Tier-2 creators took the lead in festive-season influencer marketing

It was Diwali 2025, not very long ago, and Swiggy Instamart needed to retain its trademark brain-rot energy even in a festive context. So they doubled down. The brand tapped creators who had themselves gone viral for that exact genre, including the “motivational speaker kid,” the “Mere kaan hain, main andhi nahi hoon” kid, and several other well-known child creators and brought them together in a skit on how corporates behave before Diwali. The reel alone pulled in 12 million views on Instagram.

Zepto, meanwhile, accelerated its Diwali push with ‘Mithai Wars,’ leaning on in-trend macro creators to amplify reach and ride relevance. And it wasn’t just quick commerce. Across categories, creators were everywhere this Diwali, from micro actors and meme-first faces to niche specialists.

That was Diwali 2025 in a nutshell. India’s influencer marketing industry didn’t just participate in the festival of lights; it changed the way brands celebrated it.

Before the festive season had even fully begun, Qoruz’s festive report stated that brands were expected to spend more than ₹700 crore on influencer marketing. Agency experts say India did hit roughly that projection, but the more interesting shift is in how that money moved.

So, how was this money spent? 

Vishal Prabhu, Creative Director – Strategy, White Rivers Media, describes it as the season where influencer budgets finally behaved like core budgets, not “experimental spends.”

“Brands did not just spend more; they spent with sharper intent. The ₹700 crore mark was more or less reached because influencer marketing is now a core part of festive media planning, not the supporting act.”

And results seem to have backed that. Aditya Gurwara, Co-Founder, Qoruz, says that across the ecosystem they’re plugged into, sentiment was overwhelmingly positive.

“At least 8 out of 10 brands we’re close to were happy,” he adds. 

A festival full of surprises 

Ahead of the season, the expectation was that consumer durables would lead, supported by fashion and beauty, FMCG and e-commerce. That partly played out as expected, with a few changes. 

“Consumer durables and fashion and beauty did lead the way,” says Vishal Prabhu. “But regional and D2C brands quietly stole the spotlight. Smaller regional players made a strong impact with micro-influencers and localised storytelling that felt authentic and relatable.”

Fashion and beauty benefitted most from creator-led formats, especially gifting, glam-up tutorials, and creator POVs that naturally fit into the festival calendar. Prabhu points out that while fashion and beauty continued to thrive, luxury and tech slowed down, because audiences were “gravitating toward value and purpose.” 

Krisneil Peres, Co-Founder, Fame Keeda found quick commerce as a surprise entrant. “Due to last-mile urgency and promotional intensity, e-commerce brands (including quick commerce) stepped up creator collaborations aggressively,” he says. “This was a slightly unexpected winner.”

FMCG, however, was more muted than usual. “Some FMCG players were more conservative than in earlier seasons,” Krisneil says. “The incremental festive bump was less dramatic compared to gifting-heavy categories.”

Another theme that emerged: the brands that underperformed were the ones that showed up generically and not with cultural context. “In categories where storytelling was weak or creators weren’t positioned contextually for the festival moment — for example, some financial services or niche B2B-adjacent consumer categories — the channel did not deliver the leap brands had hoped for,” Peres adds. 

Regional India took centre stage

If there was one storyline that defined the 2025 festive influencer economy, it was the rise of Tier 2 and Tier 3 India. This segment didn’t just remain a growth category; it took centre stage.

Brands increased their investment in smaller markets because that’s where they were seeing real cultural connection and deeper engagement.

Aditya Gurwara said there were creators in this belt who “we don’t personally follow who easily do 40 million organic views.” 

These weren’t polished national faces. They were raw, expressive, hyper-local creators — people who talk like the audience, eat what the audience eats, and celebrate rituals the way the audience actually celebrates.

Meesho, for example, to amplify its Diwali Sale, collaborated with creators from Tier 2 cities like Indore. 

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Krisneil Peres said, “These markets often have less 'ad creative fatigue' from heavy metro campaigns; cultural rituals, local festivals, and community behaviours offer richer storytelling hooks.”

Vishal Prabhu captures the mood perfectly, “Regional markets are not just the future of growth; they are the present — and they reward authenticity over scale.”

Next consumer spending season

Across the board, experts believe that to cleverly tap into a big spending moment like the festive season, brands need to start preparing now. 

Peres said most brands still approach festive influencer planning with a ‘burst’ mindset, and that needs to change. “Last-minute scouting limits both creativity and performance,” he said. He argued that brands need to begin building creator pipelines in advance, so that content can be seeded organically before the peak. His recommendation to clients is to stop treating influencer marketing as ‘just another ad channel’ during peaks — and think of it as “brand-fuel + commerce-trigger + community builder.”

Prabhu talks about the same urgency, but from a cultural relevance POV. The brands that lead the next festive wave, he said, will be the ones that map audiences and creators early, identify the cultural nuance of each region, and use AI tools to track shifts in taste in real time. “The brands that start early, stay flexible, and focus on genuine connections — not just visibility — will lead the next wave,” he said.

Gurwara added a sharper warning — creators who treat brand work casually will not make the cut next year, but the same applies to brands. “Creators need to respect brand partnerships more — and brands need to respect creators more,” he said. He believes the balance of creative and data will be the real differentiator as the next consumer cycle approaches, not budget.

What 2026 will look like 

Experts believe that influencer marketing in 2026 will be defined by deeper regionalisation, sharper commerce outcomes, and storytelling that feels less like advertising.

Aditya Gurwara bets on micro-dramas. He says, “Some formats are already 70 episodes deep. High production isn’t the only way — a good story is. Integrations need to be smarter — not force-fit.” 

Peres expects three shifts to take prominence next year. The first is commerce moving earlier in the journey. Instead of seasonal coupon-drop content, creators will get embedded before users even search for a product. As he says, “the next leap is creators embedded in the shopper journey… this is a move from ‘click’ to contextual conversion.” 

This will also show up in more live shopping, affiliate drops and timed releases.

The second is regionalisation. “The ‘regional creator’ bucket will stop being optional,” he said, adding that brands will build full-scale creator networks language-wise, not just one-off partnerships in Tier 2/3 markets.

The third is quality over sheer volume. He expects measurement to get sharper and more unforgiving, driven by AI and outcome metrics. Brands will look for “sales, leads, store visits — not just reach.” And creators who can deliver niche influence in specific verticals will matter more than follower stacks.