Rohit Jangra on Beyond The Brief: Diwali Campaigns and Impact

"In 2025, my north star is incremental impact, whether the campaign is actually driving uplift in brand preference or sales beyond the baseline," says Rohit Jangra, Senior Director, Integrated Planning, dentsu. Rohit is featured next in Beyond the Brief: Season 3, our agency-first series running alongside Festival of Gifts, to translate live festive campaign outcomes into testable moves for planners, creatives, buyers, and strategists. Read Rohit’s full conversation for practical guidance on attention metrics, brand lift studies, and the tactics that make festive creative stick - https://lnkd.in/gia_W2ac Samudra Bhattacharya | Satyajit Sengupta | Puneet Jain | Jaideep Dahiya | Swati Sharda | Saras Sethi | Swapnil Ravindran | Faiz Rehman | Saurabh Sharma | Rishi Khanna | Shaily Sardana | Arabinda Ghosh | Lovel Jain #FestivalofGiftswithHT

The festive season is here - and with it, the biggest moment for brands to shine. As OMG India's Managing Partner of Investments, Yatin Ram Balyan, highlights, this year’s surge in festive ad spends is matched by sharper storytelling, deeper regional connections, and campaigns built on cultural emotion. Further commenting on the trends shaping this year compared to last year, he states, "We are witnessing a decisive pivot towards CTV-first strategies by mass-premium brands. With the rapid growth of CTV, many such brands are expected to adopt CTV-led campaign strategies - anchored in marquee properties and impact-driven moments, to capture high-value audiences with both scale and precision." Read the full cover story on IMPACT Weekly Magazine: https://lnkd.in/g4PttiEg Omnicom Media Group | Omnicom Media Group Asia Pacific #TransformExperiences #FestiveMarketing2025 #Festive2025 #CTV

AD - HT Media Group’s Beyond The Brief 3.0 takes you inside the minds of media leaders who cut through Diwali clutter. Featuring Avinash Tiwary, Head of Digital Services – North, Havas Media Network India, he shares how brands can be remembered, not just seen. For him, brand searches and query uplift are the North Star metrics, awareness and recall matter more than just reach or impressions. His festive strategy? Stop shouting, start connecting. And the myth he laughs at now: “Half my advertising budget is wasted.” In a digital-first world, every performance can be tracked and optimised in real time no mystery, no guesswork. Discover more festive insights from India’s top media leaders: https://lnkd.in/gia_W2ac #HTBeyondtheBrief

How do you tell if your festive creative actually stuck? Start with search. “Brand searches, the uplift in brand queries, are the primary metric I consider. In a cluttered space, being remembered is the entire battle.”, says Avinash Tiwary, Head of Digital Services (North), Havas Media Network India Beyond the Brief is back for Season 3. Running alongside Festival of Gifts, the series converts campaign learnings into short, usable playbooks for agency teams. Avinash walks through simple checks, watch brand-query trends, measure attention quality, and test one sharper creative signal that drives memory. This is no theory: these recommendations are grounded in contest-driven, first-party environments where you can see the signal. Read Avinash’s full Q&A and try one change this week. ▶ https://lnkd.in/gia_W2ac Samudra Bhattacharya | Satyajit Sengupta | Puneet Jain | Jaideep Dahiya | Swati Sharda | Saras Sethi | Swapnil Ravindran | Faiz Rehman | Saurabh Sharma | Rishi Khanna | Shaily Sardana | Arabinda Ghosh | Lovel Jain | Ganesan Prethi | Eswaran Arasu | Shilpi Thakur | Prashant Kumar | Rajiv Kar | Anjana Suresh #FestivalofGiftswithHT

Pretty soon… CPCs will shoot up, competition will be bloody, and one small mistake will burn half your budget. That’s Q4 my friend. But it’s also the cash register time. So let me break down the exact approach that can get you maximum returns: 1/. Creatives - Skip the Surface-Level Festive Overlays Most brands get this wrong. They think Diwali = random diyas and rangoli patterns plastered everywhere. Superficial festive graphics aren’t enough, focus on authentic cultural storytelling. Think family gatherings, the joy of gifting, preparing homes for celebrations, meaningful moments during festivals. The winning formula is… Traditional Diwali elements + genuine family stories + modern product benefits 2/. Budget Split: The 30-50-20 Rule Here's the exact breakdown we use for all festival campaigns: - 30% for pre-festival audience warming (start NOW) - 50% during peak Diwali/Christmas period - 20% for post-festival remarketing This has worked well for us as early audiences deliver 1.5x higher ROAS than peak-period campaigns. You're basically buying cheaper traffic before everyone else jumps in. 3/. Start Audience Warming Immediately Don't wait for the "final week push." That's when costs explode. Our best Diwali campaigns start creative development a month before. Launch broad awareness campaigns today. Build custom audiences of people engaging with your content. Then hit them with conversion campaigns when competition heats up during peak festival season. 4/. The 72-Hour Creative Refresh Rule Here's something most brands miss: Even your best Diwali creative will fail after 72 hours. Hour 0-24: Peak performance Hour 48-72: CPCs rise 15%+ Hour 72+: Performance drops 30-45% Have 6-9 creative variations ready to swap every 2-3 days. Single variable changes work best: same cultural hook, different visual, or same visual, different messaging. . . . . . . P.S. If you need experts’ help who know how to scale in Q4… Book a free strategy call today. . . . . #performancemarketing #ecommerceagency #metaads

