GroupM brings back 'Grand Diwali Mela'

The second edition of the online carnival has a new title sponsor Askmebazaar.com.

GroupM is back with the second edition of the 'Grand Diwali Mela (GDM)', along with Google. This year, the online carnival has a new title sponsor Askmebazaar.com. The other brands to come on board are Lakme, Horlicks, Kurkure and Hungama.com. They have renewed their partnership with the Grand Diwali Mela. New sponsors include Eno and Godrej Securities.

Last year, the online festival claims to have received over 5.5 million visitors in the course of 30 days. Further, over 1,25,000 hours were spent browsing various online stalls in the 'mela' and more than 1,50,000 samples were shipped across India, with 70 percent of them going to Tier two and Tier three towns. The samples ranged from make-up and skincare to household products.

For the spiritually inclined, the Grand Diwali Mela, this year, has an option of offering prayers and receiving prasad from temples across India. The platform also makes it possible for people to wish their loved ones by sending them fun greeting cards from Kurkure.

Commenting on the partnership, Manav Sethi, group CMO and head, digital strategy, Askmebazaar, says, "We are excited to be the presenting sponsor of the Grand Diwali Mela 2015. It is a one of its kind virtual mela; a one-stop destination for entertainment, best deals and best brands in the biggest festive season of India. From furniture to fashion, AskmeBazaar has curated the best deals to ensure every home lights up this Diwali."

Speaking about the reach of the festival, CVL Srinivas, CEO, GroupM, South Asia, adds, "With GDM, we were able to create a great platform for consumers to come and sample products and interact with brands. Last year, we saw a clear spike in terms of mobile usage in order to access the Grand Diwali Mela. The focus is on taking the festival to not just metros, but also Tier two and Tier three towns, where the mobile phone is the users' window to the world. For this, GroupM and partners are integrating traditional print, TV and radio with mobile and digital marketing."

Music and video-on-demand service platform Hungama.com has come back on board as one of the partners of the 'Grand Diwali Mela'. Last year, the portal gave users access to films from their Indian and international movies catalogue wherein users could also create a 'Grand Diwali Mela Playlist' of popular Bollywood numbers. This year, Hungama.com brings on board 'Hungama Play', its premium video-on-demand service via the Grand Diwali Mela 2015. Besides this, the virtual festival is also running contests for users.

GroupM is a global media investment management operation and parent company to WPP media agencies including Mindshare, MEC, MediaCom, Maxus, and Motivator in India. GroupM's primary purpose is to maximise performance of WPP's media agencies by operating as leader and collaborator in trading, content creation, sports, digital, finance, proprietary tool development and other business-critical capabilities.