How brands are increasing their investments in content this festive season

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the one marketing strategy that transpired to be the most effective, capturing the global spotlight, will undoubtedly be content marketing.

To accelerate communication with customers, while keeping them engaged in limited budgets and mediums restricted to just digital, content showed marketers light at the end of the tunnel when they were forced to switch gears and think of alternative outlets due to the pandemic.

During this festival season, when the budgets of brands are still as low key as consumer sentiment, content remains the larger focus for many brands.

While some are upping their spends in the content space, a few are re-aligning their monies towards content marketing initiatives.

Karthik Nagarajan

Karthik Nagarajan, Chief Content Officer, Wavemaker India, said this festive season coincides with the formal end of the lockdown and he expects spirits to be reasonably high, even as we account for the rising number of cases.

Consequently, he expects brands to do more during this time as festivals are always a great time to connect with customers.

Vivek Srivatsa

Vivek Srivatsa, Head, Marketing, Passenger Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors, said while digital outreach allow brands to constantly engage with customers, content creation has an important role to play in this regard.

The brand is largely focusing on the same to reach out to its target audience. Having developed content in various formats, including puzzles and games amid the pandemic, for the festive season, the brand is developing content to enable product discovery and other digital content developed in line with content consumption patterns.

The upsurge of online content consumption since the pandemic has broadened the spectrum for content creators, both at an individual and company level, creating new opportunities as well as challenges.

Chaitanya Ramalingegowda

“As people's dependence on e-commerce increases, this festive season promises to be conducive for D2C brands that offer significant value to customers in the form of great quality, affordable prices and informative content,” said Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, Co-founder and Director, Wakefit.co.

Having always been a believer of the authentic content, the company will continue to focus on generating content that is cost-effective yet innovative and engaging during the festive season. 

“Like any other brand, we too increase our spends for the annual festive season. It might be in the range of 20% increase. However, more than the budget increase, we focus on getting the messaging right and ensure we can reach the right audience at the right time to enable their decision making,” he added. 

The brand recently launched the video campaign of Sleep Internship’s (Season 2) early bird selection, in collaboration with Netflix’s Indian Matchmaking fame’s Pandit Janardhan Dhruve, which will take pre-registered candidates directly to the final interview round. It is also working on promotions that are to take place during IPL in order to engage with that audience and garner visibility.

the Sleep Internship’s season two:

Tanvi Malik

“A lot of brands will be upping their spends and efforts as well in the content space this festive season and not just for their websites but on social media as well. For a lot of retailers, the priority has already changed from a seller to an engager and that is where more focus for content comes into play and brands won’t be spending too much on ATL activities,” said Tanvi Malik, Co-Founder, High Street Essentials Pvt. Ltd (FabAlley, Indya and Zyra).

The company plans to focus more on building more shoppable content on its website this festive season. The focus will be to keep the customers engaged and as discretionary spending is still low, it will be showcasing more of the brand’s appeal.

Vishesh Sharma

Vishesh Sharma, Head, Corporate Communications and Content Marketing, Angel Broking, is of the belief that brands ideally should up their spends in content around the festivities as they don’t have any other option left to reach out to the customers and engage with them amid the pandemic. 

However, he added, “I am not sure they will be upping the spends but content has to be the focus. To up the budget, you also need to have that budget. They might not up the budget but definitely realign the budget towards content marketing.”

Nishit Nanda

Nishit Nanda, CEO, Consumer Business, Khimji Jewels, said that content marketing, especially during falling sales, is a necessary strategy for consolidating brand equity and cementing relationships with audiences.

“While the nature of adex will undergo radical changes, digital and social content is going to become more the mainstream norm than isolated examples,” he said.

Brands that listen to their customers will be in a strong position to innovate meaningfully and create content that is contextual, creative and entertaining via content. But what format will be effective for them?

More focus on video formats:

The shift in buying patterns is likely to create demand for new communication avenues and channels. And so Ramalingegowda expects digital mediums to witness rapid growth in brand spends, with a rise in demand for channels such as WhatsApp, ShareChat, etc., to capitalise on the presence of tier two audiences.

He said, “For regular online shoppers, social media and marketplaces will continue to remain significant. Video content on YouTube and influencer marketing is set to witness larger brand presence this festive season. We estimate a rise in demand for news portals, news apps, OTT platforms, social media and original and creative video content, while podcasts will slowly but steadily gain prominence.”

Instagram in terms of social media is really becoming popular, especially after the introduction of the Reels and the ban of TikTok.

And thus, Malik feels that video content via Reels and IGTV will be produced more this festive season for the brands.  Apart from this, influencer marketing too will be increased. Since discretionary spending is lower, people are looking up to the opinion leaders for references and advocacy.

Nagarajan said, “Video will no doubt be the focus and brands will continue to use them to create conversations on social. An overlapping of the IPL this year will also spur a lot of innovation in terms of formats and platforms.”

Although there still remains those brands that haven’t yet invested in content marketing and might be looking out for opportunities for this festive season to connect with their customers.

So, why and what kind of brands need to make the most of this festive season via content:

Besides the fact that festival season usually results in increased consumer spending, it is also a time when emotions are high and a sense of togetherness is in the air.

Brands that make an emotional impact on the consumer, whether it is through an offer / sale or emotionally, are also likely to enjoy a higher conversion on purchase intent, said Nagarajan.

The market has come to the level where consumers are aware of so many products of so many various categories. And they want to know more why they should buy a particular brand’s products (especially in the crisis) and what does a brand stand for while also being emotionally attached to it.

Therefore, Malik suggested there is no better time than this to invest in content but brands shouldn’t be focusing on pure play blog content.

“Brands also need to monetise the engagement that they are driving and focus a lot on video content, especially the short-format videos for retailers. Cosmetics is one category that is really doing great and will be doing more content,” she added.

This festive season is going to be different from what it has been in the past few years. Restrictions in movement and a lot of daily activities nudged us to alter our way of living.

Consumers have been indoors for a few months now and the festive season is something that everyone is looking forward to.

As staying indoors has kept consumers hooked to social media platforms, they are more likely to focus on what is happening in the space and keep a close watch on what brands have in store for them and this presents a rather unique opportunity for brands, said Ramalingegowda.

He said brands are already going back to the drawing boards, reassess their priorities, and reboot their marketing plans to deal with a unique festive season when most consumers are indoors.

Srinivas Rao

Srinivas Rao, Sr. Vice-President, Marketing, Lifestyle, believes this festive season will be a good opportunity for brands to capitalise on digital and social mediums, where brands can gain maximum visibility by creating curated content and amplifying high-performing categories across occasions and platforms.