Open web shapes festive ad strategies as costs climb

Every year, India’s festive season sparks a surge in consumer activity unlike any other, uniting cultural traditions and purchasing intent in a sustained period of opportunity. From the vibrant celebrations of Onam to the grandeur of Diwali and the joy of Christmas, the final months of the year represent a defining moment for brands.

This is when brand marketing is at its most competitive, advertising spends peak, and consumers are at their most engaged. In this environment, capturing attention early and sustaining visibility throughout the buying cycle is essential.

Historically, festive strategies have centred on search and social platforms, and while these remain important pillars, the dynamics of consumer discovery are shifting. Audiences are no longer engaging exclusively in walled gardens.

Increasingly, they are spending valuable time on the open web, the expansive network of premium publishers, lifestyle portals, independent review sites, and vernacular news platforms. This is where festive curiosity is sparked, research takes place, and brand decisions are shaped well before the first click on a purchase link.

In recent years, festive shopping habits have shifted, with consumers spending more time on the open web to explore, compare, and seek recommendations, making it a growing influence on their journeys. This shift has created a significant and growing opportunity for brands, one that is both broad and deep.

According to Nielsen, over 52% of India’s digital media time is already spent on the open web, and this share held steady during the 2024 festive season despite the heavy promotional activity on closed platforms. Importantly, the engagement on the open web is intent-rich.

Consumers are reading Diwali buying guides, comparing electronics through independent reviews, exploring FMCG-led festive recipes, and researching financial products in trusted editorial contexts. These are not casual, passive moments; they are high-value touchpoints where consumer intent is forming, and where brands that show up in context can play a decisive role in shaping the purchase journey.

Open and shut case

The performance data from the 2024 festive season underscores why the open web has become central to high impact campaigns. Brands that integrated it into their media mix saw clear, measurable gains in click through rates across categories, as per Realize Platform data from 2024.

Retail, a fast moving and highly responsive sector during the festive period, recorded a 38.3% uplift, driven by engaging formats such as motion and carousel ads that showcased seasonal collections and festive offers. Media and entertainment followed closely with a 17.7% increase, capitalising on heightened interest in seasonal content, interactive experiences, and event driven engagement.

Education, a category that typically involves longer consideration cycles, achieved a 12.3% lift by leveraging credible, content rich environments that aided in depth research and evaluation. Health and fitness grew by 4.5%, supported by targeted placements during a time when wellness products are often gifted or adopted as part of New Year’s resolutions. Finance, a category that demands high trust and multiple exposures saw a 2.7% uplift, proving that even the most considered purchases can be influenced during high intent festive moments.

Open, sesame

These results demonstrate that the open web is not just a channel for incremental impressions, it is a driver of measurable performance during the most competitive advertising period of the year. However, the nature of this performance varies by category, making it essential for brands to understand how their sector’s consumers behave during the season.

Retail, electronics, and FMCG brands thrive in the high curiosity, high discovery phases of the season, when consumers are actively seeking inspiration for gifts, new product launches, and special editions. Rich, visually led ad formats that integrate naturally with editorial content convert this curiosity into clicks and, ultimately, purchases.

In contrast, high consideration sectors such as finance and education benefit from the credibility of content driven environments. Here, decision making is slower, involving multiple points of research, validation, and comparison.

The open web’s premium publisher ecosystem with its blend of authoritative editorial, expert reviews, and trusted brand associations provides the ideal conditions for these extended evaluation journeys. Being present in these moments not only builds brand credibility but also shortens the path to conversion when the consumer is ready to act.

The impact of the open web in India is further amplified by its cultural and linguistic reach. Festive research and inspiration often take place in regional languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, and Marathi.

Regional publishers hold deep rooted trust within their audiences, and their festive content from a local newspaper’s Diwali shopping guide to a Malayalam portal’s Onam décor ideas carries cultural authenticity that resonates strongly with readers. Campaigns that align with these contexts consistently see higher engagement and stronger recall, as they speak directly to consumers in the language and cultural frame that feels most relevant to them.

Beyond its reach and cultural depth, the open web offers a compelling efficiency argument. During the festive season, auction pressure on search and social drives CPCs sharply upward, making it harder for brands to maintain cost effective reach.

The open web provides competitive costs and incremental reach, particularly in the early discovery and evaluation phases of the consumer journey. By influencing intent before the purchase window opens, brands reduce their reliance on expensive last click conversions which are often the costliest to win. In today’s nonlinear journeys, this ability to shape consideration early is a decisive competitive advantage.

The 2024 results make the strategic imperative for 2025 clear. For sectors such as retail, electronics, FMCG, and finance, integrating the open web into festive planning delivers a dual benefit: expanding reach into high intent moments and driving measurable performance outcomes. This is not about replacing other channels but about balancing the media mix to ensure coverage across all stages of the consumer journey from inspiration to evaluation to purchase.

As brands prepare for the 2025 festive season, the winners will be those who recognise that the open web is not an optional add on but a performance engine in its own right. The brands that embrace its scale, cultural relevance, and contextual trust will be able to influence consumers earlier, engage them more meaningfully, and convert them more efficiently in a market where attention is at a premium.

In the most competitive months of the year, the advantage will belong to those who show up in the right place, at the right time, and in the right context meeting consumers where their intent is highest and their decisions are taking shape.

  Harpreet Singh is country manager at Taboola India