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Festive and seasonal advertising · Marketing

Book the Diwali slot in August, because by October there is nothing left.

Every trade has weeks that pay for the year. A jeweller's Akshaya Tritiya, a car dealer's Ayudha Puja, a uniform shop's June, a builder's Diwali booking rush. Miss the booking deadline for those weeks and the media you wanted is gone, because somebody else took it in August.

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Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.

Editorial illustration for Festive and seasonal advertising

In one paragraph

Festive and seasonal advertising is a short, dated burst of media bought around the weeks your trade sells: Akshaya Tritiya, Dasara, Diwali, the wedding dates or the admission season. GullySales works backwards from the selling date to the booking and artwork deadlines, then books the media before the rate climbs.

The festival is not the deadline. A festive supplement closes for bookings weeks ahead, a hoarding cycle starts on the first or the sixteenth, and a flex goes to print days before it goes up. So the calendar we build runs backwards from the day you want to sell.

Rates move as well. A full page in the days before Diwali is not priced like the same page in July, and the festive supplement carries a premium of its own. We book early or we buy a different week.

Who it is for

This is written for you if these sound familiar.

  • Jewellers, silk shops and sweet houses whose year is decided by four or five dates
  • Car and two-wheeler dealers buying the fortnight before Ayudha Puja
  • Schools, colleges and coaching centres advertising into the February to April admission window
  • Builders and property consultants timing a launch to the muhurta season
  • A retailer who booked last year's Diwali advertisement in October and paid double for it
  • Restaurants and banquet halls selling into the wedding season and the New Year night

Not for

It is not the right fit if.

  • Businesses whose demand is flat all year, where a burst buys attention in a week that was going to be ordinary anyway
  • Anyone with three days left before the festival, because the print and mounting deadlines have already gone
  • A shop without the stock, the staff or the offer ready, since the advertisement only brings people to a counter that cannot serve them

The problem

Does this sound like your business?

What owners tell us on the first call, in their words.

  • “We book the festive advertisement in the last week every year”

    By then the supplement is closed, the good hoarding cycles are taken and the rate has moved. What is left is the inventory nobody wanted in August.

  • “The advertisement ran before the offer was decided”

    Artwork went out saying festive offers inside, because the discount was still being argued about on the day the file was due. Nobody walked in for that.

  • “Stock arrived after the campaign started”

    The purchase order and the media booking were made by two people who never spoke. So the advertisement ran for a range that reached the shop eleven days later.

  • “Last year's creative is reused with the date changed”

    A file from the previous Diwali with a new year on it reads as a file from the previous Diwali. Regular customers notice it before you do.

What we do

Everything that is included.

Each deliverable, and what it gets you. Nothing here is an extra.

  1. Selling calendar for your trade

    The dates that matter to your buyers on one sheet: the festival, the muhurta days, the salary week, the school calendar and the month your competitors go quiet.

  2. Deadlines written backwards from the selling day

    From the day you want the shop full, back to the artwork date, the print date, the booking date and the day the media owner wants payment.

  3. Media chosen for a short burst

    A week does not suit every medium. Newspaper and radio carry a dated burst, a hoarding needs its full cycle, and digital can be switched on the same morning.

  4. Festive package terms in writing

    What the publication or station includes in its festive package, what it charges extra for, and whether the position you were promised is written on the release order.

  5. Offer and artwork locked before booking

    The discount, the EMI, the gift or the muhurta slot settled and signed off by you, so the file goes to print on the day it is due.

  6. Language and greeting that fit the state

    A Kannada greeting for a Bengaluru buyer, and the festival the state actually keeps. The wrong festival on a regional advertisement is read as an outsider's advertisement.

  7. Response route for the burst

    A campaign number, a WhatsApp link or a code at the counter, so the week's walk-ins can be compared with an ordinary week.

  8. Reconciliation after the festival

    Proof that each insertion, spot or panel ran on the dates booked, with a credit claimed from the media owner where it did not.

