Monsoon rains force brands to rethink festive advertising

Last week’s torrential downpour in Kolkata flooded streets, disrupted metro services, and cancelled nearly 60 flights. More than that, it dampened the City of Joy’s Durga Puja spirit.

It was the second time in recent months that major Indian festivals were hit by extreme rainfall. A month earlier, Ganesh Chaturthi in Maharashtra and southern India faced similar disruption—even the immersion of Mumbai’s Lalbaugcha Raja idol had to be postponed.

For retailers and advertisers, the timing could not be worse. September to December is the most lucrative stretch of the year, when consumer sentiment peaks, footfalls surge, and campaigns compete across every medium. This season, however, waterlogged streets and clogged commutes kept people indoors, forcing agencies and brands to rewrite their playbooks on the fly.

From billboards to browser screens

India has long grappled with the monsoon’s unpredictability. More than a decade ago, Aircel tried to turn it into a branding opportunity, installing lifeboats on billboards and bus shelters with the line: “Aircel helps Mumbai to sail through its network.” One of the boats was reportedly stolen, a reminder of how spectacle-driven advertising can backfire when weather volatility becomes a lived reality.

Today’s marketers are less theatrical and more pragmatic. For Rohit Sakunia, co-founder of Art-E Mediatech, this year’s rains fundamentally changed the festive experience.

“I am sure pandals weren’t drawing the same footfall, and outdoor media lost a big chunk of its shine,” he said of the Mumbai Ganesh pandals. “We shifted focus for our clients pretty quickly. The leaning towards digital storytelling was natural. We moved towards influencer-driven narratives that carried the festival spirit into people’s homes.”

 

 

 

 

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For some brands, contingency planning is no longer optional. Surya Roshni, for instance, is already preparing for knock-on effects.

“Given the heavy rains this year, we anticipate a longer winter season with extended periods of extreme cold compared to previous years,” said Vasumitra Pandey, CEO for lighting and consumer durables. “Therefore, even if sales during Diwali or Durga Puja fall short, we are prepared with a contingency plan. Since wire is a high-volume product, we have adequate material and a well-structured strategy to offset any shortfall.”

Vasumitra Pandey, CEO for lighting and consumer durables, Surya Roshni.

Agencies are adapting in similar fashion. At Excellent Publicity, teams shifted ad spends daily to hedge against “rain shocks.” Co-founder and director Vaishal Dalal explained: “Some brands doubled down on social media and live-streaming when pandal footfall dipped, ensuring festive engagement continued even indoors.”

Not everyone sees sentiment as fragile. According to Response India’s director, Rashi Ray, Bengal’s festive spirit is resilient.

“A few days of rain may slow the traffic, but it has never stopped the beat of the dhak, the sparkle of new clothes, or the taste of the first bhog,” she said. “Sales might dip when the streets are waterlogged, but sentiment doesn’t shrink. As soon as the skies clear, the appetite surges back, often stronger.”

Digital-first, not digital fallback

If rain-soaked streets hurt outdoor activations, digital offered a more controllable path. For Tanvi Bosmia, group head for strategy at SoCheers, the lesson is clear: agility comes from being digital-first, not digital-later.

“Being digital-first gives agencies the agility they need when external factors like weather disrupt outdoor activations or gatherings,” she said. “This year was no different. Instead of losing momentum, we leaned on content, influencer collaborations, and platform-led storytelling to keep the festive spirit alive. For me, it’s a strong reminder to clients that digital isn’t just a backup plan, it’s one of the most resilient and scalable choices we have.”

Rahul Guha, founder of Turmeriq.

Rahul Guha, founder of Turmeriq, added that foresight is as important as flexibility. Campaigns must roll out early to guard against interruptions.

“For clients who look forward to leveraging festive seasons for sales, we plan in advance to ensure campaigns roll out at least a month in advance,” he said. “Predominantly, the media mix for mass brands is TV-led with strong digital support. We don’t recommend our clients make heavy investments in on-ground activations.”

Weather as a media reality

The broader shift is attitudinal: monsoon is no longer treated as an occasional inconvenience but as part of the media landscape itself.

“It’s time we stop treating the monsoon as an occasional inconvenience and start recognising it as a seasonal reality,” Bosmia argued. “My advice to brands has been to factor it in from the start, and digital is the safest hedge.”

Tanvi Bosmia, group head for strategy at SoCheers.

Dalal concurred, noting that forecasting has overtaken firefighting. “Agencies now advise clients to build the monsoon into campaign calendars, just like Diwali or Christmas. Brands are also weaving rains into their storytelling—nostalgia, romance, and the sensory appeal of monsoon moments. The rains are being treated as India’s own ‘creativity season,’ not just an operational hurdle.”

Sakunia agreed. “Earlier, brands would think of rains as an inconvenience that derailed plans. But now it’s fairly regular. If you’re planning a festive campaign in India, factoring in weather volatility should sit right alongside your media mix and creative direction. In an ideal world, there should be a two-pronged strategy: Plan A when the outdoors thrives, and Plan B when people are indoors, scrolling, shopping online, and consuming streaming content.”

Quantifying climate risk

The next frontier lies in measurement. Dalal pointed out that agencies are beginning to build rainfall and mobility data directly into attribution models.

“A washed-out day = X% drop in impressions = Y lakhs of value,” he explained. “These insights inform risk assessments, vendor negotiations, and media reallocations.”

Creatively, he expects short-form video and Connected TV to dominate festive engagement, while AR-led OOH and virtual festival experiences could provide weather-proof alternatives.

Bosmia sees something deeper in the creative shift. “Digital-first formats with new platform features, influencer-led content, interactive experiences, even festive AR filters, are not just stop-gaps,” she said. “They’re formats audiences are actively engaging with.”

But Sakunia warned against overlooking hidden costs. “It’s not just the cost of media, but also the amount of planning and expenses behind it. So when we plan festive campaigns, we tell clients to map disruption costs too—and hence also have flexible strategies. This is accelerating the rise of formats that don’t rely on physical congregation—AR-led immersive experiences, co-created content with influencers, and platform-first films.”

Ray put it in starker terms: “When the skies turn grey and the billboards blur with heavy rain, agencies are quietly running a different kind of math. The cost isn’t just lost impressions, it’s lost moments. How many eyes didn’t look up? How many stories dissolved before they began? That’s the ledger of climate disruption. And yet, brands aren’t pausing. They’re shifting. The new currency is not reach, but adaptability.”

The festivals stay, the medium shifts

The rains have always shaped India’s retail cycles, but the stakes are rising as climate volatility collides with high-value festive calendars. Brands and agencies are learning that agility, not spectacle, is the surest way to endure.

 

 

 

 

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For some, that means daily reallocations and contingency reserves. For others, it is building resilience into digital-first formats and investing beyond weather-sensitive outdoor. And for those treating monsoon as a season of its own, it is an opportunity to connect through memory, emotion, and context.

The festivals may be eternal, but the medium is shifting. In the age of climate uncertainty, the message must adapt quickly enough to survive the storm.