Festive India Isn’t One Event – It’s Many: Elevate 2025 Shows Brands the Way

India’s festive season – spanning from Raksha Bandhan in August to Christmas in December – accounts for more than 40% of the country’s annual retail spend. But as consumer behavior fragments across regions, platforms, and rituals, the question brands face is not just when to advertise, but how and where.

This was the central theme at Elevate: The Festive Edit, the latest edition of Lyxel&Flamingo’s marketing summit, held in Gurgaon on July 18. Framed as a cultural and commercial deep dive, the event brought together executives from Amazon Ads, Meta, Instamart, Sony LIV, Inshorts, Taboola, Mediakart, Channel Factory, and others to examine the evolving anatomy of India’s festive shopper.

Beyond Diwali

The summit opened with L&F’s CEO, Dev Batra, launching the “Festive Kaleidoscope of India” – a research-backed guide that breaks down India’s festive calendar, highlighting under-leveraged occasions like Janmashtami, Karwa Chauth, and Golu (in Tamil Nadu), alongside major spending moments like Diwali, and covering till the big fat wedding season of India.

The key message: festive spending is no longer tied to a few metro-centric peaks. Brands must localise campaigns for distinct regions, rituals, and formats – reaching Bharat living in Tier 2 and 3 cities where discretionary spending is rising, aided by smartphone penetration and UPI adoption. 

The morning sessions featured presentations from legacy and digital-first platforms:

• Hindustan Times and Times Internet demonstrated how their CDP-backed media properties now serve full-funnel objectives – from awareness to conversion – with over 320 million monthly digital impressions.
  
  
  
• Public App and Inshorts highlighted the growing divergence between metro audiences and vernacular-first users. Inshorts focuses on concise, English-language news. Public, by contrast, delivers over 40,000 short videos daily in regional languages, aimed at users in non-metro regions.
  
  
  
• Amazon Ads detailed its AI-led demand-side platform stack, including tools like Brand Plus, Performance Plus, and goal-based bidding. A parallel session by Amazon AI unpacked measurement capabilities through the Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC).
  
  
  
• Sony LIV discussed the role of OTT in emotional storytelling, while JioHotstar presented their plans for content-driven scale during festive tentpole events.
  
  
  
• Realize – Taboola’s performance-first open web solution – showcased GenAI creatives, predictive targeting, and immersive formats designed for festive performance.

The Midday Focus: Culture and Commerce

In the early afternoon, PerformAce launched the Indian Sneaker Fest (ISF) 2026  – an IP aimed at capturing Gen Z culture through streetwear, content, and creator-led engagement. The team also demonstrated its programmatic stack, including CTV and vernacular targeting tools built around festive rituals. Swiggy Instamart overindexed on impulse moments and last-mile relevance – from late-night cravings to last-minute gifting.

The morning wrapped with a lunch that matched the day’s theme – diverse, festive, and pan-India. From regional favourites to sweet indulgences, the spread brought together a little bit of every state. Honestly, Kashmiri Chicken Yakhni Kofta was to die for!

Content, Creators, and Closing Gaps

A post-lunch fireside chat with RJ Kisna offered a different lens. Known for his humorous, high-velocity content in Hindi, Kisna emphasised the value of mass relatability over polished brand narratives. “Going viral,” he said, “means speaking the language people already think in.” (The fireside chat came with many laughs for the audience, on the side.)

The session with Meta reinforced that idea with data. India has over 700 million Instagram users, and 85 million Reels are created daily. Meta’s team walked through tools like Advantage+ Shopping, AI-powered creative scaling, and WhatsApp-based discovery.

Final Sessions: Format Meets Function

Late-afternoon sessions spotlighted platforms focused on performance and suitability:

• Mediakart spotlighted its contextual rich media capabilities, using real-time signals like keywords, visuals, and cultural moments to build responsive ad experiences during festive surges.
• Channel Factory discussed how it delivers festival-ready YouTube campaigns in regional languages, enabling brands to align contextually with local celebrations.
• PerformAce Media showcased its programmatic stack – including INSIGHTX for hyperlocal insights, VISIONTV, AUDIENCEX, and NATIVE HUB for embedding festive offers in native formats. The stack reflected their theme of AI-powered planning with cultural nuance.
• mediasmart (by Affle) focused on behavioural signal-based targeting and multi-screen execution – covering CTV, DOOH, and mobile – to track and convert festive attention into outcome-driven performance.

The day concluded with a Brand Heads Panel Discussion – joined by brand heads from boAt Lifestyle, KENSTAR & V-Guard – where marketers reflected on how festive campaigns have shifted to longer, culturally relevant, digitally optimised calendars.

As sessions wound down, the evening transitioned into a relaxed sundowner. The best way to end a Friday in Gurgaon – if you know what we mean. Conversations flowed, glasses clinked, and the mood shifted from insight-sharing to celebration – a fitting close to a day rooted in culture.

The Takeaway

Elevate didn’t position itself as a product showcase or a networking mixer. Instead, it focused on reframing how brands think about festivals – not just as shopping spikes, but as moments of cultural participation.

In a market where every ritual is a retail opportunity, and where vernacular relevance increasingly beats generic scale, the takeaway was simple:

Elevate: The Festive Edit reaffirmed that India’s festivals are no longer just seasonal blips – they are economic and cultural inflection points. For brands, the call to action is clear: be local, be fast, be festive.