Brands
Brands take digital route for Diwali ad campaigns
NEW DELHI- Diwali – the biggest festival that’s celebrated across India. At this time, celebrations are in full swing with everyone decorating their homes, exchanging gifts, indulging in delicacies and sweets, and spreading love and happiness.
However, the festive season is different this year, due to the Covid2019 pandemic. Though peoples’ spirits remain undampened, the celebrations will be a bit muted. To brighten up the festive mood, brands across categories like FMCGs, consumer durables, smartphones, automobiles, and others have launched ad campaigns, with the message of empathy and spreading joy front and centre.
We at Indiantelevision.com have created a list of such campaigns:
Lifestyle
Lifestyle India has launched #DilSeDiwali festive campaign inspired by the joyful feelings that the festival of light ushers in. The campaign takes a leap from 2019, to capture the heart of the celebrations in the context of recent times where everyone is looking forward to dressing up and dispel the gloom by celebrating Diwali in their own unique way.
This year, there will be many kinds of Diwali celebrations. There will be the ones who will keep the celebrations small and ones who will build on the festive occasion as an opportunity to reach out to their near and dear ones and share the spirit of the festival. Lifestyle’s new campaign considers all these different individual ways of celebrations, encouraging people to spread the brightness and joy in their own way. The campaign consists of two digital films with two-part storytelling, with two different Diwali Celebrations, accentuated by a memorable song. Young, vibrant and engaging, the film delivers the message of “celebrating the way your heart wishes” in a fresh new way.
Grofers
To support local artisans whose livelihoods have been severely impacted by the Covid2019 pandemic, Grofers has enabled local potters to sell their diyas on Grofers. The initiative called Ek Diye Se Do Ghar Roshan (One lamp lights up two homes) encourages consumers to shop for diyas made from local potters during this festive season, which can help lighten up Diwali for more than 200 potters and their families across Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Bangalore, Mumbai and Kolkata. The company will absorb the cost of delivery of the products and also ensure that 100 per cent of the contributions go directly to the potters.
Mankind Pharma
This Diwali, Mankind Pharma has come up with a campaign that emphasises on #SpreadingKindness and narrates the message of how kindness resides in all of us, we just have to find it for others.
The campaign is built on the importance of kindness and helping others in need and aims to encourage people to spread brightness and joy in others’ lives.
The video campaign reflects the story of a restaurant owner who has always always extended a helping hand to those in need. It then leads to the current situation where his wife is extremely unwell and how it has drained him of all his resources and it pushes him to sell his restaurant to make ends meet and pay for the medical bills. The video ends by showing a young guy who comes to his rescue by buying his restaurant and surprises him by gifting it back to him.
Tata Motors
Tata Motors rolled out the ‘Silent Diwali Film’, encouraging viewers to celebrate a silent, safe and pollution-free festival of lights with their loved ones. The video encourages people to protect the environment by opting for an electric mobility solution as a step towards building a sustainable future for India. Highlighting one of the important features of an electric car i.e. curbing noise pollution, this film draws attention to the underlying message – ‘the loudest statement will be the quietest one’.
The video begins with a young girl giggling at the excitement of lighting a firework. On the contrary, the second scene cuts to the chakras of nature spinning while pots of flowers are exploding into thin air, emphasizing the fact that nature suffers the consequences when human actions such as bursting firecrackers pollute the environment around us. Amidst all the noise showcased in the video, the final scene shows footage of India’s best-selling electric car, the Nexon EV, as it drives quietly with only a soft hum without contributing to any noise to its surroundings. An important point to note in this video is that the sound of the bursting crackers is replaced by the sounds of nature.
Paytm
Paytm launched an emotional digital ad film around Diwali celebrations. The film is receiving an overwhelming response due to its real slice-of-life depiction, at a time when many Indians are unable to meet their families or travel this festive season due to the pandemic.
This film captures the Indian sentiment around Diwali and how one can share happiness using Paytm with their loved ones, even from a distance. It is an extension of the company’s ongoing TV campaign highlighting the seamlessness of instant bank to bank transfers through the Paytm app. The TV ads had depicted various scenarios, ranging from a wedding ceremony to an everyday situation of a landlord and tenant, striking a chord with millions of Indians.
Haier
In its new digital film #LightUpAHeart, Haier celebrates the life of office people who work closely together but have drifted apart due to remote office and work from home setups. The ad seeks to play a vital role in nurturing office relationships and rekindle Diwali festivities with colleagues who despite efforts are not able to meet and celebrate the festival of lights together this year.
Through the campaign, the brand highlights how offices become a second home for office goers and how bonds transcend professional ties to become personal.
