When devotion is the medium, don’t just sell the message

India’s most potent brand stages aren’t in metros—they’re in melas, yatras, and faith gatherings. At Kumbh Mela 2025, which drew around 400 million visitors and generated a reported over INR 2,000 crore in brand integrations, marketers like Dettol, Coca-Cola, SBI, and dating apps focused on services—offering water stations, mobile charging booths, and sanitation—to earn trust, not just eyeballs.

Last month, the Jagannath Puri Rath Yatra saw an estimated 1.2 million attendees and a projected INR 200 crore boost in local commerce. Brands activated hydration points, multilingual help desks, and medic booths.

But with opportunity comes responsibility. Campa Cola’s ad—'Ratha ra patha, Campa sahita!’ (On the journey of the Rath Yatra, with Campa as your companion)—misfired, placing a fizzy drink next to divine tradition. Devotees and temple officials in Puri criticised the ad, calling it disrespectful to Lord Jagannath and a commercialisation of religious sentiments and soon #BoycottCampa started trending on social media.

A finger on the cultural pulse

In India’s faith circuits, cultural fluency isn’t just smart marketing—it’s survival. To connect meaningfully with devotees at the recently concluded Jagannath Puri Rath Yatra, Hygienic Research Institute Pvt Ltd. (HRIPL) rolled out a culturally rooted, three-part campaign to launch Vasmol Henna Crème Hair Color. Tapping into the nine-day festival’s themes of colour and devotion, the brand used symbolic storytelling, collective ritual, and interactive engagement.

First, it collaborated with Padma Shri awardee Sudarsan Pattnaik, who sculpted a sand artwork showing a woman's hair changing from grey to black—visually echoing Vasmol's natural transformation promise. Second, the ‘Divya Kalp’ ritual with over 100 participants used colour-shifting props to represent the product's efficacy in grey coverage. Third, HRIPL installed live trial booths at key checkpoints, interacting with nearly 90,000 to 1 lakh people, amplified through TV actors and local influencers.

Why does this matter? Because religious gatherings in India aren’t just spiritual, they’re social, mobile, and highly photo-friendly. And when done right, a bottle of water can speak louder than a billboard.

This is marketing where performance meets presence. Where trust is earned at the ground level literally and where relevance quietly wins over reach.

Asked whether learnings from Kumbh Mela 2025 shaped their Rath Yatra activations, Shivam Puri, managing director and CEO of Cipla Health, shared, that the company’s experience at Kumbh Mela helped it evaluate how important this support is during large-scale religious gatherings where the physical strain is high and can become a barrier to devotion.

“This insight led us to set up the largest Seva Kendra at Rath Yatra 2025 to support devotees in managing the physical strain. Our philosophy, ‘Aapke bhakti ko dard ki nazar na lage’, (May pain not mar your faith) is a reflection of what the brand stands for and is deeply rooted in the religious and cultural sentiment,” he noted.

Mukesh Mishra, joint president, sales and marketing, AWL Agri Business, echoed a similar learning curve. “Our experience at Kumbh Mela taught us a very important lesson — pilgrims remember and value the thoughtful support they received to make their journey easy. This insight is the foundation of our approach to Rath Yatra this year.”

Mishra explained that the company’s interventions now span from Ganesh Utsav to Durga Puja. It blends local insights with tech innovations like mixed reality and virtual reality to deliver experiences that are both immersive and respectful.

From signage to service

With the shift from signage to service, measuring engagement becomes less about impressions and more about emotional resonance. That explains why brands like HRIPL consciously moved away from mere brand visibility towards creating deeper brand presence this year by establishing meaningful trust touchpoints at Rath Yatra 2025.

Priyanka Puri, senior vice president for marketing at HRIPL explained, “We gauged effectiveness not by conventional transactional metrics but through more profound indicators like time spent at each touchpoint, emotional narratives shared by devotees, and brand recall—particularly the lasting impression of our Vasmol metaphor and our core message, ‘Surakshit kaale mere baal, Vasmol Henna Crème Hair Color ka kamaal.’ (My hair is safe and black, thanks to Vasmol Henna Crème Hair Color magic’.

