Is the fizz out of festive advertising for beverage brands?

The beverage category, one of leading advertising segments during the festive season, has curtailed its ad spends significantly.

One can rarely find any print advisements, TVCs or digital campaigns launched by any beverage brand. It’s hard to find any celebrity poster or a billboard with a cola bottle at any shopping centre or market.

All this is an indicator of the fact that ad spends of beverage brands for the festive season is shrinking.

A latest Nielsen report demonstrates that retail off-take is down compared to last year and the lowest in the last seven years.

Prabhakar Mundkur

“People are either cutting their consumption or moving to cheaper alternatives. This I think would definitely affect products like ‘colas’. There are several cheaper alternatives, including sugared water,” says brand strategy adviser Prabhakar Mundkur.

Only Coca-Cola and Dabur India Ltd. have launched festive campaigns this year. But most other beverage brands curtailed their advertising budgets and are unwilling to roll out festive campaigns.

Coca-Cola’s #HarRishtaRaushan campaign launched on this Diwali

This Diwali, Coca-Cola released its #HarRishtaRaushan campaign featuring Ranbir Kapoor and Paresh Rawal.  The lovable duo engages yet again in funny banter, as they share their unique, heartwarming point of view on relationships — that a real family isn’t always our blood family, but the family that can become our blood. The multi-faceted campaign includes a number of consumer touch points, including multi-city social media marketing activations, OOH, radio, general and modern trade activation.

Shrenik Dasani

“During Diwali week, Coca-Cola will run various activations in hotspots like college hostels and budget accommodations enabling the youth to celebrate Diwali with their ‘other family’ with Diwali lights, rangolis, music, sweets, and, of course, ice-cold Coca-Cola,” said Shrenik Dasani, Vice-President, Sparkling Category, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia.

The brand has launched a range of special festive packs curated to offer an excellent gifting option for consumers. In addition, some of the Coca-Cola packs will also feature festive labels to reflect the celebratory mood for the coming festive period.

On the other hand, Dabur India Ltd. is offering consumers a healthy and eco-friendly option for exchanging festival greetings. In addition to ramping up the number of Réal Diwali Gift Packs being put in the market for the festive season, the brand is also creating unique combo packs that are not only eco-friendly but also in line with the consumer’s expectations and aspirations.

Mayank Kumar

“With health awareness growing among consumers, the trend of healthy gifting for our near and dear ones is also fast catching up. Consumers today are becoming extremely health conscious and are looking for healthy and non-traditional gifting options. Dabur had pioneered this concept with its range of healthy gift packs. Réal Greetings Diwali Gift Packs offer the best combination of taste and nutrition, and is yet another illustration of Dabur's commitment towards the health and well-being of every household,” says Mayank Kumar, Marketing Head-Foods, Dabur India Ltd.

In all, Dabur India Ltd. is introducing an exclusive range of over 20 specially-crafted gift packs of Réal fruit beverages, offering consumers the option of gifting real health to their near and dear ones. 

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