Festive media mix report card 2025: Ad spends rose 12-20%, digital led the way

The festive season has wrapped up, leaving behind not just sales spikes and viral campaigns, but questions about what really worked. How did the ecosystem perform? How did brands allocate budgets, how did media respond, and did creative storytelling find its spark again? 

From a macro vantage, the market entered with optimism. Industry estimates pointed to an uplift in ad-spends for the festival period, with reports forecasting the total uplift to reach ₹48,000 - ₹51,000 crore. 

But optimism alone doesn’t drive a festive season; spending does. And this year, brands didn’t hold back. The question was less about whether they’d invest and more about where the money would go.

That optimism was rooted in real consumer momentum. Registration data for the 32-day festive window showed a 23% surge in two-wheeler sales and 20% in passenger vehicles, reflecting robust retail demand. India’s consumer sentiment index also inched up 1.4 points in October 2025, buoyed by GST reforms that eased indirect tax burdens and freed up household savings for discretionary spending, according to the LSEG-Ipsos PCSI report.

This confidence was visible not just in metros but across smaller cities. Data from logistics provider Emiza showed that Tier II urban centres now contribute nearly 60% of all direct-to-consumer shipments, a sharp rise from previous years. In other words, the festive shopper is no longer just urban and metro-based; she’s everywhere, increasingly online.

Where the money went

The season’s mood may have been festive, but its strategy was all business. Budgets grew, mixes shifted, and the balance between tradition and technology became sharper.

Offering a snapshot of how those shifts played out across mediums, Vaishal Dalal, Co-founder & Director, Excellent Publicity, said, “India’s festive advertising expenditure in 2025 saw a robust year-on-year growth of about 12-20%, outpacing the previous year’s ~12-13% increase.” He explained that the surge was fueled by improved consumer sentiment, a wave of new product launches, and heightened competition during festive e-commerce events. 

That sentiment was echoed across the industry. Experts pointed out that the rise wasn’t driven by impulse but by intent.

Uday Mohan, COO, Havas Media India & Havas Play, echoed this sentiment, noting that “this festive season saw strong double-digit growth in ad spends, with digital leading the surge and TV continuing to deliver scale. Smartphones, autos, e-commerce and durables drove the momentum, while rising media costs made brands sharper about performance and measurable outcomes.”

“Digital advertising led the charge, growing by 15-20% YoY and now accounting for 40-45% of total festive ad budgets,” Dalal added. Within digital, “influencer marketing saw a 35-40% rise, while retail media (ads on e-commerce and quick-commerce platforms) grew 25-30%.”

Mohan observed that “the clear shift this year was towards integrated, omnichannel planning where cultural relevance meets accountability. Brands are also leaning into retail media and influencer-led discovery to convert festive intent faster.”

Traditional media held ground. Dalal shared, “Television rose 7-8% YoY, maintaining about 30-35% share of festive ad spends thanks to live sports and festive programming. Print experienced a modest 4-6% growth, mainly in regional markets, contributing around 10% to overall spending and Out-of-home (OOH) advertising bounced back strongly with 8-10% growth.”

The festival window remained premium, but the mix clearly shifted. Traditional reach vehicles still have their place, but the growth engines are digital, influencer, retail‐media and newer screens. “Connected TV (CTV) became a breakout performer; its share within digital budgets rose from 5% last year to about 6-10% in 2025, nearly doubling in volume,” Dalal added.

Overall, digital-first platforms dominated growth and budget allocation, supported by steady but moderate expansion in traditional channels.

Dalal said, “The real success formula, however, was an integrated mix, brands that combined high-reach traditional media with performance-driven digital tactics achieved the strongest overall outcomes, balancing awareness and conversions effectively.”

Performance, accountability & planning

The question for brands this season wasn’t “Did we spend?” but “Did we spend smartly?”

Rising media inflation meant every rupee had to work harder. Dalal noted that costs surged across the board, “media inflation, estimated at 9-20% across premium festive slots, forced advertisers to rethink their strategies and emphasise performance-based accountability.” To stay ahead, many brands began planning months in advance, locking in inventory early to avoid last-minute price spikes of up to 25%.

Mohan pointed to how “rising media costs made brands sharper about performance and measurable outcomes.” He added that going forward, measurement convergence, the ability to evaluate performance across TV, digital, and commerce platforms, will be the biggest unlock for future festive success.

The momentum wasn’t just in spending but in planning. Brands moved faster, securing placements earlier and sharpening their festive media strategies.

