How brands can better connect with regional India this festive season

As India gears up for the 2025 festive season, the retail and marketing sectors are bracing for a consumption surge that has become a defining economic event of the year. Reflecting on the record-breaking sales of recent years, a clear narrative has emerged: the nation's economic centre of gravity is decisively shifting. No longer driven solely by metropolitan hubs, the engine of this growth is now firmly located in the Tier-2, Tier-3, and rural landscapes of Bharat, where the vast majority of new digital consumers are being onboarded.

This burgeoning market, however, is not a monolith. It is a vibrant mosaic of distinct languages, cultures, and media consumption habits, where a one-size-fits-all marketing strategy is not only ineffective but also obsolete. For brands, tapping into the immense potential of regional India requires moving beyond simplistic translations to develop nuanced, culturally relatable campaigns that can establish faith.

As the starting gun for the festive season fires, the race to capture India's regional markets is on. Critical questions, however, remain: What are the foundational pillars of a successful regional strategy today? How should brands adapt their media mix for vastly different states, and what is the real impact of leveraging a pan-India superstar versus a hyperlocal creator? This feature delves into the contemporary strategies, common pitfalls, and evolving dynamics of marketing to the heartland of India during its most crucial retail period.

The foundational pillars

The experts unanimously assert that a successful regional strategy is built on a foundation of genuine cultural understanding, an approach that goes beyond simple translation.

“The foundation rests on three pillars: deep cultural insight, localised creative execution, and relevant media mix,” said Vaishal Dalal, Co-founder & Director, Excellent Publicity. “Brands must first understand each region’s cultural nuances, languages, and traditions, especially during the festive season.”

“The heart of effective regional marketing in India lies not in translation, but in transformation,” states Dheeraj Renganath, Co-Founder & CCO, MagicCircle Communications, Restless. “To be welcomed, a brand must come across as the ‘son of the soil’ — living, breathing, and reflecting the cultural fabric of the place. That means immersing yourself in its music, food, performance arts, and everyday cultural discourse.”

This deep immersion is non-negotiable. “The success of any regional marketing strategy lies in cultural alignment,” says Siddhant Jain, Partner at Three Fourth Solutions. “You have to decode the local dialects, emotional triggers and community behaviour.” He stresses the importance of identifying specific cultural hooks, “whether it’s a particular song, a street, or a shared community ritual,” to make a campaign feel like part of the celebration.

This sentiment is supported by a Kantar study showing that campaigns with high ‘cultural nuance’ see a 35% higher audience recall. Rashi Ray, Director, Response India, describes this connection in personal terms, “It’s not just about the language. It’s about the way they speak it, it’s not just about the history. It’s about their history - what they’re proud of, what they hide, what they laugh about, understand that, and you’re not just talking to them. You’re speaking with them.”

Navigating a hyper-fragmented media ecosystem

A uniform media plan is ineffective in a nation with vastly different consumption habits. Amita Srivastava, Vice President – West, Carat India, stresses the need to move beyond translation to “transcreation,” designing native narratives.

“Mapping the consumer journey is critical," she says, providing specific examples of touchpoints, "a 15-second pre-roll in Tamil on Sun NXT, a connected-TV festival special in Malayalam, or a high-impact digital news takeover in Bengali.”

She provides a detailed media map:

• Maharashtra balances Marathi print with high urban digital video penetration.

• West Bengal still values print credibility alongside fast-growing OTT adoption.

• Tamil Nadu’s unmatched loyalty to TV GECs now coexists with booming CTV viewership.

• Gujarat blends community-driven offline engagement with aggressive mobile commerce habits.

• Kerala combines its newspaper ritual with some of the highest social media and OTT usage in India.

Vaishal Dalal pointed out that media patterns are highly state-specific. “Brands should treat each state as a distinct media ecosystem, choosing channels based on consumption peaks during local festivities,” he said. “In Maharashtra, radio still influences semi-urban audiences, while in Kerala, newspaper loyalty remains among the strongest in India.”

Nielsen data shows regional language content consumption is growing at over twice the rate of English content. For West Bengal, Siddhant Jain provides a tiered breakdown: “In Kolkata, digital channels like Instagram, YouTube, Meta platforms, and OTT apps dominate. In Tier 2 cities like Durgapur or Siliguri, there’s a strong trust in traditional media. In rural Bengal, local-language content still wins.”

