For decades, the Indian festive season has been the retail equivalent of the cricket World Cup: a time when brands throw their best offers into the fray, consumers loosen their purse strings, and the market witnesses a surge in sales that sustains businesses for months after.
The Festive 2025 consumer survey report reveals, the game has changed. Discounts are losing impact because they have become predictable and less persuasive. What is emerging in their place is a new instrument of persuasion: rewards. They are not merely transactional sweeteners, but tools of engagement, loyalty, and storytelling.
Why Discounts Are Losing Their Edge
When 78% of consumers say pricing should 'go further' beyond discounts, they are expressing a fatigue born of overexposure. A festival sale used to be an event; now, with perpetual 'mega days' and 'lowest price' claims, discounts no longer carry the thrill of rarity.
For a brand manager in FMCG, auto, retail, or consumer durables, this matters. Deep discounts cut into margins and often fail to create lasting loyalty. The consumer remembers the lower price, not the brand that offered it. Rewards, by contrast, enhance perceived value without lowering the selling price, protecting both profitability and brand equity.
The Power of Surprise and Delight
Among today’s consumers 'surprise and delight' is emerging as a strategic lever for differentiation. The concept is not about adding a token extra, but about engineering moments of value the consumer does not anticipate yet instantly appreciates. These moments transform a transaction into a brand encounter with emotional weight.
Ask shoppers what they want this festive season and many will tell you — 44% want to be surprised, 36% want rewards they’ve never seen before. The implication for brand leaders is clear: a competitive festive strategy in 2025 cannot rely on linear incentives alone.
Rewards must be designed to break the expectation cycle, align with lifestyle aspirations, and deliver relevance at the exact point of engagement. Done right, this approach not only drives immediate conversion but also turns the product into an asset that price discounts can never match.
Gamification: From Engagement Tactic to Strategic Advantage
Gamification in festive promotions is often misunderstood as adding superficial “play” to a campaign. In reality, when designed with intent, it is a tool that drives repeat engagement, increases time spent with the brand, and enhances reward perception. Our two decades of experience have shown that well-structured gamification delivers higher participation rates, longer campaign life cycles, and stronger redemption metrics than static reward offers.
Our Festive 2025 survey also validates this: 42% of consumers enjoy gamified experiences, and this preference translates into measurable commercial outcomes. Mechanics such as tiered challenges, progressive unlocks, and instant-win loops create anticipation cycles that encourage multiple brand interactions across the festive season. Unlike discounts, which end at the point of purchase, gamification sustains consumer attention over days or weeks—maximising visibility, advocacy, and sales opportunities.
How Campaigns Are Discovered Now
The way consumers discover festive promotions has fundamentally shifted. According to our Festive 2025 data, 80% of campaign awareness is now generated outside traditional advertising channels—with social media, WhatsApp, and influencer-led content, emerging as primary touchpoints.
This has two strategic implications. First, campaign visibility is now driven by shareability rather than spend. The reward has to be distinctive and instantly communicable in a few seconds of screen time. Second, the moment of discovery is often peer-led, meaning campaigns must be designed for earned reach from the outset, not as an afterthought.
Why Reward Campaigns Fail
Even high-budget festive reward campaigns underperform when they miss core execution realities. The most common issue is a perceived lack of authenticity—our Festive 2025 data shows that 25% of consumers disengage if the reward feels “too good to be true” or is poorly communicated. Without clarity of offer and visible proof of legitimacy, trust collapses before the campaign can build momentum.
Another major barrier is redemption friction. Over 20% of shoppers drop out when faced with long forms, multiple verification steps, or delayed fulfilment. In the festive season, when shoppers are in a heightened state of urgency and distraction, the expectation is instant gratification.
Relevance is equally critical. 11% of consumers lose interest when rewards have little to do with the product category or their lifestyle, which also diminishes the likelihood of positive word-of-mouth. Even the most generous prize will struggle to drive advocacy if it feels disconnected from the purchase.
These are not operational footnotes; they are revenue risks. Each pitfall directly reduces campaign ROI and undermines the long-term equity of running reward-led promotions.
A Strategic Imperative for 2025
For brand managers, this is not a matter of creative preference—it is a question of competitive advantage. In the most important quarter of the year, the brands that will win are those that turn the festive season from a price war into a stage for memorable engagement.
Discounts may still move inventory, but rewards—personalised, gamified, and built to surprise—build relationships. They generate goodwill, advocacy, and repeat business. They convert festive footfalls into long-term customers.
In 2025, the choice for brand leaders is clear: keep playing the old game of arithmetic or embrace the new one of strategy. The former gives you a sale; the latter gives you a customer.
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