For Mishra, the focus remained on meaningful moments. This year, AWL Agri Business’ efforts are focused on meaningful interactions—like offering a clean changing facility after a dip in the sea, giving opportunity to devotees through a virtual bhog offering, and providing refreshing food and sampling counters that are rooted in temple traditions. “These are not just brand impressions, they are genuine human connections. That is our true measure of impact,” Mishra elaborated.

Cipla Health’s objective was to create a space where devotees could genuinely feel supported—physically and emotionally—without any brand imposition. By offering foot, back, and shoulder massages at the company’s booth, the focus was on enabling comfort and ease during a demanding spiritual journey.

Shivam Puri claimed that it wasn’t about product push; it was about ensuring aches and fatigue didn’t interfere with their devotion, allowing them to participate fully and meaningfully in the yatra. “Our approach is to track the impact via footfall and qualitative sentiment capture through on-ground feedback received from the attendees,” he added.

Let your actions do the chanting

But it’s not just about showing up at these festivals. It's about showing up right. With public sentiment running high and a culture that prizes devotion over display, brands walk a cultural tightrope.

“Respect for the sanctity of Rath Yatra is fundamental to our approach,” noted Mishra. “From the very beginning, our communication strategy has been developed in collaboration with local cultural experts, spiritual leaders and community partners to ensure every action we take is authentic and honours the occasion.”

HRIPL's three-tier cultural empathy framework puts authenticity at its centre. “We engage with cultural voices and community members from Odisha at every stage so that our metaphors, rituals, and words reflect local truths rather than outsider assumptions,” said Puri.

The brand audits messaging across Odia, Hindi, and English, and applies a 'brand humility check”. “Before any activation goes live, we ask: ‘Does this truly honour the devotee’s sentiment and faith, or is it just furthering our agenda?’ If the answer isn’t clear, we revisit our approach,” Priyanka

Shivam Puri added, “We are catering to the audience with deep respect for their culture and a clear understanding of the community, and that mindset makes it easier to work on the messaging and the entire marketing framework.”

Dr Rutu Mody Kamdar, founder of Jigsaw Brand Consultants, offered a frank assessment: “There’s no shortcut to cultural sensitivity, especially with something as emotionally charged as the Rath Yatra. It’s not just a spectacle. It’s a moment of devotion, identity, and deep sentiment for millions. A surface-level understanding won’t do. What brands need is deep immersion.”

In the age of cancel culture, virtue signalling comes at a steep cost. As Dr Kamdar cautioned, today’s audiences, especially younger ones, are decoding every bit of a company’s intent. “They can smell tokenism. And once that perception sets in, it’s hard to shake off. Showing up just for visibility is not just ineffective, it’s risky,” she advised.

Consumers today are extremely aware, and are quick to call out if the brand's presence doesn't add value to the event, especially during deeply emotional or religious experiences. Mishra noted, “Our focus is on creating meaningful, experience-driven activations that add real value to the pilgrim journey. Instead of trying to stand out, we aim to fit in — and that’s where real connection begins.”

When commerce and culture unite

With the Jagannath Yatra expected to generate over INR 200 crore in local commerce uplift, there’s no doubt about the commercial opportunity. But the bigger question is how agencies and brands navigate the tension between ambition and alignment.

“We are convinced that when brand initiatives are driven by authentic purpose and cultural alignment, their impact transcends the event itself, fostering lasting brand affinity and trust,” said Puri. “To truly resonate, brands must move beyond just visibility or product sampling and craft experiential activations that offer genuine value to devotees.”

Dr Kamdar opined that this is where cultural empathy meets business impact. Often, agencies get caught between metrics and cultural nuance. But the real opportunity lies in doing both.

“Jagannath Yatra is a cultural economy in itself. If you understand how commerce organically thrives during this time, from local artisans and temple offerings to hospitality and small vendors, you’ll see a natural ecosystem. Agencies can add value by amplifying these voices, collaborating with local entrepreneurs, or creating work that respects and reflects the region’s ethos,” she said.

When faith becomes a medium, the message matters more than ever. And as brands navigate these sacred intersections, it is cultural intelligence—not campaign intensity—that determines whether they connect or merely intrude.