Mastering Festive Season Marketing: Insider Tips from Baran and Samir

As the holiday season approaches, mobile app marketers in India gear up for one of the most competitive and rewarding times of the year. Our seasoned campaign managers, behind the scenes, are always on top of industry trends and driving stellar results to their diverse client portfolios.

In this blog, we had a chat with our expert campaign managers, Baranmalaya and Samir, to explore strategies and best practices for festive season campaigns.

1. How do seasonal campaigns differ from regular campaigns, and what are some marketplace changes during these times?

Baran’s Insights: Maximizing Visibility and Impact

During the festive seasons in India, one undeniable trend is the surge in CPMs (Cost Per Mille) due to heightened competition. This means that advertisers need to be prepared to adapt and thrive in a more competitive landscape. 

• Aggressive Bidding Strategies: To make your mark during these periods, aggressive bidding becomes crucial. Adjust your bidding strategies dynamically to ensure the right audience sees your ads.
• Expanding the Scope: While real-time campaigns are essential, the festive season is an ideal time to invest in brand awareness efforts. Building brand equity during these times will yield higher recall and long-term profitability.
• Embrace Urgency: Festive seasons are marked by a sense of urgency with shoppers looking for deals and gifts quickly. This means that your campaigns need to be designed for a shorter sales window. Ensure that your messaging and user experience facilitate swift decision-making and purchases.

Samir’s Strategies: Rekindling Dormant User Engagement

Samir’s insights focus on a valuable yet often overlooked segment of users—dormant users among other things.

• Reactivating Dormant Users: Dormant users hold untapped potential, and this potential is magnified during festive seasons, particularly for e-commerce apps. Use historical data to understand their preferences and craft personalized messaging and offers to re-engage them.
• Refresh Creative Design: In the already crowded Indian market, user fatigue can set in quickly if your advertising lacks versatility. To make a real impact during festive seasons, plan ahead and breathe new life into your ad designs. And most importantly, ensure that there are enough ad variations to avoid ad fatigue.
• Pre-Buzz Ads: Consider running pre-buzz ads in the lead-up to the actual sale events. These ads create excitement and anticipation among users, priming them for your festive offers. Pre-buzz ads can include teasers, countdowns, and sneak peeks. 

2. What ad formats should marketers explore for festive campaigns, given the heightened competition during this period?

Samir’s Insights 

• Hybrid Ads: Hybrid ads are a strong choice. They allow you to convey your message visually while also displaying personalized recommendations. For example, a fashion e-commerce app can showcase its festive clothing collection in a video, while the banner highlights custom offers for each user. 

  

• User Testimonial Videos: For gaming apps, user testimonial videos are a goldmine. Gamers trust the opinions of their peers above all else. These ads can feature players sharing their experiences and excitement about the game. We have seen this approach significantly boost CTR and conversion rates.
  

  Baran’s Recommendations: 

• Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) Ads: DCO ads are a game-changer for personalized marketing.
  They analyze user behavioral data to serve tailored content to each user. It’s the best way to stand out in the noisy festive advertising landscape.
  
• Interstitial Ads: Interstitial ads offer a full-screen experience, ensuring users pay attention. They are excellent for building brand awareness. Consider using them for Pre-buzz sales; this prime screen time can generate buzz and anticipation.

 3. In a culturally diverse country like India, creative localization can work wonders. What strategies have worked well for your clients?

Creative localization is a winning strategy,  in a culturally diverse country like India, where traditions, languages, and preferences vary so wildly and wonderfully.

Baran and Samir have shared some strategies based on their learnings. 

• Contextual Celebrity Selection: India’s love for cinema and television is deeply ingrained in its cultural identity. One size does not fit all, and what resonates with audiences in one region will not work in another. It’s always worth collaborating with local icons or regional celebrities who enjoy a strong following in specific areas. These individuals can better connect with the local audience and enhance the credibility of your brand.
  

• English, while widely understood, is not the most effective language for communication, especially in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. The key to their hearts is speaking their own language. However, it’s not just about translation; it’s about localization. Collaborate with local experts to ensure precise, culturally sensitive messaging. Avoid common pitfalls—what’s festive in one region might not work in another. Local expertise makes all the difference.
  

• Get Festive with the Visuals: Visual storytelling can play a pivotal role in conveying traditions. Using images and videos that depict the essence of local customs and traditions can create a powerful connection with viewers.

4. Given the intense competition during the festive season, what budget allocation and bidding strategies would help app marketers maximize their ROI? 

Baran’s strategies:

• Bid Based on Intent: Consider bidding higher only when you identify high intent among users. For instance, there’s a distinct difference in intent between someone who adds a product to their cart and someone who simply opens the app. Tailor your bidding strategy accordingly.
• Focus on Bottom of the Funnel Users: Positioning in the marketing funnel matters. Concentrate your efforts on users closer to conversion (bottom of the funnel) rather than those in the discovery phase (top of the funnel). These users are more likely to convert.
• RFM Analysis: Utilize RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary) analysis to identify recent high-intent users.
  

Samir’s Insights:

• Dayparting Strategies: Implement hourly and daily bidding strategies to reach your target audience when they are most active and engaged. Understand when your audience is most receptive to your ads and ensure your campaigns align with those times.
• Anticipate Engagement Spikes: Festive seasons often see spikes in user engagement during specific days or times. Be proactive and adjust your bidding strategy accordingly to capitalize on these surges in user activity.
• Personalized Offers: Within eCommerce, identify high-bucket purchases where the Average Order Value (AOV) is high. Create compelling, personalized offers for these users. Lucrative offers for high-value items can drive significant ROI during festive campaigns.

5. What’s your favorite festive ad campaign of all time? 

In the spirit of joy and celebration, we couldn’t resist ending this on a festive note. What better way than to discover their favorite festive campaigns?

Baran:

Samir: