MAM
Festive fever goes phygital as Affle decodes India’s shopping pulse 2025
MUMBAI: Deck the carts, it’s shopping season and India’s consumers are already in festive overdrive. Affle 3i Ltd, in collaboration with audience intelligence platform Vtion, has unwrapped its India Festive Pulse 2025 report, just as the country gears up for the shopping blitz from Navratri and Durga Puja to Diwali. The study, based on a nationwide survey of 1,850 respondents across metros and smaller towns, offers a panoramic view of how Indians are discovering, deciding, and ultimately buying in the most lucrative window of the retail calendar.
This year’s festive mood looks upbeat, with 47 per cent of consumers reporting higher purchase intent. The triggers? Bonus-linked wallets, the emotional pull of gifting, and blockbuster e-commerce sales promising deep discounts. But while spending remains robust, the journey from discovery to conversion has become anything but linear.
The report reveals that 68 per cent of shoppers first spot festive deals via in-app ads, while social media continues to be a discovery driver. But there’s a rising dark horse Connected TV (CTV) now emerging as a favourite screen for browsing products during ad breaks and binge sessions.
Yet, the buyer’s path is far from one-screen simple. While 58 per cent complete purchases on the same device where they spotted the product, a chunky 32 per cent switch devices and 38 per cent head offline to finalise the transaction. The takeaway? India’s festive shopping is now a phygital juggle across devices and stores.
Planning doesn’t wait till Dhanteras. Nearly 49 per cent of shoppers start planning at least 15 days in advance, though half of purchases actually peak within 3–7 days of ad exposure. That means ads need to land early to build intent but stay visible close to purchase dates to close the deal.
Language, too, is proving to be a sales catalyst. A staggering 79 per cent of consumers engage better with ads in their local tongue, making multilingual storytelling a non-negotiable for brands. Reflecting this, 70 per cent of marketers are now investing in state-specific campaigns, with 41 per cent focusing on Tier 1–2 cities this festive season.
“Discovery and purchase are no longer linear or tied to a single screen,” said Affle COO for India & emerging markets Vipul Kedia. “Consumers move fluidly across platforms, and ads on mobile and CTV not only trigger action but also build recall. The rise of vernacular content means resonance matters as much as reach.”
For Vtion COO Shailesh Varudkar the festive season remains India’s commercial pulse, but its rhythm has changed. “Shoppers are mobile-first, discovery-driven, and effortlessly omnichannel—switching between social feeds, CTV, and apps before making a purchase. Marketers must recalibrate campaigns for this new consumer journey, where timing, personalisation, and context define festive success,” he said.
. Survey base: 1,850 respondents (67 per cent male, 33 per cent female)
. Age groups: 18 to 35 plus years, spanning NCCS A–E
. Discovery: 68 per cent via in-app ads, rising traction on CTV
. Timing: 49 per cent plan 15 days ahead, 50 per cent convert within a week of seeing ads
. Regional impact: 79 per cent prefer local language ads; 70 per cent marketers doubling down on state-level campaigns
As festive lights twinkle and offers flood feeds, India’s shoppers are no longer just swiping or strolling, they’re toggling. For marketers, the challenge is not only to be present across these touchpoints but to stitch them together into one connected, measurable, and memorable experience.
AD Agencies
Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
