MIQ’s festive season budget is up 20% in 2024 compared to last year: Varun Mohan

This time of the year marks one of the most crucial periods for businesses, as consumer sentiment is at its highest, with spending patterns reflecting the festive spirit. From offers and discounts to large-scale campaigns and personalized engagement, brands are exploring every avenue to stand out in a highly competitive marketplace. The rise of digital marketing and the increasing role of e-commerce have also intensified the focus on omnichannel strategies, ensuring that consumers are met with consistent messaging across both online and offline platforms.

Adgully’s special annual column, FESTIVE MOOD, delves deep into the intricacies of these marketing activities, offering a holistic perspective on the trends that define this season. From ad spend projections to consumer behaviour analyses, the column covers all aspects of the festive landscape. It highlights how brands are planning to position themselves, what marketing strategies are being adopted, and how consumer sentiment is shaping the promotional and communication tactics being deployed.

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In an interaction with Adgully, Varun Mohan, Head of Growth & Revenue, MiQ, shares insights into the company’s festive marketing strategy for 2024. With consumer sentiment on the rise, driven by economic recovery and increased spending, MiQ is focusing on delivering data-driven programmatic ads to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Mohan highlights the importance of starting campaigns early, given that shoppers begin researching weeks before key festivals. He also touches upon the company’s omnichannel approach, blending digital, social media, and traditional media to maximize engagement.

What are your observations on the overall consumer and market sentiment during the festive season this year?

Shoppers begin their research three weeks before festivals, which means branding and performance campaigns must plan and start advertising at least a month in advance to win share of voice from their competitors. Festive sentiment this year is buoyant, driven by revival in the economy as well as higher expenditure. The growth in quick commerce and e-commerce platforms bodes well for brands across FMCG, lifestyle, beauty and consumer electronics space.

What forms the core of your festive marketing strategy this year?

We are connecting with consumers and are trying to deliver the message that in a cluttered marketplace, data-driven programmatic ads are your biggest weapon. Following the contemporary trends, we have evidenced that 25% of shoppers intend to spend over Rs 50,000, especially on personal gadgets, home appliances, jewellery, and automobiles. While ad engagement typically increases during this season, media costs are also expected to rise, projected to grow by 2.13 times. All that is underpinning our approach with engaging storytelling, focusing on community, and building connection with the brands. With MiQ’s data-driven approach focusing on personalization and cultural relevance, translating insights into tailored messages in line with this strategy. It seeks to establish connections within the community through storytelling and strikes a nerve with the aspirations of the festive consumer.

Could you tell us about your campaign strategy for the festive season?

This is an omnichannel campaign strategy, incorporating digital with the more traditional approach. Interactive user generated content enhances the engagement, and real-time analytics will provide agility in making alterations throughout the course of the season. The engagement with the influencers relevant to our desired market will increase our reach. Data analytics will be used in real-time optimization to help keep the campaign agile and effective throughout the season of the campaign. With a multi-channel campaign strategy, the combination of digital, social media, and more traditional approaches.

What is your marketing/ advertising budget for the festive season in 2024? What percentage increase (or decrease) is it compared to the previous year?

For the 2024 festival season, we have observed a sizable increase of about 20% in our budget as against last year. This aims to leverage the latest technologies at hand and increase our reach across different platforms. The agenda includes boosting digital capabilities and investing in various innovative ad formats.

Given the increasing fragmentation of media consumption, how are you allocating festive ad budgets across different platforms?

In the fragmented media landscape, we have a skewed balance of 65% against digital, which includes social and programmatic ad spends, and the balance goes to traditional media-that way, we both reach and engage totally. We target the right kind of audience with the targeted messages because those are the people who are more active in those respective channels. Then there will be traditional media, TV and print, taking up the remainder of 40%. We will keep tracking performance across all channels and adjust our strategy for maximum engagement and ROI.

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