Digital and Quick Commerce take centre stage in Ferrero India’s Diwali campaign

The festive marketing landscape in India has entered a phase where brands are no longer relying solely on television spots and outdoor hoardings to drive sales. Instead, they are building dedicated budgets for quick commerce platforms, creating short-form content optimised for 15-second attention spans, and using QR codes to turn passive viewers into active participants. There’s a transformation in how consumers approach celebrations, moving from transactional gift purchases to curating experiential moments. Ferrero India, which markets Ferrero Rocher, Nutella, and Kinder Joy in the country, has structured its Diwali 2025 strategy around this behavioural change. 

According to Zoher Kapuswala, Marketing Head at Ferrero India, “Across India, spending is becoming increasingly experiential, whether it's on travel, celebrations, or even clothing." Ferrero India has reflected this shift in its Diwali 2025 strategy, designing campaigns that turn gifting into immersive experiences rather than just transactions.

The brand launched its ‘Add Your Golden Touch’ campaign in October 2025, featuring actor Hrithik Roshan in a television commercial that follows a day of Diwali festivities. The campaign includes outdoor installations in Mumbai and Delhi, digital amplification on YouTube and social media, and a consumer promotion where each Ferrero Rocher piece carries a QR code unlocking rewards from gold-plated champagne glasses to pyramid packs containing 96 pieces and gold vouchers worth ₹9,999.

The campaign's foundation came from consumer research that identified a fundamental shift in how people celebrate festivals. The brand conducted several consumer immersions and found that people today are leaning more towards experiences in their celebrations, Kapuswala notes.

The chocolate market in India is projected to reach US$1.64 billion in 2025, with 2.8% growth in 2026. Ferrero Rocher operates in the premium segment, where gifting drives consumption patterns. Reports indicate that Indian consumers' festive spending will reach Rs 12 to 14 lakh crore, owing to GST cuts, with the gifting economy becoming a key driver. Consumer immersions revealed that festival celebrations now prioritise home decoration, planned games and activities, and bringing people together to create memories with family and friends. This insight moved Ferrero away from positioning its products purely as gifts toward framing them as elements that enhance celebrations. 

The Indian gifting market is also experiencing shifts that are forcing brands to rethink distribution, product architecture, and pricing strategy. First, shopping behaviour has fragmented across channels. Consumers no longer belong exclusively to modern trade, traditional trade, or e-commerce. They move between all three based on convenience, occasion, and product availability. Kapuswala explains that Ferrero is ensuring consistent product assortment and SKUs across all channels to capture this fluid shopping pattern.

E-commerce platforms have enabled Ferrero to create curated experience boxes that go beyond standard product packaging. This extends to Quick commerce. These platforms have fundamentally altered how Ferrero India allocates marketing budgets and plans festive campaigns.

Quick commerce budgets and digital attribution create new conversion pathways

On Blinkit, the brand has an exclusive experience box featuring a Ferrero Rocher box with a golden candle that illuminates when opened. These limited-edition boxes attempt to deliver on the brand's promise of adding a golden touch to celebrations while differentiating the shopping experience across channels.

Kapuswala shares, “We now have a dedicated budget for Quick Commerce within e-commerce, focusing on the bottom of the funnel — driving purchases instantly. Unlike traditional static media, which builds brand equity over time, Quick Commerce requires creative short-form content — like 15- to 20-second videos — to convey the right emotional cues and connect with consumers.”

While the platforms and formats have changed, the fundamental approach of guiding consumers from initial awareness to final purchase remains consistent.

In the digital environment, this journey includes pre-equity media that introduce the brand or campaign, display advertisements that capture attention and drive consideration, and final conversion triggers such as promotions or pop-up notifications that prompt immediate purchase on platforms like Blinkit or Zepto. 

Ferrero's media plan attempts to cover the consumers’ entire fragmented journey, allocating specific roles to each platform and touchpoint.

For example, television drives high awareness early in the campaign, reaching broad audiences with the core brand message. Digital platforms provide repeated engagement opportunities and build emotional connection through multiple touchpoints across the day. 

To keep consumers engaged, each product piece carries a QR code that drives engagement. 

In a bid to drive awareness, the brand is promoting the QR code initiative with messages highlighting the prizes hidden behind each praline, encouraging consumers to participate in the contest on Instagram. 

The combination of these touchpoints creates what Kapuswala calls "holistic brand activation," where each platform contributes a specific function in moving consumers through the purchase funnel. The budget allocation across these channels varies based on occasion and competitive intensity. Diwali requires substantially higher spending due to concentrated competition from multiple brands, whereas occasions like Valentine's Day or Raksha Bandhan follow different allocation patterns based on category dynamics and consumer shopping behaviour.

Kapuswala declines to share exact percentages, noting that the media mix constantly evolves based on shopper insights and competitive trends. However, he emphasises that digital and quick commerce play a growing role. 

“Digital allows a full-funnel approach: we run campaigns with platforms like Meta, Blinkit, and Zepto, attributing spend across equity, consideration, and performance media. Unlike traditional media, digital enables direct interaction with consumers.”

Localising efforts and offering curated experiences

The brand has also localised its approach to Diwali. While Ferrero Rocher and other brands like Nutella and Kinder Joy are global, Kapuswala believes it is essential to connect with local consumers by focusing on relevant festivals.

“For Diwali, our campaigns incorporate local elements such as rangoli, toran, dinner rituals, and diyas. These cultural cues make the brand relatable and relevant, ensuring we don't appear alien to the audience," he says.

Apart from keeping the cultural cues on point, consumers also seek variety and demand curated experiences, particularly among metro and top-tier consumers, during the season.

"Metro and top-tier consumers aren't restricted to one brand; they want assortments. Our Ferrero Collections, for instance, combine Rocher, Rondnoir, and Raffaello in one package," Kapuswala says.

The brand has also launched Raffaello and introduced Kinder Bueno to the market, with each SKU offering distinct brand experiences catering to consumers who seek indulgence, premium positioning, and appropriate product sizing.

Ferrero Rocher's pricing structure reflects this segmented approach to gifting occasions. Small packs begin at approximately ₹160 to ₹170, making them accessible for casual or formal gifting. These entry-level packs can also be incorporated into hampers assembled at traditional trade stores, where shopkeepers often create custom gift combinations for customers. Larger packs cater to formal gifting occasions and can be combined with complementary items such as dry fruits or other chocolate brands.

Sustaining engagement beyond peak festive periods

Creating momentum during major festivals like Diwali presents less of a challenge than retaining consumer engagement and brand affinity throughout the rest of the year. Ferrero's strategy for sustained relevance involves activating around micro-festivals and occasions that occur throughout the calendar, including Valentine’s Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, New Year, and more. 

At these occasions, the brand deploys content and activations at purchase points through traditional point-of-sale materials, e-commerce media, and retail media platforms. Investment priorities are scaled based on occasion size and regional relevance, but it maintains a continuous consumer connection beyond the three or four major festivals that dominate marketing calendars.

For Diwali specifically, Ferrero's campaign timeline begins with Durga Puja in eastern India, continues through Dussehra, Dhanteras, and Bhai Dooj, extends into the wedding season that peaks after Diwali, and concludes at New Year. 

“At these times, we deploy the right content and activations at the point of purchase, through traditional POSM, e-commerce media, or retail media, to maintain relevance and engagement," Kapuswala notes.

By combining experiential celebrations, multi-channel media, Quick Commerce, curated product assortments, and local cultural cues, the brand is able to engage consumers across the festive season and sustain relevance throughout the year via micro-festivals and point-of-purchase activations.