Vivo
Vivo India released a heart-warming campaign #SmileWalaDiya to celebrate the festival of Diwali. Based on Vivo India’s brand proposition of ‘Delight Every Moment’, the ad captures the nuances of the prevailing situation; the difficulty and stress that our dear ones have been facing in one of the toughest years of history. Through the #SmileWalaDiya campaign, the brand reminds us that one thing we can easily do amidst adversities is spreading smile and delight.
Through a thought-provoking video film, Vivo depicts the excitement of Diwali, the expectations a child has juxtaposed against the pressures faced by his father in the current backdrop of struggling businesses and tightened purse strings. Then, his other friends come together, surprise him, and cheer him up by undertaking cute, innocent acts like only children can. The film is a beautiful reflection of how, by just going the extra mile, we can all spread joy and delight every moment of our friends and family.
Brands
TV bills on the rise: JioStar, Sony, and Zee crank up prices by 10 per cent
Broadcasters tune into higher tariffs as JioStar, Sony, and Zee reveal new prices
MUMBAI: If you were hoping for a cheaper night in front of the telly next year, you might want to look away from the remote. India’s broadcasting giants are flipping the script on pricing, with JioStar, Sony, and Zee all tuning into a new frequency of higher tariffs. Ahead of the 2026 financial year, the Big Three have released their updated Reference Interconnect Offers (RIOs), signalling a collective push that will see most monthly bills rise by roughly 10 per cent.
The synchronised move suggests that broadcasters are testing the price elasticity of their audience. In simpler terms, they are betting that your love for daily soaps and live sports is stronger than your annoyance at a slightly lighter wallet.
Sony is making a particularly bold play in the High Definition space. If you enjoy the crispness of Sony Entertainment Television HD or Sony SAB HD, your monthly bill for those channels will jump from 25 rupees to 30 rupees. The same 30-rupee price tag now applies to their sports heavyweights, including Sony Sports Ten 1, Sony Sports Ten 2, Sony Sports Ten 3 Hindi, and Sony Sports Ten 5.
However, Sony is also expanding its horizons. Fans of regional content have new arrivals to look forward to, provided they are patient. Sony Sports Ten 4 Kannada is slated for an April 2026 debut, while Sony Vizha and Sony Vizha HD are expected by June. By August, Sony Telugu and Sony Telugu HD should be live. To keep customers sweet until then, Sony is offering “proportionate discounts.” For instance, the Happy India 2026 Smart Tamil bouquet, normally 42 rupees, will cost just 29.91 rupees until the new Vizha channel officially joins the party.
On the standard definition front, Sony is keeping its “strategic mass price” at 19 rupees for big hitters like Sony Max, Sony Marathi, and Sony Aath. Smaller channels see minor tweaks: Sony Max 2 is nudging up from 2 rupees to 3 rupees, while Sony Yay! sits at 6 rupees and Sony Max 1 remains at 5 rupees.
Zee Entertainment is also getting in on the act with a comprehensive 10 percent hike. Their flagship Standard Definition channels, such as Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee Marathi, Zee Bangla, Zee Sarthak, Zee Kannada, and Zee Tamil, are all locked in at 19 rupees. Interestingly, they have matched this 19-rupee price point for many of their HD versions too, including &TV and &Pictures.
For those who prefer the all-you-can-eat bouquet approach, Zee’s All-in-One Hindi SD pack has risen to 58 rupees. Their Marathi and Bangla packs are now 64 rupees, while the Southern trio of Tamil, Kannada, and Telugu SD packs will set you back 85 rupees. If you want those same Southern packs in glorious HD, the price climbs to a steeper 131 rupees. Zee is also shuffling its deck by exiting English entertainment but entering the sports arena, with Zee Cafe and &flix seeing price adjustments to 7 and 8 rupees respectively.
JioStar is perhaps the most aggressive of the bunch when it comes to regional favourites. While they have kept core Hindi staples like Star Plus, Colors, and Star Gold at 19 rupees, they have pushed premium regional channels like Asianet, Colors Kannada, Vijay TV, and Maa TV up to 30 rupees. This move is significant because any channel priced over 19 rupees cannot be included in a discounted bouquet, meaning fans of these channels will have to buy them separately, potentially driving up the total cost of a monthly subscription.
Even the youngsters aren’t spared, with kids’ favourites like Nick SD and Nick HD+ now priced at 19 rupees. As we head towards April 2026, the ball is now in the court of the cable and dish operators. They must decide how much of these increases they can swallow and how much they will pass on to the person holding the remote. For the average viewer, the message is clear: premium content is getting a premium price tag.
