How Home Centre’s content-first strategy makes Diwali drive up to 20% of its yearly sales

New Delhi: Home Centre has rolled out the second edition of its “Speaking Gifts” Diwali campaign with a five-week, city-specific plan that leans on digital and in-store experiences to drive festive sales. 

The retailer said the Diwali window contributes about 20 to 25% of annual sales and takes roughly 20% of yearly ad spend, with 60% of the budget on digital, including CTV; 10 to 15% on activations; and the rest on ATL, influencer and content pushes.

The rollout stacks films, chef-led gifting videos, the Diwali Gourmet Table event and influencer collaborations before wider amplification across CTV, outdoor and print. 

The brand is tailoring media by market, using TV in Tamil Nadu and radio in Delhi, and is focusing on vicinity marketing around stores.

“Last year, we launched this campaign called Speaking Gifts. The idea was to say that this Diwali, the gifts become the means to unwrap your emotions; therefore, gift thoughtfully,” said Shikha Mazumdar, Head of Marketing and VM, Home Centre India, speaking exclusively to BestMediaInfo.

Home Centre’s five-week blueprint

Home Centre’s festive roadmap is built on a structured, five-week content calendar leading up to Diwali, each week designed with a clear highlight to keep momentum alive. “We look at five weeks before Diwali, and every week we ensure there is a high point and content built around that,” Mazumdar explained.

Mazumdar highlighted that the brand’s campaign follows a phased rollout approach.

Week 1: Launch of Diwali films

Week 2: Videos with Ranveer Brar on gifting

Week 3: The Create India Gourmet Diwali Table event

Week 4: Influencer collaborations with Deepa Khosla, Shivesh, House of Misu, Sanjana Batra, and Durjoy Datta

Week 5: Integrated amplification across CTV, outdoor, and print

“The heart of this entire effort is our content strategy. We've worked with leading bloggers across the country, collaborated with Ranveer Brar, created videos around each Diwali collection, and shown how to set up festive tables. Our stores are designed for coordinated shopping. Visual merchandising is done to make it seamless. The market prep for the next season began with the end of the ongoing season,” Mazumdar added.

Diwali, the biggest sales window

Diwali continues to be the brand’s biggest growth driver. “Around 20 to 25% of our annual sales come during Diwali. This one month and five weeks leading to Diwali is super critical,” she confirmed.

The marketing push mirrors this importance. “Around 20% of our ad expense goes into the festive season. It could be a little bit on the north side also, but definitely 20% for sure,” Mazumdar noted.

The success, she said, is evaluated across metrics. “One is the sales uplift, which is true in terms of numbers. The other is footfalls; as a retailer, that’s something we measure directly. We also look at customer data, repeat customers, lapsed customers returning, and new customer acquisition. When we spend that much on media, we should see new customers or repeats going up.”

Home Centre’s city-focused strategy

Home Centre’s marketing mix today reflects a data-backed and geography-specific approach. “Around 60% of our advertising spends go into digital, and that includes CTV. Around 10–15% goes into activations and 25% into ATL, influencer collaborations and content,” Mazumdar detailed.

While performance marketing continues to be dominated by Google and Meta, brand campaigns are driven by content-rich platforms. “For performance, what always works best is Google, followed by Meta. For branding campaigns, we prefer Meta, largely Instagram because of its influencer network and content opportunities, especially for categories like fashion, beauty, and home.”

But what sets Home Centre apart is its ability to tune media strategies to each city. “For example, in Tamil Nadu, TV works. In Delhi, radio works,” Mazumdar explained. “We’ve looked at all these things over the years and arrived at a media mix that works for each city.”

Vicinity marketing, too, plays a crucial role in store-level visibility. “For example, if a customer stays in Vasant Kunj, she wouldn’t go to Rohini to shop in the store. So, we have to keep vicinity marketing and mall marketing in mind. It’s very specific to the geography where our presence is.”

Why Home Centre is selective about tier 2-tier 3 cities

Even as Home Centre dominates top metros, its presence in smaller markets remains selective. Mazumdar clarified that expansion is tied to infrastructure readiness. “We are present across all key malls in the country, the ecosystem in which we thrive. We come in where our customers expect us.”

The brand currently has stores in Coimbatore, Amritsar, Trichy, Kannur, Guwahati, and other tier-2 markets, but the pace of entry is dictated by quality retail spaces. “We can only come to tier 2 and tier 3 cities when there is a good mall,” she explained. “Because there is a certain ecosystem in which a store like ours can exist.”

Store ambience remains central to the brand’s DNA. “Experience is as important to us as the product. The brand is 360; it’s not just marketing. When a customer walks into a place thinking Home Centre is here, the store has to be a certain way.”

The experiential touch

To bring the campaign alive, Home Centre hosted The Diwali Gourmet Table, an event that merged food and décor inspiration at Ambience Mall, Gurgaon, with celebrity chef Ranveer Brar and content creator and cookbook author Shivesh Bhatia. The event set the stage for the brand’s festive campaign, “Speaking Gifts”, which celebrates Diwali through the lens of thoughtful gifting, modern dining, and elegant home décor.

“We created the Diwali Gourmet Table, and the idea was to create an experiential event where we brought food items from all across the country, dishes typically made during Diwali, as well as those from regions where Diwali is not celebrated but equivalent harvest festivals are,” Mazumdar said.

Chef Ranveer Brar, a longtime collaborator, remains the brand’s key face. “He’s been associated with Home Centre since 2017, and continues as brand ambassador for its cookware and serveware categories,” Mazumdar said. Alongside him, food creator Shivesh Bhatia was brought in to connect with younger audiences. “We wanted to bring in somebody who also brings that young perspective; Sivesh just came naturally. He’s self-taught, and a lot of people today, especially post-COVID, are trying to cook and do their own techniques,” she added.

How Home Centre maintains its edge

Despite the cluttered home retail market, Home Centre’s edge lies in its consistency. “We continue to enjoy customer loyalty by virtue of three things: price, quality, and assortment,” Mazumdar said. “Every product is designed by us. We look at trends globally, adapt them for India, and bring them in thoughtfully.”

She concluded with a note on constant reinvention. “In Home Centre, you’ll always find new things. That’s something a lot of home retailers cannot claim. We work very hard to ensure that. By virtue of our product, experience, and value, we continue to build that trust with our customers,” Mazumdar added.