Under-leveraged channels & experiential marketing

In a saturated festive market, cutting through the noise requires creativity. “During Pujo, every channel is jammed to the brim, It’s a shouting match,” says Rashi Ray. “And when everyone is shouting, volume stops working. That’s where the unexpected wins.”

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She suggests specific experiential activations like “a flash mob in the middle of a crowded street,” a “guerrilla stunt,” or “an installation that invites touch, play, participation.”

Radio also remains highly influential. “Radio is still very powerful in smaller towns,” affirms Siddhant Jain. “In West Bengal, stations like Radio Mirchi and Red FM get a lot of traction during Puja.” Data from the Association of Radio Operators for India (AROI) supports this, showing listenership in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities can spike up to 40% during local festivals.

Experts highlight the need for a blended media approach to engage audiences in the middle of the marketing funnel. Amita Srivastava points to the power of specific digital channels, identifying regional OTT platforms like Hoichoi, Planet Marathi, and Sun NXT, as well as community-based tools like WhatsApp groups, as critical touchpoints.

Complementing this digital strategy, Siddhant Jain stresses the crucial role of tangible, on-ground activations during large festivals like Durga Puja. He suggests that pandal branding and interactive physical installations, such as creative booths or festive walls with QR codes, are highly effective for reaching and engaging large crowds directly.

Bespoke vs. mass and full-funnel execution

The central strategic question is whether to create one mass campaign with tweaks or multiple bespoke ones. Rashi Ray uses a clear analogy, “A mass campaign with tweaks is like a one-size-fits-all shirt…with the sleeves rolled up for some people... The first one aims for reach. The second one earns resonance.” She concludes, “Tweaks get you noticed. Bespoke gets you remembered.”

Amita Srivastava provides a category-based perspective. For universal products like telecom or FMCG, a single message can be adapted. However, culturally sensitive categories like jewellery or food “often demand fully bespoke narratives.” She advocates for a hybrid “70% consistent storytelling, 30% region-specific adaptation” model and a blended approach to ambassadors: "a pan-India face for reach, supported by local voices for trust and action."

This nuanced strategy must include performance marketing. Srivastava elaborates with concrete examples, “Running vernacular search ads, state-specific retargeting, and geo-fenced mobile campaigns allows brands to capture high-intent audiences... a jewellery brand in Tamil Nadu could bid aggressively on ‘bridal gold sets’ in Tamil search queries, while a QSR brand in Gujarat could drive hyperlocal app installs within a 3km radius of new store openings.”

Common pitfalls and the path forward

Even with the right strategy, execution is fraught with challenges. The most common mistake, according to Rashi Ray, is “Thinking adapt instead of create, treating the region as a market instead of a community. People can smell it.”

Ultimately, says Dheeraj Renganath, the goal is to create a seamless connection. “When your central brand idea is anchored in a universal truth yet flexible enough to adapt to local nuances, you stop being an outsider speaking at people and start becoming part of their story. That’s when regional marketing becomes a bridge, one that authentically connects the brand’s promise to the consumer’s world.”

Even with a sound strategy, experts caution that execution is fraught with operational challenges. According to Amita Srivastava, common pitfalls include mistakenly equating regional with rural, the inherent complexity of measuring ROI across a fragmented media landscape, the delicate balance between hyper-localisation and consistent brand identity, and the significant logistical challenge of scaling creative production. 

Building on this Vaishal Dalal said, “Common pitfalls include literal translations of national campaigns that miss cultural nuance, overlooking local media habits in favour of national buys, and last-minute adaptations that feel forced. Another misstep is ignoring the role of local influencers or failing to integrate traditional and digital channels effectively. Above all, campaigns falter when brands see regional marketing as a checkbox exercise rather than a strategic, insight-led approach.”

As the festive season unpacks, the insights from these experts move from strategic theory to immediate business reality. The marketing campaigns being deployed now will determine the winners and losers in this multi-billion-dollar market. Ultimately, success will belong not to the brands that shout the loudest, but to those that have learned to listen most closely to the people.