Holi is the festival of colors that is mainly celebrated by Hindus around the world. Hindus make up around 15.5 percent of the world’s population and spend lavishly to celebrate the occasion. It can be an exciting time for businesses to promote their products and services and reach a wider audience.
Competition around Holi, however, is very tough and brands have to plan year round to ensure they cash in on this great opportunity. The idea is to incorporate the essence of Holi into your strategy.
The festival is all about colors and close bonding. You can be creative and send the right message to get noticed.
Still struggling? Here are some tips:
Advertise with a message
Holi is a festival that gives people a chance to have a smile, share some great memories, and mingle with their loved ones. Essentially celebrated by Hindus, now people from other religions also take interest in Holi and many foreigners even fly to India to enjoy the festivities.
It’s a sign of peace and brands can use this message in their marketing material to hit the bull’s eye. Focus more on story-telling and not just advertising what you have to offer.
While there are several benefits of a positive message, remember that you can’t be preachy. Show the essence of Holi by highlighting what it brings to the table and carefully introducing your product or service.
Come up with a short story, add emotional elements, and make a connection with your audience. A great example of this is Surf Excel, a brand that revolutionized Holi advertisement with an ad that’s remembered to date.
Released in 2020, the advertisement focused on the colors of Holi and showed how it brings people together.
Offer pre-festival discounts
About 86 percent of people look forward to festive season sales. Discounts and offers are a great way to encourage customers to purchase your products.
Here’s how to use this strategy:
- Announce the sale a week or at least 5 days before it happens. This is a great method to increase anticipation around the sale.
- Use sales that encourage people to spread positive word since word of mouth is the most reliable marketing tool.
There can be a variety of discounts. You can offer bulk discounts to customers who buy more. You can offer loyalty discounts to customers who keep coming back to your store. Offering a new user discount is also a brilliant option as it helps brands attract new buyers.
Make sure to spread the word and let people know you’re offering discounts. This can be done by using creative Holi poster templates that can be customized and changed to fit your brand’s theme.
Upload these posters on your social media pages and take a printout to reach more people. Remember that a lot goes behind the scenes. You can’t just decide to randomly offer a discount. Understand what your customers want and make sure to protect your interest.
Sponsor Holi events
You will see all kinds of events designed around Holi, from virtual concerts to seminars. Look through the list of events taking place on Holi and find one that you can sponsor. This can benefit you in a lot of ways.
Sponsoring will bring a lot of attention to your brand. Your name will probably be displayed at the venue. Work on a nice presentation and negotiate a deal that gives you good results.
Show the organizers what you bring to the table and be clear about what you’d like in return. All big companies like Pepsi and Microsoft sponsor events. The key lies in finding an event that resonates with your audiences and cracking a deal that offers good results.
You may have to offer something in return though. Some would like you to pay a fixed sum, some may ask you to offer goodies. Red Bull, for example, provides drinks to attendees.
Since this is the era of virtual shows and content, you have a lot of options to promote your products. You can even work with influencers and ask them to promote your product or service without making it too salesy.
Make sure to use social media
Social media can be used to promote your business. Start by posting content related to Holi to get people talking but make sure to only make relevant posts. For example, you can provide tips on how to have fun on Holi and subtly mention how your products or services can be used to make Holi more exciting.
If you upload graphics then center them around Holi as well. Use more colors and consider adding Holi-related props to your posts. It might also be a good idea to come up with a Holi-centric tagline.
Lastly, work on a branded hashtag. You can take a leaf out of Moj App’s book. A fast-growing video-sharing platform, it set up a Holi campaign that became popular thanks to a clever marketing technique.
The company created several hashtag, such as #holidance, encouraging users to share fun videos with the hashtag. Moreover, they offered cash prizes to the winners, thus, encouraging more and more people to participate.
You can also come up with a similar strategy. Spend some time on social media apps and see what’s in and what isn’t. Your strategy should be made according to your audiences and make sure to be flexible. Change your strategy if it doesn’t give your desired results, however, you will have to act fast as Holi isn’t an extended event and festivities don’t last a long period of time.
Conclusion
These are just some of the marketing strategies that you can use to market your products or services on Holi. The key lies in offering discounts, forming a connection with your audiences, using social media, and working to reach a wider audience.
Summary
Use these Holi marketing strategies with real life Holi promotion examples to drive customers to your business and make more money.
Senior editor at PosterMyWall.
