With Diwali now behind us, Vikas Singh, Managing Director and CEO of MMTC-PAMP, and Sunitha Natarajan, Director of Digital Strategy at Social Panga, speak about what’s next.
In an exclusive interaction, they discuss the strategies they leveraged for Diwali, highlighting how they are weaving culture and emotions into their campaigns and revealing special brand collaborations they are leveraging for the festive season.
They also shed light on their consumer engagement strategies for the festive period and beyond, and examine the role of social media and technology in real-time engagement and interaction with audiences.
Looking back at Diwali, Sunitha Natarajan comments, “Diwali, rich in cultural and emotional significance, has brought a sense of warmth, togetherness, and celebration this year, especially with the bonus of a long weekend.”
She emphasizes, “As a festival deeply rooted in tradition, it’s beautiful to see how we have evolved these customs to make sense in today’s context. Our campaigns and strategies have explored this fusion, blending authentic storytelling with the nuances of the digital landscape.”
“We recognize that brands must tailor their message to match the intent behind what consumers are seeking on each platform. By marrying culture, emotion, and technology with thoughtful planning, we’ve crafted festive campaigns that ensure visibility amidst the clutter,” explains Natarajan.
Vikas Singh shares, “The festive season, starting from Navratri, followed by Dhanteras and Diwali, and continuing until Christmas, is a significant occasion for us. India is a diverse nation with a multitude of festivities.”
“At MMTC-PAMP,” he says, “we are proud to be part of this rich cultural diversity and heritage. Towards this end, our campaigns and strategies reflect this ethos.”
“During Navratri, we created 9-day celebration posts for social media, with each day featuring our latest product offerings. Each of these posts highlighted the significance of the day, as well as positioning our gold products as the ideal gifts,” states Singh.
On collaborations and partnerships
Sunitha Natarajan believes, “Influencer marketing, in many ways, has today become a standard part of the marketing mix in campaign planning—especially when you look at brands in the spaces of e-commerce, retail fashion, beauty, FMCG, and consumer durables.”
“Campaign objectives and the phase at which the activation of influencers is planned are key. We differentiate between driving brand awareness, engagement, and love versus sales attribution through influencers, tailoring approaches accordingly,” she continues.
Natarajan adds, “Similarly, brand collaborations are carefully considered, focusing on overall business benefits beyond marketing. Gifting is and has been a big part of Diwali and the festive season, so this time around, we saw many collaborations with D2C brands, streaming platforms, and e-commerce platforms.”
“These partnerships enhance reach, expand audiences, and boost sales,” she affirms.
Vikas Singh says, “This year, we have launched our purest minted gold 24K Ram Lalla bar. Along with this, we continue our partnerships with marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Ajio, as well as running campaigns on Jio Cinema.”
“Apart from the Ram Lalla gold bar,” he adds, “we have also tapped into the spiritual and cultural connection of Dhanteras and Diwali with our 24K gold Goddess Lakshmi bar and Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganesh Silver coin.”
Singh believes, “Our collaboration with these digital partners has ensured strong brand recognition and recall value, which has elevated our product offerings.”
On enhancing consumer experience
“The easiest forms of engagement are AR filters and contests, but for the past 2 years, there has been an increased use of AI in campaigns, making them more personalized,” expresses Sunitha Natarajan.
“Aside from that,” she says, “a lot of vertical video productions in shorts and reels are also a big focus for curating impactful Diwali-themed content.”
“This time around, we have been working with brands that are offering incentives and rewards to engage audiences, fostering an immersive digital experience that amplifies the festive spirit through innovation,” reveals Natarajan.
Vikas Singh discloses, “For this festive season, we initiated some unique interactive digital experiences and gamification campaigns on social media that focused on our product features.”
“One of the most interacted posts was our ‘Guess the Weight’ and ‘Guess the Purity’ challenge across our range of product offerings. For Diwali, we focused on ‘24K Diwali 2024’, merging this year’s festival with our 24K gold-minted products, thus showcasing our latest purest minted gold coins and bars,” he highlights.
“Moving ahead, we will initiate more such campaigns to keep the momentum going and educate our consumers and investors on purity, positive weight tolerance, and product quality,” adds Singh.
Role of social media in real-time engagement
According to Sunitha Natarajan, “Real-time engagement today has been simplified and personalized through automation. Platforms like Meta offer various features that facilitate seamless action from consumer interactions, including polls, quizzes, contests, UGCs, and actions.”
“Leveraging social media platforms for diverse engagement strategies at different times is an effective approach. To maintain interactions beyond the festive period, ensure content isn’t overly customized to a single message. Root your storytelling in brand truth,” she says.
Natarajan shares, “Not every piece of content will generate massive engagement, but consistency is crucial. Returning to foundational communication hygiene and maintaining consistent output ensures a lasting relationship beyond the campaign’s burst phase.”
“While digital remains at the core of our outreach, we have undertaken a 360-degree visibility campaign, including online ads, print media presence, and OOH displays in high-traffic areas,” explains Vikas Singh.
“Furthermore,” he adds, “we provide constant updates through our online channels to promote products and keep our customers informed.”
“Additionally,” shares Singh, “we are able to target a range of demographics via our digital strategy, from young investors to seasoned consumers and high-income individuals, through targeted ad campaigns with product placements on popular marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, Ajio, as well as Meta, YouTube, and Jio Cinema.”
How to engage audiences post the festive period
Sunitha Natarajan explains, “The audience’s intent shifts significantly post-festive. Brands that have invested heavily in brand ambassadors or high-value asset production will aim to maximize ROI.”
“However,” she says, “it’s crucial to adapt to the evolving online sentiment. This is where social listening plays a vital role in identifying the next relevant moment, topic, or theme to scale and continue the conversation.”
“By leveraging social listening, we can align our brand direction with defined KPIs and seamlessly pivot to resonate with the changing audience landscape,” adds Natarajan.
“At MMTC-PAMP,” Vikas Singh states, “the festive season runs from Akshaya Tritiya to Navratri to Christmas, encompassing various cultural celebrations in India. We are committed to serving the needs of our customers during this time by offering the widest range of purest gold and silver coins and bars, each crafted with the finest Swiss craftsmanship, mirror finish, and 99.99%+ purity with positive weight tolerance.”
“Additionally, this annual festive season also heralds the wedding season, which keeps the engagement going. Our unique challenges, such as gold bar template designs and quizzes about our purity levels and product weights on social media, gain us considerable traction.”
“Along with this, we conduct Gold-bar challenges across key markets in the country. Such challenges draw good engagement and brand recall for our products,” says Singh.
He adds, “Apart from this, we undertake a 360-degree visibility campaign where we display our ads at key locations with high eyeball and footfall. This includes both online and offline presence, where our social media audience will see our ads, press releases in print media, OOH displays, and digital screens across malls and leisure areas.”
To wrap up the conversation, Singh says, “We aim to build a positive in-store experience for our customers who visit our stores. We also broadcast email newsletters and WhatsApp updates of our products, services, and other relevant information.”
