Stars, memes, and local flair: Welspun's recipe for festive marketing

Indian multinational conglomerate Welspun has rolled out a comprehensive marketing strategy that leverages celebrity endorsements, meme culture, and hyperlocal targeting for this year’s festive season. The brand's latest campaign, featuring Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar, marks a creative shift in its communication approach, aiming to resonate with value-conscious consumers across India.

Pradnya Popade, head of marketing at Welspun, shares exclusive insights into the brand's marketing playbook for the festive season and beyond. "For Welspun, it is all about value-conscious consumers. It is about the consumers who have a whole unorganised market in front of them, and getting them on the branded side of products." In a category like this, she explains, "value, design, colour and durability take precedence over brand in purchase decisions."  

The new campaign, developed in partnership with creative agency Atom, taps into the viral meme culture associated with Akshay Kumar. In the film, the actor is seen playing out his viral sequence from his film Khatta Meetha, with iconic lines “Nahi, main nahi manta (No. I don't believe)." 

The campaign successfully addresses the brand's approach.

"We already had a festive campaign planned for this year, but we were considering running an old commercial featuring Akshay Kumar. However, I felt that the message should be really straightforward, something that would function in any location across the country. The campaign also needed to be strong on product benefits. Then we thought, if the campaign is going to be relatable to everyone, we could incorporate meme culture. We built our screenplays based on popular Akshay Kumar memes, and it worked great," says Popade explaining the rationale behind it.

Interestingly, the Akshay Kumar campaign is just the tip of the iceberg. The brand has also developed creatives for other products such as anti-microbial, quick-dry towel, and will be launching more creatives as the festive season goes on. "We were able to shoot some eight different creatives with Akshay Kumar in a day, taking into consideration different consumer segments such as bed linen, towels, and even gifting," adds Welspun's marketing head.

The campaign is part of a larger holistic media strategy that encompasses television, digital platforms, cinema, and outdoor advertising. The company is consciously spending an equal amount on all platforms. "Outdoors, because Welspun is available in general trade, so we're trying to map all the popular nodal points with high footfalls where the brand can appear. On digital, it becomes another 360-degree marketing including programmatic, awareness, and even meme marketing," emphasises Popade.

The brand is also pushing its premium offering, Spaces, which targets consumers who prioritise sophisticated designs and aesthetics. For Spaces, which is "not a mass product", the marketing strategy is primarily digital, with actress Kajal Agarwal as the brand ambassador. "We wanted to show Kajal Agarwal in a way that shows a day in her life with Spaces integrated into her lifestyle," she reveals.

The festive season plays a crucial role in Welspun's marketing calendar. Even though purchases are made throughout the year, the brand sees a spike during the festive season "because the consumer already has the intent to spend." This is why ad and marketing spending are skewed towards the festive season and this quarter to increase brand recall in the long run.

Welspun is also making significant strides in hyperlocal and regional marketing, expanding its Google My Business campaign from a pilot of 20 stores to over 250 stores. For the Spaces brand, geotargeting is being employed to reach key audience segments with both festive and non-festive messaging. "We've already started our operations in Kerala during Onam and Pujo. Hyperlocal and regional marketing is also very big for us, and not just in the festive season," shares Popade.

She is optimistic about the potential for Welspun in the broader market landscape, as the home furnishing category is huge in India and the home textiles and furnishing industry is seeing tremendous growth due to the mushrooming real estate and hospitality industries. 

As per Popade, the growing demand for luxury homes in India is also driving growth in the home decor industry. "People are now more conscious about their homes, and they want to invest in home decor. From here on, it is only going to grow, and we have an advantage being the market leader."

Geographically, Welspun has a strong presence in India's northern and western regions, with plans to expand its footprint in the South. The brand is also attuned to emerging consumer trends, particularly the growing demand for eco-friendly products. The biggest trend in this category is eco-friendly products, which is why Welspun has patented technology such as hygro cotton and bamboo cotton.  

"Even the packaging is seeing a change in the category, where consumers now are more aware of recyclable packaging. The younger generation is keen on sustainability, which will eventually become a table stake,” says Popade.