There’s high demand for mid-range & luxury housing this festive season: Snehil Gautam

This time of the year marks one of the most crucial periods for businesses. Consumer sentiment is at its highest, and spending patterns reflect the festive spirit. From offers and discounts to large-scale campaigns and personalized engagement, brands explore every avenue to stand out in a highly competitive marketplace. The rise of digital marketing and the increasing role of e-commerce has 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 analysis, 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.

Housing.com is a real estate advertising platform where developers, brokers, landlords, and homeowners can list/buy or rent property – new homes, plots, rentals, co-living spaces, and resale homes according to their preferences. For individuals searching for a place to live or rent, with or without brokerage, Housing.com is the one-stop destination. It offers services such as sales, advertising, marketing solutions for real estate developers, virtual viewing, personalized or customized content, home loans, AR/VR content, and complete transaction and post-transaction services to customers for both renting out and buying property.

In conversation with Adgully, Snehil Gautam, CMO, Housing.com, PropTiger.com and Makaan.com, share his observations on the overall consumer and market sentiment during the festive season this year, what forms the core of the festive marketing strategy of Housing.com  as well as the campaign strategy for the festive season. He also discusses about marketing/ advertising budget for the festive season of Housing.com in 2024, what percentage increase (or decrease) is it in comparison to the previous year, and more.

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

The 2024 festive season has shown strong market sentiment, marked by high demand across segments, especially in mid-range and luxury housing. Buyers are leaning towards ready-to-move-in properties and branded developers, valuing trust and transparency.

While rising home loan interest rates have introduced caution, developers are offering attractive festive discounts and flexible payment options to keep demand steady.

Sustainability and smart home features have become key preferences, with growing demand for eco-friendly, tech-enabled homes. Overall, consumer confidence remains high, bolstered by stable property prices and India's positive economic outlook.

What forms the core of your festive marketing strategy this year? Could you tell us about your campaign strategy for the festive season?

Housing.com’s core strategy is to create impact with high visibility concentrated media bets since we saw in our media consumption study that 97% of our core TG is on OTT and social media platforms.

Housing.com has an aggressive campaign lined up with digital sponsorships on high-impact prime shows like ‘BiggBoss Season 18’ and major cricketing events like India vs Bangladesh T20 on OTT-CTV, while we sustain this with high-frequency social media and digital news campaigns creating high recall for the brand.

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

While we can’t share specific figures, the major shift this year stems from our strategy to move from traditional media to a digital-first media mix.

This change is driven by insights from an in-depth consumer survey, which highlighted the growing preference for digital platforms. By reallocating funds to focus on digital we are taking big focused media bets across key shows and cricketing events on OTT-CTV with sustained high visibility campaigns across social media and digital news.

⁠Given the increasing fragmentation of media consumption, how is Housing.com allocating festive ad budgets across different platforms?

Our research shows that 97% of our core target audience is active on social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram, as well as OTT platforms, with about 70% primarily on CTV. From our T20 World Cup campaign, we learned that making deep, concentrated media investments in marquee properties allows us to reach most of our target audience in a short period, thereby creating significant brand impact.

We are doubling down on this approach, combining key live sporting events, high-impact GEC shows, and high-frequency social media efforts.