Google India's Ila Wadhwa: How D2C brands can win with Google & YouTube's playbook

As Indian D2C founders and CMOs gear up for the high-stakes festive season, marketing playbooks are facing their steepest test yet. With consumer demand expected to unlock a staggering ₹1.2 Lakh Crore in festive consumption over the coming weeks—building on last year's 27% surge—the opportunity is huge.

Consumer behaviour has shifted faster in the last year than at any point Google has tracked, Ila Wadhwa, Head - Mid Market Sales, Google India, told delegates at the e4m D2C Summit 5.0 in a session on "Winning Festive Season with Google & YouTube."

Wadhwa opened by dismantling an industry assumption from a year ago that AI would compress the purchase journey to a single click. "Instead, the average number of touchpoints a consumer goes through before buying has risen from 5.5 for non-AI users to 13 touchpoints for an AI user today, as AI experiences enable comprehensive & conversational research rather than traditional short keyword searches. "The journey is non-linear, the journey is unpredictable, and the consumer is now highly involved," she said.

She decoded this consumer behaviour into what she called the "4 S's": Searching, Streaming, Scrolling, and Shopping, and spoke about how Google and YouTube are the only platforms that intersect all four behaviours, across metros and smaller towns alike.

On search, she cited data showing AI Overviews now has over a billion users, with 87% of users reporting more confident decisions when using them. On streaming, she pointed to YouTube's reach of 75 million adults in India on connected TV, driven by trust in creators: 88% of Indian viewers said YouTube has the creators they trust most. Referencing conversations with creators, Wadhwa noted their accountability sets them apart from celebrity endorsers, since "their consumer knows exactly where they live."

On scrolling, she said that 45% of YouTube Shorts users are not present on any other platform, a segment she called out that brands risk "ghosting" if short-form strategy ignores YouTube.

On shopping, she described the rise of "shoptainment," with shopping-related watch time in India growing over 55% year-on-year, underpinned by Google's Shopping Graph of more than 60 billion real-time listings.

Talking about the bottom line, Wadhwa said brands using Google and YouTube together see 1.6x higher ROI than paid social benchmarks.

For detailed insights and recommendations to power your campaigns this season, check out the official Festive Playbook by Google.

To capture a major slice of this festive season's 1.2 Lakh Crore consumption, Wadhwa outlined a clear, three-part Playbook.

First, "ignite the spark" through visual inspiration, noting 89% of consumers look to online creators for festive ideas, using tools like YouTube AI Spotlight to insert brands into playlists consumers are already watching, and YouTube Mastheads and First Position Moments for major launches. 89% of viewers agree YouTube has the most trusted creator content; leverage creator trust & build authentic videos with them.

Second, localise creative at scale using Google's Asset Studio. Google's AI absorbs the visual brand DNA to generate brand-compliant creatives, automatically generating hyper-localized video and image variations tailored specifically for regional celebrations like Onam, Durga Puja, or Diwali in seconds.

Third, meet consumers wherever they transact, whether via AI Max for Shopping on D2C sites, commerce media networks for quick commerce, or Performance Max for Store Goals to drive offline footfall.

Wadhwa concluded by emphasizing that Google's unified AI ecosystem is a marketer's ultimate festive business advantage by bridging the gap between inspiration and transactions across searching, streaming, scrolling, and shopping.

As millions of Indian consumers prepare to shop over the coming weeks, the D2C brands can leverage these strategies to capture the heart of India's festive boom.