E-tailers bet on local language, videos, influencers to promote festival sales

The focus of the big e-commerce firms during the festive sales is majorly towards digital marketing. The videos, vernacular content and influencer engagement is considered as a big reason to give boost to the industry. With a focus to leverage the rising demand in tier II and III towns, online companies have been using content and entertainment to attract customers during the festive sale period.

“It is no surprise that the digital platforms are cannibalizing mass media advertising spends owing to the level of smartphones and data penetration. Different categories of online firms will use the media money on various digital assets depending on their individual brand planning and that’s what we are witnessing," said Mr. Sandeep Goyal, Media Veteran and Chairman, Mogae Media, a Mumbai-based marketing and communication agency.

With the launch of Reliance Jio, there has been shift in advertisement spending from mass media channels to digital platforms. For example, Flipkart has partnered with a group of regional and local influencers along with a diverse portfolio of offline brands. This is to offer consumers a wide range and cover every touch point. The idea is to capture the next 200 million consumers, hailing from smaller cities with a need of easy discovery as they navigate the benefits of e-commerce.

The firms are also leveraging food, fashion and travel to promote its sale. Flipkart has partnered with SpiceJet through branded aircrafts with a purpose to reach out to seven million consumers. Burger King, a quick service restaurant chain has also entered into partnership with the firm and has introduced branded whopper burgers.

“Our idea is to be where our consumers are and they are not just accessible through mainstream media channels anymore," said Vikas Gupta, head of marketing at Flipkart. “We have amped our efforts to democratize commerce by not just facilitating buyers from across the country but also onboard sellers from diversified sectors onto our platform. We also introduced the Hindi interface which will attract a whole new set of consumers, especially from smaller cities, onto the platform."

Despite a slump in the consumer spending and the general slowdown in the market, festival advertising is expected to grow at 10-12 per cent over 2018 to reach as much as Rs. 20,000 crore (US$ 2.86 billion) in 2019 with online firms being the leading contributor.

Paytm Mall has been using ‘Mahacashback Carnival’ as it is promoting scheme for festival sale to reach out to more than 400 million internet users largely using digital marketing.

“Our audience is 18-28 years and their consumption habits clearly indicate they are digital consuming content on mobile and we would want to heavily focus our efforts on digital platforms like Facebook, video platforms, content portals and Paytm app for online," said Mr. Srinivas Mothey, senior vice-president, Paytm Mall.

The promotions are happening on the Paytm app along with specific user profile targeting on content destinations such as Digit, 91mobiles, NDTV Gadgets, Hotstar, YouTube, Facebook, Google, Inshorts and more apps/destinations where younger audience consume content.

Pepperfry, an online furniture platform is also depending on the engaging digital videos across platforms to promote its Furniture Mania Sale.

“The special feature of this sale is that, we have worked with our merchant partners specially to get new designs and products specifically for the festive season and these will be a part of the Furniture Mania Sale. We will be promoting this new sale concept with short films on various online video platforms," said Mr. Kashyap Vadapalli, Chief Marketing Officer, Pepperfry.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.