During the festive season, brands engage consumers through pre-festive campaigns, festive promotions, and post-festive follow-ups. However, many marketers struggle with customer retention once the celebrations end, facing challenges like customer drop-off and intense competition, according to ‘The State of Festive Marketing Report 2024’ of WebEngage.
The report reveals that 70% of marketers struggle to retain customers post-festive season. Hence, it provides actionable insights and effective strategies to navigate these hurdles, ensuring meaningful connections established during the festive season thrive long after the celebrations.
The findings in this report stem from consulting over 250 renowned industry insiders and shoppers who live and breathe festive marketing.
Prices, new launches, and user experience were identified as the primary factors that make festive campaigns most appealing to consumers. Brands that offer attractive pricing and exciting new products are more likely to capture consumer interest and drive engagement during the festive season.
Furthermore, the brands that utilise festive marketing campaigns the most are primarily from the e-Commerce or D2C, EdTech, and BFSI sectors. These industries have effectively utilised festive marketing strategies to engage with their target audiences, showcasing their products and services in a festive context.
Meanwhile, 98% of brands engage users on online channels, with nearly 45% employing omnichannel marketing to target both offline and online users. This highlights the importance of integrating multiple channels for a cohesive customer experience. Brands that successfully merge online and offline strategies can enhance their reach and customer engagement.
The report also indicates that brands start planning their campaigns three to six months in advance; however, 54% of brands initiate their pre-festive campaigns only within 30 days leading up to the launch.
Brands from sectors including e-Commerce, BFSI, Travel and Hospitality, Media and Entertainment, or Healthcare- begin their preparations well in advance, especially e-Commerce and D2C, which accounts for 41.2% of the brands that dabble in festive marketing. This suggests that advanced planning is crucial for maximising impact, but many brands may not be leveraging this advantage effectively.
During the festive season, brands need to carefully consider their sales duration. Campaigns lasting less than seven days are often more effective for multi-product platforms. This shorter window can create urgency and drive quicker purchase decisions among consumers.
Also, understanding how users interact with festive marketing campaigns is essential for improving engagement. The report explores user behaviours, preferences, and feedback to provide brands with valuable insights into what resonates with their audience, allowing them to tailor future campaigns for greater impact.
One key recommendation as per the report is for brands to space out their sales throughout the year, leaving substantial gaps between promotions. Overloading consumers with back-to-back flash sales can lead to promotion fatigue, reducing the urgency and effectiveness of future campaigns.
Talking about the methodology, the report is built on an extensive analysis that blends both qualitative and quantitative research. WebEngage conducted over 250 in-depth interviews with industry experts, marketers, and consumers to gain insights into their experiences and perspectives on festive marketing. Alongside these interviews, WebEngage also analysed user interaction data from various brands and campaigns to uncover emerging trends and best practices.
To further support the findings, they reviewed case studies from leading brands across diverse sectors, focusing on their strategies, successes, and challenges during festive marketing campaigns. This comprehensive, multi-dimensional approach ensures that the report offers data-driven insights grounded in real-world experiences.
Ankur Gattani, Chief Growth Officer at WebEngage, said, “The festive season offers brands a unique opportunity to acquire new customers and also bring back a lot of inactive users. However, you do want to squeeze everything you can from the lifetime value of customers acquired and re-activated. Our strategy includes pre-festive planning, segmented messaging and treatment during the festivities and meaningful post-festive follow-ups and dashboarding of insights. Our report highlights how brands can leverage emerging trends and data-driven strategies to enhance their seasonal marketing efforts. With the right channels and personalised engagement, brands can substantially boost marketing ROI from the festive boom.”
