Planning an Onam campaign early enough to run

Many shops settle the Onam offer once Chingam starts. By then the newspaper supplement may be full and a jeweller may have the hoarding opposite. The new kasavu stock is still on its way. Plan Onam backwards from the day your first advertisement appears, not from Thiruvonam itself. Take the date from a Malayalam calendar, ask your media sellers when bookings close, and set three deadlines before the first insertion. Creative approved at print size. Stock in the shop and photographed. A named person ready to answer the replies. That work belongs in Karkidakam, the quiet month before.

Why the Onam plan starts late

Kerala has other buying seasons, from Christmas and Ramzan to the Sabarimala months. Three things push the Onam plan back. The date moves on the English calendar, so last year's plan does not fit. Karkidakam is quiet, so the weeks before feel like plenty of time. And once Chingam begins the shop is too busy for anyone to think about advertising.

Meanwhile the buyers have started. Many families begin looking at Onakkodi, the new clothes for the festival, well before Atham. The shop they saw first, with the range they wanted, has the better chance of the visit.

The planning sheet

Copy this, fill in the dates for the coming Onam, and pin it where you and your senior staff can see it.

Thiruvonam: ______ (from a Malayalam calendar)

Atham, nine days earlier: ______

First advertisement appears: ______ (your choice; everything below hangs on it)

Media booked by: ______ (the earliest close date any seller gives you)

Offer fixed and creative approved at print size by: ______

Stock in the shop and photographed by: ______ (before the first advertisement)

Replies staffed from: ______ (the day the first advertisement appears)

Message to past buyers: ______ (a few days before the first advertisement)

Uthradam, the last rush: ______

Fill in Thiruvonam and Atham first. With illustrative dates: Thiruvonam on 5 September makes Atham 27 August. Choose 10 August for the first advertisement, then work every other line back from it: media booked by 10 July, creative approved by 25 July, stock photographed by 5 August.

One rule settles the arguments. If the stock date falls after the first advertisement, move the advertisement, not the stock date. An advertisement for kasavu sets you do not yet have sends buyers to the shop that does.

Book the space before you write the advertisement

Media closes first, so it goes first. Ask each seller for the close date in writing. That means the Malayalam daily's Onam supplement, the hoarding at the junction nearest your shop, the FM station and the cinema near the bus stand. Book the space and the size. The words come later.

That order feels backwards to most owners, who want to see the advertisement before they pay for space. But the space is what runs out. A good advertisement with nowhere to run is a file on the printer's computer.

When you do write it, write it in Malayalam first and approve it at the size it will print. Long Malayalam words break badly in narrow columns, which Malayalam advertising creative explains.

Stock in, and someone to answer, before the first ad

Photograph the actual stock, on the actual racks, with prices. Families buying Onakkodi want to see the kasavu saree, the set mundu and the child's pattu pavada together, so photograph family sets as sets. Those photographs go into the WhatsApp catalogue before the first advertisement appears.

Then decide who answers. The number on the hoarding should be the shop's business WhatsApp on a phone that stays at the counter, not the owner's mobile. Name one person and a backup. Give them ready answers to what buyers ask every Onam: sizes, blouse stitching, family set prices, whether you deliver to other towns. Replying in Malayalam when the enquiry started in English covers the language of the call back.

The first people to message are those who bought last Onam. If you kept in touch through the rains, as keeping orders coming through the monsoon months suggests, that list is already clean.

For example: a textile shop near Swaraj Round

Imagine a family textile shop near Swaraj Round in Thrissur selling sarees, set mundu, shirts and children's wear. One year the owner fixed the offer in the first week of Chingam. The Malayalam daily had only a small slot left in its supplement. The hoarding at the Round was taken. The printer made the advertisement overnight, and its Malayalam line carried a spelling mistake that a customer pointed out at the counter; the corrected leaflets cost another ₹7,500 (an invented figure). The new kasavu stock from the weavers arrived on Atham. The leaflet gave the owner's own mobile, which nobody answered during the rush.

The next year the owner filled in the sheet ten weeks before Thiruvonam. Space was booked at the start of Karkidakam. A Malayalam writer wrote the advertisement, and the owner approved a proof at full size. The weavers' order went in early, and the stock was photographed in family sets. The business WhatsApp moved to a phone at the billing counter, answered by the owner's daughter and one senior salesman.

The rush still came on Uthradam, and this time the shop was answering through it. One thing stayed unsolved: the hoarding was booked so early that the offer on it, a free blouse piece, had to be honoured after a supplier raised prices.

When to skip the Onam push

Not every business should spend at Onam. If you sell to factories, offices or institutions, nobody is buying that week; send a greeting and book your follow-ups for after. If your shop is already full every Onam and you cannot serve more people, spend on the weeks after instead. And if your stock cannot arrive before the first advertisement, run a smaller campaign on what you have.

Put Thiruvonam at the top of the sheet today

Find the coming Thiruvonam in a Malayalam calendar and write it at the top of the sheet. Then ring your newspaper and hoarding sellers for their close dates. Working the sheet back from the media deadlines is festive and seasonal advertising; tell us what you need to start.