some scaling cautiously, others stepping on the accelerator with fresh campaigns, regional storytelling and sharper digital playbooks.
This year the overall growth in AdEx is projected to be between 7-8%, which is a slowdown as compared to last year, reflecting across mediums. This will apply to the festive period as well, where growth in festive marketing spend looks paler when compared to last year, with the tariff war leaving businesses, markets and consumers a bit on edge.
“If ad spends during the festive season last year are indexed at 100, this year it will be no more than 109-112, with the contribution range broadly remaining the same,” says Aditi Mishra, CEO, Lodestar UM.
However, this year marketers are opening their wallets with festive budgets, seeing a healthy 10–15% jump over last year. “This surge is expected to be led by auto launches - including new variants and facelifts, alongside mobile category upgrades, and e-commerce campaigns picking up pace with daily and weekly initiatives to boost sales – all of which anticipate consumer sentiment peaking during this period. For many of these categories, festive spending is not discretionary but a strategic investment that shapes year-end performance and defines competitive market share,” says Yatin Balyan, Managing Partner - Investments, Omnicom Media Group India.
He adds that 2025 brings the Asia Cup squarely into the heart of the festive season, delivering sustained excitement and creating a unifying cultural moment. This offers sustained consumer attention and emotional engagement at a time when purchase intent is naturally elevated.
Unlike 2024, when the Cricket World Cup hogged attention (and inventory), the festive season in 2025 stands tall on its own, giving brands a clearer stage to shine.
“We are planning to ramp up marketing and advertising spends in the upper end of 10–12 percent to maximise our efforts,” says
Amit Syngle, CEO, Asian Paints. He also notes that the shorter season this year makes efficiency critical, especially with newer services such as painting and home solutions in play.
This year’s festive season is set to kick off a little earlier. With Diwali landing on October 20-21, the peak festive window has shrunk to about 45 days, pushing brands to adopt sharper, burst-driven campaigns. To make the most of this compressed timeline, marketers are expected to front-load their messaging and go live with festive ads sooner than usual. At the same time, there is heightened scrutiny on ROI, with brands demanding clear, measurable outcomes from their investments. As a result, programmatic media buying, AI-led optimisation, and real-time performance tracking are likely to play a much bigger role in festive strategies this year.
If one theme stands out this year, it’s the emphasis on regional celebrations. Beauty and personal care brands are leading this charge, blending tradition with hyper-local engagement. Poulomi Roy, CMO, Joy Personal Care (RSH Global), explains how the brand is anchoring its festive narrative around local pride, she says, “This year, our focus has been on strengthening regional connections through culturally relevant and experiential marketing initiatives. In Maharashtra, we are leveraging Ganesh Chaturthi with Zee Marathi Sanman and a collaboration with popular Marathi content creators. In West Bengal, we are amplifying the pre-Pujo excitement through Times Pujor Hullor.”
Swati Rathi, Head of Marketing at Godrej’s Appliances Business, points out that the larger focus during the festive period is on driving visibility on-ground, particularly at stores and on digital platforms focusing on the shopper journey. “In-store & store front visibility, digital amplification, influencer collaborations, etc., all gain importance. Some markets will receive a greater thrust on multiple media vehicles, based on new product focus and demand dynamics. Kerala, for example, has an ongoing video campaign on linear TV, connected TV and mobile video platforms, apart from store-level thrust for Onam,” she adds.
For Oppo India, the festive season is less a sales cycle and more a cultural canvas. Sushant Vashistha, Head of Product and Digital Marketing, Oppo, puts it simply: “On the festive marketing front, we don’t just promote our products; we celebrate with the nation – embracing the colours, traditions, and emotions of our vibrant country, just like our ‘#VishwasKaDeep’ campaign from last year.” The brand is already building on highly celebrated campaigns like Live the ‘Aawara Life’ for the Reno14 Series and ‘#ZindagiKeRealHeroes’ for the F29 Series, with plans to deepen its multichannel approach spanning Digital, TV, outdoor and retail.
