Festive season influencer marketing spend projected to cross ₹700 Cr: Report

Brands are expected to spend more than Rs 700 crore on influencer marketing during the 2025 festive season, according to the Qoruz Festive Season Report. The study projects a two to three times rise in influencer campaigns compared to an average month, with activity peaking in the weeks leading up to Diwali.

The report highlights that regional content is expected to generate 30% higher engagement than English content, pointing to a growing shift in consumer trust and attention toward local creators. Participation from Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets is also expected to drive the increase in spending.

Consumer durables are set to be the highest spending sector this season, followed by fashion and beauty, FMCG, and e-commerce. Around 15% of active brands will be entering influencer marketing for the first time, with many of these being emerging D2C players, regional businesses, and mid-market companies using the festive period to boost visibility.

Speaking on the report, Aditya Gurwara, Co-Founder and Head of Brand Alliance, Qoruz, said, "Most influencer-driven purchases now start before the consumer even searches. That is the shift we are seeing this festive season. It is no longer about grabbing attention; it is about earning trust early. When a creator shows up in your language, during your rituals, with products that fit your reality, that is not advertising, that is belonging. From luxury watches to local sweet shops, from legacy brands to D2C startups, influencer marketing has quietly become the most human way to scale relevance during India’s biggest season. That shift in discovery is where the real creative advantage lies this year.”

Priya Vivek, Co-Founder of Qoruz, added, “Last festive season, campaigns that rotated fresh creator content every 72 hours saw 1.6 times more engagement than those that went live all at once. That insight is shaping how brands are planning this year. It's less about how many creators you're working with and more about how early you're involving them. We're seeing teams track trends in real time, align content with platform behaviour, and sequence creator drops more deliberately. The results are showing up in sharper execution.”

With campaigns already underway for Navratri, the report suggests that both engagement volumes and direct-to-product actions are likely to rise further this year.