When you’re on two calls at once: Inside ad agencies during festive season

For India’s advertising agencies, the festive season is the busiest and most demanding time of the year. The mind of a creative, a planner, or a manager becomes a frantic checklist: Is the copy for the banner ad approved? What was the feedback from that 10 PM telecon? Has the client seen the final edit? Behind the high-profile ads seen during this period lies an intensive process driven by tight deadlines and high pressure.

The period is marked by chaos, a mix of high pressure and urgency, balanced by the excitement of creating campaigns that will define the festive season. As Sahil Chopra, Founder and CEO at iCubesWire, describes it, “The festive season is certainly busier than regular days, but it also brings a lot of energy into the agency. The pressure is real, but there’s excitement because the campaigns will be celebrated widely.”

This excitement is palpable across the industry, as this period is the Super Bowl of Indian advertising. As Kruthika Ravindran, Director, Key Accounts, TheSmallBigIdea, puts it, the experience is like "running a relay race in a saree! High-speed sprints, last-minute handovers, and still managing to look dazzling for every client!".

With industry reports consistently showing that this window accounts for nearly 40% of the total annual advertising expenditure, every decision carries greater weight, and timelines become tighter. We spoke to teams across departments to understand how agencies navigate this high-stakes period.

The creative cauldron

For the creative teams, the battle is fought on two fronts: against the clock and against the cliché. It is, as Vikram Dhembare, Sr. Creative Director - Art at McCann Worldgroup, puts it, a war. 

"Festive season in an agency is war, deadlines, chaos, and sleepless nights. The real fight is against clichés, uncovering human stories that feel fresh and true. It’s exhausting yet electric, powered by a charge that keeps the whole team going. And in the end, nothing beats hearing, ‘it worked.’”

The frenzy officially kicks off when the inbox suddenly screams urgency. “One day the inbox looks normal, and the next it’s packed with subject lines screaming ‘Festive Brief – URGENT’,” says Sundeep Sehgal, Senior VP and Executive Creative Director at VML India. For him, the peak pressure point is the collision of deadlines. “It’s that one week where everything collides, multiple campaigns going live at the same time, constant client calls, and the team running on caffeine, mithai, and pure adrenaline.”

Sonal Chhajerh, National Creative Director at Leo Burnett India, echoes the same, noting that everything simply goes into overdrive. “Briefs land in waves, deadlines shrink, and our coffee consumption triples. The pressure is real, but so is the energy.”

This pressure often forces a difficult choice between safe, familiar, creative and something truly original. With millions on the line, clients often gravitate towards time-tested themes, such as family montages, gift exchanges, and decorative lights. These are the safe bets. The challenge, then, is to deliver the festive warmth without resorting to a formula.

As Sonal Chhajerh explains, “Festive campaigns don’t have to fall into the clichés of family montages. The trick is to dig into real consumer truths and solve real problems, while still keeping the warmth and celebration.” This means finding a deeper, more specific human story. For example, instead of another ad showing a perfect family exchanging a box of sweets, a fresher approach might explore the bittersweet feeling of a young professional celebrating their first Diwali away from home, connecting the product to a more authentic and relatable emotion.

On the creative floor, the teams are tasked with mining these truths. Aryan Jai Tank, Copywriter at Lowe Lintas Mumbai, describes it as a “good kind of crazy,” where the days lose their structure. “Honestly, there isn’t really a start or an end. The days simply flow into one another, punctuated only by short breaks that let you catch a little shut-eye before diving back in.”

For Sonia Rawat, Copywriter at AGENCY09, the process starts with a proactive mindset. “I think if the client briefs you on a festive idea, you’re already late. Your inner clock has to tick before the client’s.”

When the inevitable creative hurdles appear, she says the real test is resilience. "The bigger hurdle is the mad rush to ‘own’ the festivities with that one big idea. The real challenge is making sure your Plan B shines just as bright as Plan A.”

The client's frontline

Navigating this creative chaos while managing client expectations falls to the account and brand managers — the ultimate shock absorbers. Samreen Merchant, Senior Brand Services Manager at Lowe Lintas, affectionately calls them the agency’s “Brave Jugglers.”

She says, “We boldly take on client briefs, often hoping to turn them around within a day, all while expertly juggling the delicate balance between client expectations and realistic timelines.”

