Festival Season Marketing Planner
This planner helps Indian brands build a structured marketing budget for the festive season — covering Navratri, Dussehra, Diwali, Dhanteras, and the broader October-November period — with channel allocation guidance calibrated to the unique audience behavior and competitive dynamics of India's peak spending season. It is designed for brand managers and marketing heads who need to build a defensible festive budget quickly and communicate channel priorities to media agencies. The planner models scenarios across TV, digital, OOH, and in-store activation simultaneously.
Inputs
Results
How this is calculated
Enter your total festive season marketing budget, your brand category, and your primary objectives, and the planner distributes the budget across channels with allocation recommendations informed by festive season audience patterns and media cost inflation benchmarks.
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Frequently asked questions
How much should a brand spend on Diwali marketing?
Festive season marketing budgets in India vary enormously by brand size and category. Large FMCG and consumer electronics brands routinely allocate INR 50 to 200 crore to the October-November festive period. Mid-size brands in categories like apparel, jewellery, and home furnishings often spend INR 5 to 30 crore on festive marketing. Smaller brands and regional players focus festive spend on digital and local OOH rather than broadcast. A reasonable guideline is to allocate 25 to 35% of your annual marketing budget to the festive season, reflecting the outsized share of annual sales the period represents in most consumer categories.
Which channels work best for Diwali marketing?
Television, particularly prime-time slots and festival special programming, remains the dominant reach channel for Diwali marketing in India. Digital — especially short-form video on YouTube, Instagram, and JioCinema — is essential for reaching urban millennials and Gen Z audiences. OOH in high-footfall retail and commercial zones builds frequency and supports in-store conversion. Performance digital including search and shopping ads is important for capturing high-intent buyers in the final days before Diwali. The optimal mix varies by category: premium and aspirational categories weight toward TV and OOH, while e-commerce-forward brands prioritize digital.
How early should I plan festive season marketing?
Creative development and media booking for the Diwali season should begin by August to secure premium inventory and production quality. Major broadcast networks and OOH vendors book festival season inventory early, and late entrants often pay a premium for whatever remains available. Media inflation during the festive period can be 20 to 40% above regular-season rates, so finalizing budgets and rate negotiations before September gives you materially more buying power than a last-minute plan.