How the result is measured

  • Insertions, spots and panels delivered on the dates booked
  • Rate paid against the festive card and against last year
  • Calls to the campaign number during the burst
  • Walk-ins and orders in the burst week against an ordinary week
  • Enquiries that arrived before the festival and closed after it

Recorded as a baseline before work starts, so every later report has an honest comparison.

How it works

How the work runs

The work itself, in order. How an engagement starts, from your brief to a written scope, is set out on our method page.

  1. 1

    Fix the selling window

    We agree the exact days the money is made, which for most trades is shorter than the owner first says. A jeweller's Akshaya Tritiya is one day with a fortnight of run-up.

  2. 2

    Work the deadlines backwards

    Artwork, print, booking and payment dates are set from that window. The earliest of them falls a month or more before the festival itself.

  3. 3

    Decide the offer first

    Nothing is booked until you have settled what you are selling and at what price. An empty festive greeting is the advertisement people turn past.

  4. 4

    Book and negotiate the burst

    We coordinate the booking with the publication, station or media owner, with dates, position and package inclusions written on the release order.

  5. 5

    Watch the week while it runs

    Insertions and spots are checked against the schedule daily, because a missed date inside a seven-day campaign cannot be made up afterwards.

  6. 6

    Count the week and keep the record

    Walk-ins, calls and orders during the burst against an ordinary week, filed with the rate you paid so next year's plan starts from something real.

Where this fits

Three pieces of sales work, in this order.

This work sits inside sales process design, at stage 1, prospecting and lead generation. The audit comes before it, and sales management keeps it running.

  1. Step 1

    Sales audit

    Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.

    Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.

  2. Step 2 · you are here

    Sales process design

    One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.

    Start here if every salesperson sells differently.

  3. Step 3

    Sales management

    A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.

    Start here if the team has targets and no routine.

Tell us what you need Your brief is read before we call. Scope, fee and term in writing.

FAQ

Questions owners ask before they call.

Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.

Tell us what you need
How far ahead should we book a Diwali campaign?
Start in August. Festive supplements close for booking weeks ahead, hoarding cycles are held early, and the best positions go to whoever committed first. By the first week of October you are choosing from what nobody else wanted.
Can you prove the festive advertisement brought people in?
Not on its own. A newspaper page keeps no record of who read it. So we put a campaign number and a counter code on the burst, then compare that week against an ordinary one. It shows a direction, not a count.
We sell in three states. Should it be one campaign?
No, because the dates are different. Onam, Pongal and Ugadi do not fall together, and a Kerala buyer reading a Dasara greeting knows the advertisement was not written for them. Same offer, three calendars.
Is a one-week burst enough, or should we advertise all year?
For a trade that sells in bursts, the burst is where the budget belongs. A jeweller spreading spend evenly across twelve months puts most of it into months when nobody is buying gold. Four dated windows beat a thin line across the year.
What does a festive campaign cost?
There is no set figure. A fortnight of radio in one city and a full page on the day before Diwali are not the same purchase. The media cost follows the burst we recommend, quoted in full before anything is booked. Our own fee is settled separately, in writing, after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
How long is the contract?
The term is agreed in writing after we have spoken, along with the fee and the reporting. It is never a default twelve months, and renewal is decided on the numbers against the baseline recorded at the start.
How soon will we see results?
It depends on the trade, the channel and what is already in place. After we have read your brief and spoken to you, we say what we would expect to move first and how it will be measured against the baseline. Nothing here is guaranteed.
Who will actually do the work?
The person you speak to before anything starts. We work from one office in Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru, with no account managers in between.
What do you need from us?
Your brief, and a conversation. After that, access to whatever this work touches, such as your website, your accounts or your enquiry record, and time with the people who handle your enquiries.
What if we are not happy with the work?
Tell us and the plan changes. Everything is reported against the baseline, so a number that is not moving is visible to both sides. The term is in your written scope, and the refund and cancellation policy sets out the rest.

By industry

Festive and seasonal advertising, written for your industry.

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