Band, baaja and brands: Jewellery, fashion and matrimony companies ramp up marketing

New Delhi: With 48 lakh marriages in just 60 days, it’s not just parents who are spending money on their children’s weddings; brands too are dancing to the beats along with the Barat.

Indian brands are going all in this wedding season with campaigns that blend tradition, tech, and boldness. Clothing brands like Peter England, Jaypore, Taneira, and Libas have launched ads focused on brides and grooms. CARS24 flipped traditions with its “Dowry Collection”, promoting car exchanges instead. 

Federal Bank emphasised the importance of financial security in marriages, while Paytm introduced a QR Code Maala for digital wedding gifting. boAt’s ANC headphones are tackling wedding season noise, and Jeevansathi rolled out quirky, shaadi-themed billboards. Brands are making this wedding season as innovative as it is celebratory!

Naved Aqueel, Managing Director of Magnon Sancus, highlighted, “The wedding season in India, typically spanning from October to February, offers a unique opportunity for brands to get creative and tap into this multi-billion-dollar industry.”

Abbhinav R Jain, Co-founder and CFO of AdCounty Media, anticipated a 10%-15% increase in marketing spend during this period compared to last year.

Chandan Bagwe, Founder of C Com Digital, noted that a mid-sized fashion brand with a $5 million annual budget could allocate between $500,000 to $1 million for wedding-specific marketing. He added that sectors like beauty and personal care dedicate 10-20%, FMCG companies spend around 10%, while financial services target newlyweds with 5-10% of their budgets. Travel and hospitality brands typically allocate 15-20% during peak wedding season.

Jain also mentioned that the pent-up demand post-pandemic and the trend toward extravagant celebrations are fueling this rise in ad spending. E-commerce and D2C brands are expected to increase their budgets by 20%, while luxury sectors like fashion, travel, and gold anticipate higher consumer spending.

Anusha Srinivasan Iyer, Founder of Naarad, noted that brands often spend 20-40% of their annual marketing budgets during this season, with luxury categories like jewellery, fashion, and destination weddings going as high as 50%.

Aqueel added that jewellery brands are among the biggest spenders, likely to allocate 35–40% of their budgets for Q4 campaigns. Even fintech companies offering wedding EMIs and wellness brands promoting post-wedding detoxes are dedicating 15-20% of their budgets.

Bagwe concluded that consumer durables, including electronics, appliances, and furniture, benefit significantly from the wedding market, with brands in this category spending 15-25% of their marketing budgets. Fashion and apparel brands, particularly in jewellery and wedding attire, allocate 20-30%.

Diva Bhansali, Founder of DBound Media and Marketing, predicted 20-30% sales growth for categories like jewellery, fashion, and travel, while digital-first services, including fintech and gifting platforms, could see a 50% growth surge.

When it comes to the media mix, Bagwe told BestMediaInfo.com that a typical media mix for a wedding season campaign might include 30-40% allocation to television, 30-40% to digital platforms, 10-20% to print media, 5-10% to outdoor advertising, and 5-10% to influencer marketing. 

However, according to Bhansali, 70% of wedding adex has shifted towards digital platforms due to precise targeting capabilities and measurable ROI. She said “OTT platforms, social media, and even AI-driven personalised marketing are witnessing growing adoption. Influencer marketing is expected to evolve further, with more niche and regional influencers driving engagement.

In fact, media platforms are creating wedding-specific packages, bundling formats like short-form videos, vernacular content, and native advertising. This season and beyond, we’ll see a rise in AI-driven insights, allowing brands to create hyper-targeted campaigns that resonate deeply with audiences.”

Supplementing Bhansali’s thoughts, Aqueel (Magnon Sancus) said, “We are witnessing influencer marketing, digital campaigns, and social media gain major traction, with the digital marketing space projected to grow substantially by 2026. Furthermore, we are also noticing a notable rise in interest in OOH advertising, with brands engaging in playful banter to attract customers and generate buzz around their brands. Moreover, we will also witness a significant involvement of technology-integrated advertising, with augmented reality creating a personalised 3-D wedding experience.”

Things that brands must keep in mind during the wedding season

There’s competition in the market, stakes are high and every brand is competing for the soon-to-be-married couple’s attention, so what marketing strategies should brands adopt to effectively engage their audience during the shaadi season? 

Presenting her thoughts on the issue, Piali Dasgupta Surendran, fractional CMO and Brand Advisor, said, “Timing is everything during the shaadi season. Indians plan their wedding outfits, arrangements, honeymoon destination, return gifts, bachelorette parties, etc months in advance. Therefore, creating salience for brands a few months before the wedding season hits, is crucial. Marketers also need to keep themselves abreast of changing social trends. 

For example, today's bachelorette party is no longer an all-night bender; it's a wellness retreat. How you continue to keep your brand relevant with changing societal norms is the bigger piece of the puzzle that marketers need to solve. And so, it's all about understanding the zeitgeist, figuring out what factors are propelling the changing trends, and keeping a firm finger on the pulse of the target audience at all times.”

Nisha Sampath, Managing Partner at Bright Angles Consulting LLP, mentioned how brands need to change their marketing strategies as the concept of marriage is also changing.

Commenting on the evolution of marriages, Sampath said, “The concept of the marriage season is evolving. Initially, it was about the months when marriages happen and the expenditure around them, which still continues. However, two aspects have changed: the audiences being addressed and the continued engagement with them after marriage. Within the marriage season, conventional categories like jewellery are seeing a shift. Where decisions were once made by families or parents, it is now becoming critical to directly talk to the bride and groom. 

They not only have more say in decisions but are also independently making them, sometimes contributing financially. For instance, sustainable weddings are more likely to be the choice of the younger generation. A significant shift in marketing strategy involves identifying the target audience and their preferences. It's no longer just about conventional categories like fashion and beauty; even entrenched investment categories like jewellery are seeing the bride and groom having a say.

Interestingly, in rural areas, the bride and groom visit jewellery stores separately from their families to make independent choices. Across different demographics, the couple's voice is becoming more influential in decision-making so brands need to carefully analyse who they want to target?”

Surendran then went on to suggest brands to avoid clichés at all costs. “By and large, people that are getting married are in their mid-20s to mid-30s. That makes them Gen Z and millennials, two cohorts that are all about defying the cliches. So, the traditional narrative of the girl crying during vidai etc. are probably not that appealing anymore. 

Instead, focusing on reflecting on the changing times and looking for fresh, new, meaningful narratives while ensuring one doesn't fall into the "wokeness" trap is recommended. Because if you are trying too hard to appear woke, are you really that woke? 

This shaadi season is not just about the wedding couple but also about the Gen Z children and cousins who will be flocking the scene in colourful kurtas and lehengas. To target them effectively, Surendran advises you to tell a story and not do a hard sell.

In her own words, “The key trends in marketing during the wedding season would be targeted campaigns that talk to not just the bride and the groom, but also their immediate and extended families and friends, who are key stakeholders of the wedding festivities. 

The focus would be on influencer-led, narrative-driven campaigns that appeal to the Gen-Z and the young millennial audience, who respond  better to storytelling rather than hard selling.”

Expanding on Surendran’s thought when it comes to influencer marketing, Sampath said, “Wedding planning has become vital today, involving meticulous attention to detail, from the theme and experience to the colours. Couples are now deeply involved in colour-coordinating every aspect, such as matching the wedding invitation with the macaroons, wedding cake, and floral decor. However, people don't want to completely outsource this process; they want to be part of it as it's the most important event in their lives.