Tech players are particularly bullish, both on ad spend and storytelling. Acer India, for instance, has lifted festive marketing investments by 12–15% compared to last year. “This rise is driven by stronger consumer sentiment and increased market competition during the festive period,” says Sooraj Balakrishnan, Head of Marketing & Associate Director, Acer India. A large portion of its budget is flowing into OTT, influencer partnerships, gaming-led events and immersive experiences like Acer Day. For Acer, festive accounts for nearly 30–35% of its annual AdEx, underscoring how critical the window remains even in a volatile economy. The company is also betting big on trends like regional personalisation and offline retail revival, both of which are shaping consumer behaviour across smaller cities.
Asus is reading the same cues. “For Asus, the festive season is a pivotal moment to connect with new consumers and deepen brand affinity with existing ones,” says Paramjeet Singh Mehta, Marketing & Product Head, Consumer PC & Gaming, Asus. “We’ve increased our festive allocation by 10% with a strong emphasis on digital platforms, influencer-led storytelling, and immersive retail experiences,” explains Mehta. With no overlapping global events this year, Asus expects undivided consumer attention and is spreading its AdEx across Digital, affordability-led promotions and retail visibility across 4,200+ points of sale.
“Festive marketing is expected to make up around 20% of the advertising spend this year. This period is one of the most important for the brand, as festivals naturally encourage celebrations, gifting, and family time, moments where ice cream fits perfectly. NIC’s Indian desserts like Gulab Jamun, Modak, Mothichoor, Gajar Halwa in the form of ice creams add another touch of festivity for its consumers. The season also brings in many first-time customers who try the brand during festive gatherings, helping to build long-term loyalty well beyond the season itself,” says NIC Ice Cream Spokesperson.
Hema Malik, Chief Investment Officer, IPG Mediabrands, points out that while digital continues to dominate order volumes, print is emerging stronger. “Television and broadcast have not shown good growth in Q1, but print definitely did. Print will show double-digit growth this festive season, while digital will continue to take the bulk,” she says.
This festive season, there is a more balanced distribution across mediums. “Digital is expected to lead with around 48–50% of ad spends, driven by OTT, social, and e-commerce platforms that allow sharper targeting and performance measurement. Television continues to be a very strong pillar with close to 28–30% share, particularly on general entertainment and regional channels that attract high festive viewership. The remaining 20–22% is distributed across print, outdoor, and radio, which still play an important role in certain markets and categories,” says Uday Mohan, COO, Havas Media & Havas Play India. “Importantly, brands are moving away from treating these platforms in isolation today. We see a conscious move towards integrated campaigns that blend the mass reach of television with the precision of digital, while also leveraging the contextual strengths of print and outdoor,” he adds.
The absence of a marquee cricket tournament during the festive season is another differentiator from recent years, when the festive season coincided with the ICC World Cup in 2023, the T20 World Cup in 2022, and India’s bilateral tours. The next big bilateral series, India versus Australia, begins on October 19, overlapping directly with Diwali. While advertisers may divert some spends to the Asia Cup in September, much of the focus will shift towards entertainment properties.
“This year, there are other content and sporting options available to advertisers. Without major sporting distractions, advertisers will invest in authentic festive storytelling that resonates culturally rather than piggybacking on sporting excitement. While some advertisers will likely go to Asia Cup, scheduled between Sep 9-28 before peak festive period, others will stick to entertainment options like KBC and Bigg Boss (national + regional) and redirect those budgets toward sustained festive campaigns rather than event-specific activations,” says Aditi Mishra.
India’s six-week festive season around Diwali saw weaker demand in 2024 versus 2023 due to persistent macroeconomic headwinds, rising interest rates, higher household debt, and tighter lending norms. This curbed demand for both loans and consumer goods. The surging gold prices further weighed on auspicious purchases, while retailers grappled with muted sales growth and margin pressures.
“Previous year was a muted growth but this year we seem hopeful of a revival,” says Hema Malik. India’s retail sales rose 8% year-on-year in July 2025, according to Retail Association of India’s (RAI) recent Retail Business Survey. Categories such as apparel, jewellery, sporting goods, and furniture grew by 9%, whereas footwear and beauty and wellness rose by 5%. The findings highlight resilient consumer demand, and retailers remain optimistic that the upcoming festive season will further boost sales.
As India enters its most vibrant season, the festive marketplace feels both familiar and new. The sparkle of Diwali, the buzz of Durga Puja, and the shopping rush in towns and metros remain timeless anchors. Yet, a tighter calendar, a cautious economy, and sharper ROI expectations are compelling brands to rethink how they connect with consumers this year.
