Meta urges brands to extend festive campaigns beyond Diwali

MUMBAI: For brands, the festive season is no longer a one-diya show. Meta is urging marketers to stretch their campaigns beyond Diwali and tap into a five-month shopping window, arguing that consumer discovery, purchase decisions and spending opportunities now extend across multiple festivals, sales events and the wedding season.

The company’s Festive Accelerator 2026: CMO Playbook recommends a connected approach that takes brands from early-season awareness to purchase conversion during peak sales and continued engagement through Christmas, year-end festivities, the November-to-February wedding season and Republic Day sales. The underlying message is that marketers risk missing potential customers if they treat Diwali as the finish line rather than one milestone in a longer festive journey.

Meta’s playbook places social media, creator-led discovery and artificial intelligence (AI) at the centre of this approach. According to the report, nine in 10 purchases during the festive season are influenced by Meta, while 85 per cent of festive shoppers use its platforms every week. It also states that 86 per cent of shoppers seek inspiration on social media before making a purchase, suggesting that consumer interest can begin building well before the big sale banners appear.

“Festive shopping has become a much more continuous and dynamic journey, spanning cultural moments, shopping occasions, and sale events well beyond Diwali,” said Meghna Apparao, director, e-commerce and retail (India), Meta.

“For retailers and e-commerce brands, the opportunity is to stay relevant across the full festive arc. Our Festive Accelerator Playbook is designed to help brands plan for this entire journey, rather than treat each moment as a standalone opportunity,” she added.

The playbook recommends dividing the season into distinct phases rather than relying on one large burst of advertising. Campaigns launched well ahead of a festival can build awareness and help consumers discover products, while performance-led advertising closer to purchase can target shoppers who are ready to spend. Continued engagement after Diwali can then help brands remain visible as customers move into weddings, Christmas and the next round of sales.

The timing matters because festive shopping is not always an impulse purchase. Meta identifies a planned-demand phase beginning around six weeks before a festive occasion, followed by a last-minute surge in the final 48 hours. For marketers, that creates two different opportunities: reach consumers while they are researching and considering purchases, then convert those who leave their shopping until the final stretch.

The report also highlights the growing importance of shoppers beyond India’s largest cities. According to Meta, 60 per cent of new online shoppers come from Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, making smaller cities an important part of the festive commerce picture. For brands, this means that campaign planning needs to account for consumers with different preferences, shopping habits and cultural contexts rather than treating metropolitan audiences as the default.

The shift also puts greater emphasis on how products are discovered. Meta’s playbook says cultural content creation on its platforms increases by 50 per cent during the festive season, while social media engagement rises by 20 per cent compared with business-as-usual periods. Festivals, in other words, are not just occasions for shopping; they are also moments when people create, watch and share content around celebrations, gifts, fashion, food and family traditions.

Creators are becoming an important part of that mix. One in two festive shoppers follows influencers or creators during the season, according to the playbook. Meta recommends that brands move beyond a single festive advertisement and develop a wider range of creatives across formats, languages and creators, tailored to different occasions and consumer motivations.

That approach also changes the role of advertising itself. Rather than simply showing a product against a festive backdrop, brands can demonstrate how it fits into a celebration or solves an everyday need during the season. The playbook states that content showing a product transforming a moment records a 2.3-times higher save rate. The finding points to the value of storytelling that gives consumers a reason to revisit content, rather than merely scroll past another festival-themed promotion.

Language and cultural relevance are also part of the challenge. With shoppers spread across cities of different sizes and with varied traditions, a single creative may not resonate equally with every audience. Meta’s recommendation to work with multiple creators and formats reflects a broader shift towards tailoring campaigns to specific moments and consumer interests across the festive calendar.

AI is another major element of the playbook. Meta reports that 80 per cent of users used AI for festive-season ideation and shopping. The figure highlights the role the technology is beginning to play in how consumers explore ideas and plan purchases, as well as the opportunity for businesses to use AI-powered tools in their own marketing operations.

For advertisers, Meta’s approach brings AI into creative development, audience selection, placements and bidding strategies. These tools are intended to help businesses adapt campaigns at scale as consumer preferences and purchase intent change throughout the season. Shopping and catalogue tools also form part of the wider approach, allowing brands to connect advertising with product discovery and purchase opportunities.

However, the playbook’s recommendations are not limited to technology. The broader strategy depends on brands planning ahead, understanding when customers are likely to be browsing or buying, and maintaining a consistent presence across different occasions. AI may help scale creative and campaign decisions, but the content still needs to be relevant to the people it is intended to reach.

The calendar Meta outlines extends well beyond the Diwali rush. Black Friday and Cyber Monday offer another opportunity to attract deal-seeking shoppers, while the November-to-February wedding season creates a longer runway for categories linked to clothing, jewellery, gifting and celebrations. Christmas and year-end festivities bring further occasions for shopping, followed by Republic Day sales.

Taken together, these events create a five-month stretch in which consumer attention can shift from one occasion to the next. The challenge for marketers is to connect those moments without making every campaign feel like a repeat of the previous one. That requires different messages for early discovery, high-intent shopping and post-festival engagement, rather than simply extending the same Diwali advertisement for longer.

Meta’s findings come from its own festive marketing playbook, and the reported figures describe the platform’s view of consumer behaviour and campaign opportunities. They underline the company’s case for sustained marketing across its services, while leaving individual brands to determine how the recommendations fit their own audiences, budgets and business goals.

For marketers, the festive season is increasingly a marathon dressed up as a series of sprints. Diwali remains a major shopping occasion, but the opportunity does not end when the last lamps are put away. From early inspiration and creator-led discovery to wedding shopping and Republic Day discounts, Meta’s message is that brands need to stay in the conversation long after the main festival has passed.