This role becomes crucial when a client’s demands clash with operational reality. The ability to say "no" without damaging the relationship is a skill honed under fire. This moment often marks the transition of an agency from a simple vendor to a trusted strategic partner. As Samreen Merchant explains, “I focus on transparency, empathy, and solutions. Sometimes saying ‘no’ is the right way to strengthen trust with clients—they see that I’m safeguarding the brand and investing in mutual success.”

This balancing act is a familiar theme for Ayan Chakraborty, Managing Partner at VML India, who describes the festive season as a “raging river.” For him, keeping relationships smooth comes down to partnership. “Definitely, clients are more demanding—and we get it. High stakes call for greater attention to detail. We keep it smooth by acting as a strategic partner, coming with solutions, not just problems.”

Sometimes, the pressure leads to moments of sheer absurdity, like the client who asked Ayan Chakraborty, “Can you make our Diwali content go viral on Diwali morning?”

Sunitha Natarajan, Director – Digital Strategy at Social Panga, knows the pressure of being a true partner all too well, sharing a story of a single social media creative stuck in a two-and-a-half-week loop of changes, with the final edit arriving on Diwali morning. “The post finally went live and got 150 likes on Instagram. At the time, I was frustrated. But now, it’s just a running joke. It taught us to be better, and when and how to stand up for ourselves.”

The survival kit

So, how do agency teams navigate this marathon of sleepless nights and impossible deadlines without burning out? It comes down to a potent mix of sugar, solidarity, and a shared sense of the absurd. For Sundeep Sehgal, it's about a well-stocked coping kit. "Impromptu ice-cream/mithai boxes double as fuel, chai breaks turn into therapy sessions, and memes in the team chat are basically survival notes," he explains.

This camaraderie transforms the work environment. Aryan Jai Tank notes how the office itself becomes a second home. "During the festive season, team lunches and dinners suddenly become very frequent," he says. "When things get really tough, we don’t crack under pressure. We simply mix a soft drink with a generous splash of team spirit." Even the creative process becomes a source of renewal.

Sonia Rawat says, "Brainstorming is our go-to for maintaining energy levels... What starts as separate tasks quickly turns into one big creative jam session."

Ultimately, it’s this shared spirit that makes the effort worthwhile. As Sonal Chhajerh puts it, what truly endures beyond the stress is the human connection, “Deadlines may blur, but what sticks is the laughter, and the ‘we’ve got this’ spirit.”

The engine room

While creatives ideate and account managers negotiate, the media and business heads are fighting a different battle, one of logistics, inventory, and data. This operational agility is where campaigns are often won or lost.

For Sahil Chopra, Founder and CEO at iCubesWire, transparency is the key to navigating this high-stakes period. “Everyone at the client and agency’s side is more attentive during this period. The key to making the relationship smooth is by ensuring transparency, giving regular updates and making it a collaborative process.” He notes that this vigilance is most critical in the final hours, where agility becomes paramount. “Right when the campaign is about to go live is the most intense moment. Everything needs to go right... You can always expect last-minute changes; it’s always better to stay agile so these minor changes don’t affect your momentum,” Sahil Chopra adds.

Kruthika Ravindran, Director, Key Accounts, TheSmallBigIdea, says, "The key is to see last-minute pivots as opportunities to innovate and showcase our flexibility. It is moments like these that spark creative problem-solving, pushing us to think faster, experiment, and adapt strategies that deliver impactful results."

Rupali Chavan, SVP & Head of Business at Mudramax, compares it to an academic trial by fire. “The festive season is like the ‘final exam season’ of advertising—everything moves faster, the stakes are higher, and the energy in the agency is electric.” This feeling of overload is a daily reality. Sunitha Natarajan shares a familiar sentiment from the peak rush: “Ah, there are definitely moments where I wish I had a clone, because we are planning across so many brands at once. Just last week, I was on two calls at the same time.”

The biggest hurdle from a media perspective is the digital land grab for premium ad real estate. “Inventory availability is the biggest challenge, festive demand shoots up, and prime slots often sell out months in advance. To counter this, we lock in early and diversify channels,” Rupali Chavan explains.

Ultimately, this collective sprint is more than just a business cycle; it's the industry's most defining period. It’s a time that tests the limits of creativity and resilience, but in doing so, it reveals the power of a team united by a single, ambitious goal. The exhaustion eventually fades, but the pride, the strengthened partnerships, and the legendary stories they now share become a permanent part of the agency’s lore.