Ad agencies turn GST rate cuts into festive creative brief

New Delhi: India's festive advertising wagon found an unlikely fuel this year. The Indian ad land has long cultivated great ideas from things like monsoon, motherhood, and oneness. It’s not often that a government policy gives the advertising industry its next big idea. 

But this festive season, India’s marketers have found themselves with a campaign brief straight out of the Finance Ministry.  

When the government announced a cut in GST rates across key consumer categories, from air conditioners and refrigerators to automobiles and packaged foods, the relief didn’t just lift market sentiment. It rewrote the advertising calendar.

In the weeks since, brands have turned “passing GST benefits to consumers” into a full-blown marketing hook for the festive season. Thanks to GST cuts across major categories, AdEx is up by nearly 15% over earlier projections, according to media planners.

A newfound rhythm

For an economy built on emotion as much as consumption, it’s a moment of strange harmony where reform and retail were in rhythm. The GST cuts rebooted advertisers, and “GST benefits passed on to consumers” became the new premise of campaigns on TV spots, in the digital realm and the print world. 

Krishnarao Buddha, Marketing Specialist, described the shift as both psychological and strategic. He noted, “GST 2.0 rationalisation has led to advertising spends going up by 12-15% this festive season with an anticipated surge in consumer demand. Marketers are focusing on ROI-driven performance marketing campaigns and sharper regional targeting to optimise spends.” 

While some used the GST messaging to build trust, others used it to make their other offerings more alluring. As Gopa Menon, Co-founder and COO, Theblurr, noted, “In high-ticket items like automobiles, consumer durables, and electronics, the GST story is framed as 'genuine savings' to build trust in an era where hidden costs make people wary. In fast-moving categories, the pitch leans more towards urgency and deals. It’s about reassuring consumers that the benefit is real, official, and government-linked.” 

Vivek Srivastava, Founder & Managing Partner, Integrated Brand Heuristics, highlighted that it came as a filip to the advertising activities across categories. “After a rather subdued phase, the advertising business is witnessing fresh momentum, with a flurry of campaigns across ATL, digital, OOH, and even activations aimed at aggressively courting consumers,” he stated. 

The brand play

Buddha, who has been at the helm of all things marketing at Parle Products, pointed out how brands are using omnichannel campaigns, combining TV, digital and OOH, for maximum reach.

He laid out the approaches as follows: 

• Enhanced digital storytelling and performance marketing 

• Integration of influencer-led messages for authenticity 

• Bundling, quick commerce deals, and interactive digital content to drive engagement 

• Strategic timing of product launches and price announcements to capture festive sentiment. 

Nowhere has this GST story played out more dramatically than in the consumer durables market. After a rain-hit summer, the air-conditioner industry had been struggling to regain momentum.

With GST reduced from 28 to 18%, a five-star AC priced around Rs 45,000 became cheaper by almost Rs 5,000. This dual trigger, affordability plus pent-up demand, has made this festive season a second summer, noted Girish Hingorani, Vice President-Marketing (Consumer Products), Bluestar Limited. 

Bluestar experienced more than 100% growth in e-commerce sales in the first two days of the festive season. According to Hingorani, the target group for this particular window was the first-time buyers who had delayed purchase decisions earlier. 

To target them, the brand combined GST savings with additional offers: subsidised installation, cashback, exchange and finance deals, zero down-payment and easy EMIs, and its ilk. 

Explaining the budget reallocation to BestMediaInfo.com, Hingorani highlighted that with the weak summer demand due to unprecedented rains, ad wallets for Bluestar saw a 15-20% cutback. But that cut also fuelled the festive season, clubbed with the GST reforms. As a result, Bluestar doubled its festive spends, adding the summer cutbacks to the current wave. 

“Typically, our spends follow an 80:20 split between summer and festive, but this year it shifted to around 60:40. We doubled festive season investments, focusing on TV and digital bumper ads, while using print sparingly, mainly for inserts thanking the Prime Minister for the GST cut,” he zoomed in.