From Dussehra to Diwali, every campaign choice counts. Festivals in India concentrate some of the year’s largest marketing spends and audience engagement, making them a decisive period for brands. In this guide, we outline creative formats, regional approaches, and measurement practices that help campaigns perform at scale while staying relevant to diverse audiences. With the right planning, festive campaigns can set the tone for stronger results this season. 🎊 👉Want to know more? Access the complete guide right here: https://lnkd.in/gGZfgTRK #MoveUpWithmDSP #FestiveMarketing #GrowthMarketing

AD – Diwali clutter? Vedang Jain of Prachar Communications Pvt. Ltd. shows how to shine through. Season 3 of HT Media Group’s Beyond The Brief dives into his festive insights. Jain says the key metric today isn’t just views. It’s engagement. “It’s not enough for your ad to be seen. It has to drive people to click, inquire, or search. Action, not exposure, is the true test.” On standing out, his advice is simple: stick to the brand’s voice. “Authenticity and consistency cut through the chaos better than gimmicks or chasing trends.” And the old belief he now chuckles at? “Bigger budgets don’t guarantee better campaigns. Smart strategy and creativity do.” Read more insights from India’s top agency minds here: https://lnkd.in/gia_W2ac #HTBeyondtheBrief

"It's not enough for your ad to be seen; it must be compelling enough for people to engage, click, inquire, or search. That's the true test of effectiveness. My north star is simple: impact measured by action, not just exposure," says Vedang Jain, Director, Prachar Communications Pvt. Ltd.. Vedang is featured next in Beyond the Brief: Season 3, our agency-first series running alongside Festival of Gifts, to translate live festive campaign outcomes into testable moves for planners, creatives, buyers, and strategists. Read Vedang’s full conversation for practical guidance on attention metrics, authenticity, consistency, and the tactics that make festive creative stick: https://lnkd.in/gia_W2ac Samudra Bhattacharya | Satyajit Sengupta | Puneet Jain | Jaideep Dahiya | Swati Sharda | Saras Sethi | Swapnil Ravindran | Faiz Rehman | Saurabh Sharma | Rishi Khanna | Shaily Sardana | Arabinda Ghosh | Lovel Jain #FestivalofGiftswithHT

As the festive season approaches, brands are gearing up for one of the most competitive advertising phases of the year — and success will depend on how smartly you plan your Diwali campaigns 🎯 Here are the three pillars every brand must focus on this season 👇 1️⃣ Visibility of Your Offer: Make sure your festive offer is visible in every touchpoint — whether it’s Search, Shopping, or Meta Ads. Highlight it in your headlines, primary text, or product feeds to capture attention instantly. 2️⃣ Smart Creative Testing: Avoid random creative experiments. Build one strong template system and only vary your communication — tone, color, and message — to identify what truly converts during this festive rush. 3️⃣ Festive Website Experience: Your website is your biggest conversion asset. Give it a Diwali theme with festive elements that build trust and excitement. The goal is simple — create an emotional connect before the customer adds to cart. This is the season where brands that plan ahead, test smarter, and communicate clearly will dominate both visibility and conversions. #DiwaliMarketing #PerformanceMarketing #DigitalAdvertising #FestiveSeason #EcommerceGrowth #MarketingStrategy #MetaAds #GoogleAds #CreativeTesting #ConversionOptimization #AdStrategy #Unnity

AD- In HT Media Group’s Beyond The Brief 3.0, Sujata Singh, President – South at Havas Media Network India, shares how festive success today isn’t about the loudest presence, but the smartest one. For her, the north star metric in 2025 is incremental business impact, not how many people saw the campaign, but how many of the right people engaged and converted. Her festive playbook? Create cultural moments, not just ads, combining strong creative, relevant platforms, and influencer authenticity to turn noise into recall. And the media myth she laughs at today? That one medium will always dominate. The truth is, channels change, but the consumer always stays at the centre. Discover more insights from industry leaders: https://lnkd.in/gia_W2ac #HTBeyondtheBrief