Tanishq’s marketing chief on crafting heartfelt festive ads

Tanishq’s latest campaign for Raksha Bandhan, conceptualised by Talented, looks at the bond between siblings, one that iss built on shared fun, equal footing, and growing understanding. Titled ‘Brothers, Written by Sisters’, the film explores how a sister can be a boy’s first guide to empathy, fairness, and being emotionally honest. At the same time, the brother also plays an important role by being open, learning, and growing with her. The campaign highlights how both siblings shape each other, learning together, supporting each other, and growing because of the relationship they share.

But even within these larger narratives, it’s the smallest, most mundane moments that the team leans on for emotional weight. “My favourite moment is when the sister and the brother are shown, perched on a bowl full of colourful gems,” said Pelki Tshering, CMO at Tanishq. “It reminds me so much of my childhood.”

These films aren’t about rewriting tradition; they’re about looking at it differently. “In some way, it's our effort to see Raksha Bandhan through the woman's eye,” she said. “Where she truly sees this as a beautiful relationship where the brother and she both have evolved, transformed into the people that they are.”

As India steps into its most commercially charged festive period, from Raksha Bandhan to Diwali, most jewellery brands are dialling up the noise. Tanishq, instead, is trying to double down on narrative, leaning into slow storytelling, cultural specificity, and interpersonal truth. Its festive campaigns frequently centre around interpersonal moments, capturing rituals, relationships, and evolving social dynamics without directly foregrounding the product.

So, how does a brand navigate both performance and purpose? What does festive marketing mean when your muse is evolving faster than ever? And how do you sell jewellery in a market that’s as crowded as it is cultural?

To unpack this further, I spoke with Tshering, who leads the brand’s creative and strategic voice.

Reframing relationships through festive campaigns

Rather than focusing solely on rituals or archetypes, Tanishq’s recent festive campaigns have leaned into evolving relationship dynamics, particularly seen through the lens of the modern Indian woman. This shift is evident in its Father’s Day and the recent Raksha Bandhan film, which explored mutual transformation and emotional partnership in familiar bonds.

“It starts with the woman and we deeply believe that what the woman does is add a speck of beauty to everything that she does,” said Tshering. “Because of some unique perspective, she shapes a world I guess which is a lot more equitable.”

She connects the Father’s Day and Raksha Bandhan campaigns through a shared thematic arc: mutual transformation. “While fathers bring up their beautiful daughters, the daughters also influence and reshape their fathers,” she said of the Father’s Day film.

“So we thought a very beautiful extension of that would be for this Raksha Bandhan campaign, where they both choose to protect, where they both nurture, where they both transform.”

Emotional capital vs. performance marketing

Tanishq has remained consistent in its narrative-first approach. But it’s not a zero-sum game. “We believe that the emotional capital is the performance capital,” Tshering explained. “Jewelry is not just an adornment, it is actually an emotion, so symbolic, so deeply personal.”

That said, performance marketing also plays a role, particularly when grounded in strong storytelling. “The magic happens when emotion drives intent and brand love translates into brand action,” she noted. The brand blends both approaches to ensure that the campaigns not only create emotional resonance but also move the business needle.

The role of cultural curiosity in festive planning

In most marketing playbooks, festive campaigns are anchored to dates on a calendar. But at Tanishq, the process begins not with the occasion, but with the customer. “We start out with a sense of deep curiosity,” said Tshering. “What we first try to learn is what is inspiring her, what is her cultural, traditional celebratory mood.”

This approach reflects a shift from date-driven planning to insight-led storytelling. “Festivities aren’t just a seasonal burst or just a calendar event,” she pointed out. “In India, festivals are so emotionally layered, full of memories, meanings, connections.”

As a result, Tanishq’s festive campaigns try to begin by listening, observing how the modern Indian woman celebrates, how her rituals are changing, and what symbols she holds close. “Even the way we’ve kicked off one of our festive collections in South India, we have a collection called Agalyam, which is inspired by traditional Tamil lamps and is designed for the Tanishq woman there, whom we call the Pudhumai Penn,” she added.

Across campaigns, the brand consciously avoids chasing fleeting trends. Instead, it looks for patterns of meaning, emerging ways of celebrating that resonate with deeper shifts in cultural behaviour. “Our hope is to really reimagine tradition in a way that is truly fresh, that’s truly joyful, and truly full of possibilities,” Tshering said. “Just like the women who wear them.”

Regional nuance without fragmentation

One of the more challenging aspects of festive marketing in India is managing regional diversity without diluting brand coherence. For Tanishq, that balance comes from understanding that while the inner world of its muse remains consistent, its outer manifestations are regionally nuanced.

“The inner world of the Tanishq woman is the same, but the manifestations of it in the regional world that she lives in is what changes. And hence, so do our stories and so do our collections,” said Tshering. Whether it’s Bengal’s Pongal Katha, Andhra’s Samriddhi, or Tamil Nadu’s Pudhumai Penn, the strategy isn’t fragmentation, it’s inclusive storytelling, she explained.

This lens also informs how the brand approaches shifts like self-gifting, which Tshering confirmed is growing: “We are seeing a shift in jewelry buying patterns, not just in terms of what people are buying, but also why they're buying and how they are buying.”

Measurement, mediums, and the road ahead

In the last few years, digital storytelling has become a crucial part of that journey. Platforms like YouTube and Instagram, along with regional creators, help lend “cultural texture, relatability and local nuancing.” Still, the core of Tanishq’s storytelling is unlikely to change. “Because she evolves, we will evolve with her,” Tshering said. “The form in which we tell [stories] will evolve. But, the feeling will always be familiar when it comes to Tanishq.”

When does a festive campaign truly deliver? For Tshering, it’s not just about business metrics like walk-ins or revenue. “We also pay very close attention to the quality of engagement that we have in our stores and what our repeat customers say.”

She explained that the brand closely looks at whether they’ve managed to excite the customer through the design and the overall experience.

“Beyond measurement metrics, of course, at the end of the day, the campaign is meant to connect with the customer. In some sense, a festive campaign where both the needle has moved and the heart has moved is really the one that, you know, has delivered.”

For Tanishq, festive marketing isn’t a sprint for attention but a slow build of trust. By letting emotion lead and culture inform, the brand turns storytelling into strategy, and sentiment into sales.