That urgency also changed the tone of negotiations. “Agencies demanded value-added deals such as bonus spots, cross-platform sponsorships, and bundled digital integrations,” Dalal explained. 

And that focus on accountability ran deep. “Advertisers increasingly sought performance-linked deals,” he said, “tying digital and influencer spends to measurable KPIs like clicks, conversions, or sales uplift.”

Behind the scenes, brands leaned on sharper tools to connect the dots. Dalal pointed to a greater reliance on Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM) and multi-touch attribution to bring TV GRPs, digital impressions, social engagement, and e-commerce data onto unified dashboards. “Success was judged through a blend of reach, recall and ROI,” he added, “with real-time adjustments made as campaigns unfolded.”

In essence, festive marketing in 2025 wasn’t about spending big; it was about spending better. 

Did storytelling return?

Following seasons where moment marketing and influencer spikes stole the spotlight, there’s a shift underway, toward stories that hold attention, not just capture it.

Neeraj Kanitkar, Co- founder, Fundamental observed that emotive storytelling once again became the default festive language. “It makes sense,” he said. “We Indians can’t resist a heartfelt story, it’s still what connects best.” One campaign he pointed to was Reliance Digital’s ‘Do Minute Ki Diwali’, a quiet, three-minute film about someone working through the festival but still finding two fleeting minutes to celebrate with family.

Kanitkar noted that while influencer-led activations were everywhere, few managed to truly stand out. “There was plenty of influencer-led noise,” he reflected, “but not much that stayed with you.” 

This shift doesn’t mean storytelling has replaced the bite-sized world of social media. Instead, it marks a coexistence, a recognition that performance content drives immediacy, but emotional storytelling drives memory and meaning.

Kanitkar said, “Given how closely packed Ganapati, Pujo/Dussehra and Diwali are, someone should really do a magnum opus, a trilogy of festive campaigns that connects these celebrations through one narrative arc.”

So, where was storytelling gone? It wasn’t gone, it had been challenged. The rise of short-form, trending content and influencer bursts had dominated the last couple of seasons. But in 2025, brands appear to be recalibrating: recognising that while performance content delivers speed and conversions, emotional storytelling still builds brand memory and premium equity.

Who led the charge?

If 2025’s festive season had a leaderboard, e-commerce would be sitting at the top. The category not only dominated the share of voice but also shaped the creative and media playbooks for everyone else. Giants like Amazon and Flipkart went all out, orchestrating massive multi-platform campaigns that blurred the lines between retail, entertainment, and technology.

“The festive ad landscape in 2025 was dominated by e-commerce, smartphones, consumer durables, automobiles, and FMCG, which together contributed nearly half of all festive ad spending,” said Dalal. He noted that e-commerce alone commanded around a quarter of total ad budgets, driven by competitive sale cycles and cross-channel integrations that made every screen shoppable.

Dalal explained that smartphones and consumer electronics followed closely with brands like Apple, Samsung, OnePlus, LG, and Sony, cashing in on Diwali’s tech-upgrade sentiment. The auto category, too, came roaring back with festive finance offers and limited-edition launches, particularly in the SUV and EV segments. Meanwhile, FMCG giants such as HUL, ITC, and Nestlé continued to lean on emotion and ritual, from gift packs to heartwarming family narratives. Print and regional media remained key allies for fashion, retail, and jewellery brands looking to anchor festive emotion in local relevance.

Interestingly, the season also saw new players climb the charts. “Rising categories included fintech, real estate, D2C brands, and travel, which each saw 20%+ growth in ad budgets as they sought to tap into festive consumption,” he added.

2025’s festive ad race was a mix of muscle and momentum, e-commerce led by volume, electronics and FMCG by visibility, and newer digital-first sectors by agility.

By the end of the festive cycle, the season had revealed its new rhythm, one defined less by flashy spends and more by calibrated choices. 

Festive 2025 may not have delivered fireworks for every brand, but it did solidify that the playbook has matured. Big numbers were spent, yes, but with greater discipline, measurement and audience insight. The shift isn’t just about “spend more” but “spend smarter”. And in the race between quick burst content and emotive storytelling, the latter has reclaimed its marquee slot.

Like Kanitkar suggested, “Somebody should do a magnum opus of a trilogy of a festive campaign.” Perhaps next year we’ll see exactly that, brands, agencies and media houses orchestrating three-phase, narrative-led campaigns that stretch across festivals, screens and regions, all built on a foundation of data, measurement and local relevance.