Spreading Light: Diwali 2020 Campaigns and Their Major Themes"

When it comes to Diwali ad campaigns, Indian advertisements have always been very diverse. Over the years brands have explored various themes to capture the festive sentiments, starting from the theme of sharing, family, good vs evil, festive glamour, inclusivity, responsible celebration, etc. This year, we have observed four major themes in the Diwali brand advertisements and as expected we can see the effect of the pandemic in them.

The pandemic has spread a layer of sadness and left the nation with a plethora of unmotivated shoppers. Brands are struggling to create enough demand for their product and hence addressing this issue has been an important objective in communication.

Theme 1: Celebrations Cannot Stop

This is the most predominant theme for the Diwali campaigns this year. Ajio and Mi India represented the unstoppable spirit of the youth and said that ‘nothing can stop the celebrations’ as people will make good out of this bad situation. These campaigns try to pump up the mood of the viewers and bring back the festival feeling, in an attempt to motivate the potential shoppers.

Here are some other ads from Purplle and Amazon Fashion that explore the same theme.

Theme 2: Go Local and Community Support

Although the theme of supporting local businesses isn’t new to us, it is much more relevant this year. Numerous local businesses have been hit really hard by the pandemic and the business recovery is still very slow.

Some of the top brands of the nation have come forward to show support to these businesses. In their advertisements, they have either promoted a local business or tried to motivate the viewer to shop locally. All of this is done while still keeping the ad campaign relevant to the brand.

The above ad was not just any Cadbury ad. It was a hyper-personalised ad that changes as per the viewer’s location, making it truly local. To know more about it, watch the video here.

Theme 3: Product in the Spotlight

Some brands have approached their festival advertisements to bring their products into a spotlight and create a recall among the shoppers. These campaigns did not have that much of Diwali-ness in them and could actually work fine at anytime of the year.

The campaigns from iD and Maharaja Whiteline would fall in this category. Although these ads are story-driven, they are quiet product heavy as compared to other ads that we see on this list.

Theme 4: Festival of Sharing

Some brands have played it safe by sticking to the quintessential theme of Sharing/Gifting with a heart-touching film. Although this theme is pretty mainstream, these ads come as fresh breath for the viewers as they have been bombarded with pandemic-ied content for too long now.

The ads from Mnytra and Oppo brings back that that true festival feels. By the looks of it, these ads are set in a pre-pandemic world.

Another variation of the theme can be seen in the ads created by Pantaloons and Cadbury. They have used the same old formula but adapted the stories in the pandemic/lockdown context (with masks and all)

Special Mention:

I was not able to bucket this is any of the above themes. This ad is very smart & quirky and I thought it deserves a mention in this post.