Rajasthan Patrika successfully concludes second edition of JSF

The second edition of the flagship property saw participation of a host of advertisers and more than 11,000 retailers.

Organised by Rajasthan Patrika, the Jaipur Shopping Festival successfully completed its second edition recently. The event was held during October 5 - November 3.

The Jaipur Shopping Festival (JSF) is a mega retail festival that blends entertainment, shopping and culture into one fun filled family extravaganza, stepping up the excitement and tempo around the Diwali season. The multilayered event integrates and engages advertisers, consumers and different agencies with each other and urges people to return to the heritage markets of Jaipur that have been losing their ground to the malls. It offers customers diverse platforms for shopping, attracts tourism and provides advertisers and other stakeholders a platform to reach more eyeballs.

JSF also sets an example for other marketers across genres to reach out to their target audience by integrating the entire region under one umbrella and benefiting different stakeholders.

Saurabh Bhandari, national head, corporate, Rajasthan Patrika, says, "JSF is the biggest event in this part of the world, and ever organised by any media house. It started last year as a humongous retail event intended to revitalise and boost retail trade around Diwali season in Jaipur. It is also promoted as a tourist attraction. This month long annual event is usually scheduled during Navratra to Diwali."

The 2013 edition of JSF included a total of 10 heritage bazaars that incorporated more than 11,000 retailers. The trade associations or Vyapaar Mandals of all these markets joined hands with the publication, which uniformly decorated all these bazaars and created branding space across the streets.

Patrika also initiated a lucky draw contest, an effective marketing tool for all its retailers, wherein the customer purchasing from these retailers got a lucky draw coupon. This increased the footfalls to these markets and enhanced sales by at least 15 per cent, claim trade associations of the participating bazaars.

To the delight of the retailers and the trade associations, the branding activity was taken care of by the publication itself, thereby creating uniformity and a larger scale compared to earlier years.

According to Patrika, JSF develops powerful and unique propositions to choose Jaipur over other destinations by building a unique identity for the city with a synergy of vision and strategic moves that is agreeable and mutually beneficial to stakeholders, citizens, tourists, amenity providers, functionaries, associations and partnerships to make it an amazing experience.

Events formed a huge attraction of the festival and people in large numbers participated in various activities. Ranging from cultural extravaganzas to shopping fairs and sports, a total of 20 events were organised. Some of these were concerts by A R Rahman, Ustaad Ghulam Ali, Sufi Nights, fashion shows, parties, food fiesta, cultural events (Dandya, Ravan Dahan), shopping carnivals, sports events, crafts bazaars and others. It gave the festival a large number of eyeballs not just across the city but across the country.

One of the main highlights of the festival was its Lucky Draw contest that ran throughout the event and saw participation of a huge number of brands. Prizes worth more than one crore rupees were distributed.

Rajasthan Patrika released regular advertisements and editorials to support the festival. On the digital platform, it promoted the festival through its microsite, Facebook page, Twitter page, Flickr and others.

It also partnered with CNBC-TV18 and CNBC Awaaz along with ABP News to promote the festival on the television medium. Regular radio jingles and interactions were carried out on 95 FM Tadka.

On the outdoor front, it set up huge gates, poles and kiosks to promote the festival, and offered a huge platform for different brands to advertise and gather eyeballs.

Speaking about the benefits to Rajasthan Patrika, Bhandari says, "It is an immense value addition to all our stakeholders - be it advertisers, non advertisers, readers and non readers. People from all walks of life can participate and enjoy this extravaganza. This festival also not only improves the economics of the city, but also offers a 360 degree opportunity to advertisers and vast promotional benefits to shoppers."

He further adds that all the events experienced demand far higher than capacity. Next time, Patrika plans to increase capacity.