Festive Promotions: Last year, this time

That time of the year again!

It is that time of the year again when almost all Indians are a brand’s TG with Raksha Bandhan in August to Christmas in December. It is also the time when we loosen our purse strings and go on a shopping spree, since everything we need and don’t need, is available at ‘unbelievable’ prices and offers. Apart from traditional consumer durables and apparels, many more segments are seeing a rise in sales like travel, banking, grooming and more. Last year this time, we had penned down a few popular and offbeat occasions celebrated in India and the festive promotion opportunities a brand can explore from August to December. This year, we’re giving you highlights of campaigns we did during the festive season last year and what marketing tactics your brand can explore to run festive promotions and create a big dhamaka!

For a Smoke-free Dhamaka, Run Contests and Sweepstakes

In a country where cars, gold and international travel are aspirational to the masses during the festive season, running a high-decibel contest or a sweepstakes will never fail to attract your customers. Since the time leading up to Diwali has come to be regarded auspicious to make big purchases, like cars, machinery and electronics – offering customers big rewards will build virality. Understanding your TG’s aspirations and then giving them ‘a chance to win’ an aspirational prize will get most attention.

Last year during festive season, when families tend to shop and celebrate together, Coca Cola wanted to incentivize customers to make ‘more than usual’ purchase of Coca Cola beverages. Befitting the occasion when customers tend to buy gold, we came up with a gold festive promotion wherein customers stood a chance to win a gold every hour. A bumper prize of Rs.25,000 gold voucher was also up for grabs.

Assured Rewards – Discounts ke perfect substitutes

Instead of going down the old road of discounts that erode your brand value, this Diwali create festive promotions that offer valuetocustomers. Instead of discounts, offer your customers discountske perfect substitutes – ‘Assured Rewards’ on every purchase that have a higher perceived value than discounts. Assured rewards can be used to achieve multiple objectives: increase sales or average billing of an SKU, reward customers on referrals, induce repeat purchase and more… All this at a fraction of the cost to your brand. Another important thing to keep in mind if you’re planning a festive promotion via assured rewards is the fact that offering customers relevant rewards with high perceived value will always get their attention.

Around Navratri last year, we created a festive promotion for Olay wherein spa and salon vouchers were given away on every purchase. This was based on the insight that during Navratri celebrations, women tend to use a lot of salon services.

Add masala to your Festive Promotions with Promo Tech

Once you have your strategy for festive promotions in place, whether they are assured gifts on purchase or contests and sweepstakes, what comes next? The right tech of course! A critical element of your campaign, tech helps you deliver instant gratification, engaging gamification and virality. Innovative AR/VR based festive promotions have been less explored in India but because India is moving towards becoming a mobile-first country, there won’t be a better time than now to add that extra tech masalato your festive promotions. Over and above these technologies, your brand can opt for a rather simpler tech integration of gamification in existing promos to create a big bang. These fun gamification elements like spin-the-wheels and slot machines can be integrated to build engagement across devices and platforms.

Brands can also create occasion-specific gamification concepts like the one we created for Havells, the ‘Door of Happiness’ during last Diwali. Under this, customers could ‘open’ a virtual door of happiness that could win them exciting rewards like movie tickets, coffee dates and even Honda Activa scooters!

Festive Promotion Overlays in Loyalty Programs

If your brand already has a bomb loyalty program in place, add a dhamaka to it by integrating festive promotional overlaysin the loyalty program structure. And no better time than the festive season to do this because it will serve both your objectives: engagement and gratification. Promotional Overlays are short-term tactical campaigns thatnot only motivate specific behaviours as per the business requirement, but also are layered onto existing programs without changing the loyalty program framework.

Last year, a few months before Diwali, we had created a customized loyalty rewards app for Coca Cola to engage their sales and trade channel. Given that Diwali was coming, Coca Cola wanted to run a festive activation for their sales channel on this app, parallel to their on-pack consumer promo, ‘Khushiyon Ki Diwali’.App users (retailers) could participate in a contest by uploading store front images of Coca Cola’s POSM and collecting points to unlock a Wheel of Fortune.

Team Up for a Dhamakedaar Season!

Given the trend in higher disposable incomes and spends during festive occasions, the opportunities for brands across sectors is only growing. Brands can now try new creative ways to engage with customers and run festive promotions. Are you looking for ideas to run festive promotions this season? Then talk to our experts today who can concoct the perfect formula for a big bang – A campaign that fits your brief, budget, and positioning. Drop us a mail at marketing@bigcity.in or visit www.bigcity.in to know more.