Agencies attuned 

For agencies, it was a unique task of translating tax talk into storytelling. The challenge was not to sound transactional while still grounding the narrative in real consumer benefit.

Nagessh Pannaswami, Director, Curry-Nation Brand Conversations, explained how brands approached it with two main lenses. 

He noted, “Some brands treat GST cuts as a plain announcement, almost like a price-drop headline. Others use it as an opportunity to highlight consumer benefits. For example, ‘This festive season, your celebrations go further’.”

According to Pannaswami, the second approach is “far more engaging.” “We pushed our clients to go beyond the numeric and make it a part of a larger celebratory story,” he added. 

This is exactly what Abhik Santara, Director & CEO, atom Network. He explained that with reforms like GST reduction, consumer awareness is usually high. People already know change is underway. The real opportunity for brands lies in how they choose to communicate their response.”

Santara laid out that GST cuts have a more tangible impact on high-value categories such as automobiles, electronics, and insurance. Several brands in these sectors had anticipated the change and began passing on the benefits even before the formal deadline, which created a timely and authentic communication hook rooted in value delivery and consumer trust. 

He added, “That said, such policy shifts typically drive growth at a category level rather than disproportionately favouring individual brands. A GST cut, for example, can expand overall demand through horizontal growth or accelerate premiumization by making higher-end products more accessible. The real opportunity for brands is to position themselves clearly within this broader momentum, either by leading the value narrative or by championing quality and aspiration.” 

Creative agencies cracked the code for GST reforms through trust and goodwill. 

Zubin Sheriff, AVP - Client Solutions, 22feet Tribal Worldwide, offered his perspective on the same, saying, “GST cuts give us a great hook, but the real story isn’t the tax; it’s trust. Consumers don’t want jargon; they want honesty. So instead of saying, ‘here’s the new price after GST,’ we say, ‘you deserve to pay less, and we’re making that happen.’” 

The idea, Sheriff said, is to turn a policy update into a gesture of goodwill, with the creative challenge being to keep the messaging festive rather than fiscal. Celebration over calculation. Campaigns resonate best, he added, when consumers can feel the intent behind the message, and that’s when they deliver the most effective results.

Workload and budgets

The GST cheer, along with brightening the festive window, also sparked extra hours for agencies. Creative teams found themselves handling more client requests, with brands eager to add new GST-led creatives to their festive lineup. 

Curry-Nation’s Pannaswami saw GST cuts not as a one-off asset but as a plug-in across their festive communication suite. 

“Several clients have asked for spin-off creatives, from retail posters to digital banners and festive mailers. Since GST cuts are time-sensitive, speed is critical, which does increase workload. But we plan for agility during the festive season and advise clients to treat GST not as a one-off asset but as a plug-in across their festive communication suite. This way, budgets stretch further and the messaging feels cohesive rather than fragmented,” he told BestMediaInfo.com.  

In Santara’s experience, the GST wave brought in additional assets but little additional budget. “Several clients did request additional creative assets or short-turnaround campaigns to spotlight GST benefits. However, these were largely tactical tasks with limited shelf life—often tied to immediate promotional windows. While they did temporarily increase workload, the impact on overall budgets and long-term planning was minimal, as these initiatives were typically executed within existing scopes,” he said. 

A true celebration

In the end, GST did more than cut taxes; it sliced through advertising clutter and stitched together a season that finally made sense. What started as a government reform quietly evolved into a creative reset, turning brand conversations from persuasion to participation.

For marketers, it brought clarity in a foggy year. After months of fragmented sentiment, the GST cuts gave them a brief that spoke in both emotion and logic.

For agencies, it reignited the purpose of persuasion. A technical reform had to be turned into something that could live on screens, shelves, and hearts. It wasn’t just about discounts; it was about dignity in communication.

And for the market, it was a reset button. AdEx went up, confidence trickled back, and the festive calendar that looked cautiously optimistic a few months ago now feels charged again. Beyond the noise of offers and flash sales, there’s a deeper story unfolding.