Branding the Celebrations: How Brands Turn Festivals into Fame & Fortune

When Lanterns Flicker, Brands Ignite

Every October, as the first lanterns of Diwali begin glowing across Indian rooftops and streets, the world feels paused just long enough for something extraordinary to happen in the marketplace. Brands stop being just logos on billboards, they become co-authors in stories of family, ritual, reunion. In the corners of every market, the glare of streetlights, in online carts the festivity is everywhere and with it, opportunity.

For marketers, the festival season is not simply a peak in sales. It is a cultural moment, a chance to enter into hearts, traditions, and memories. When brands do it well, they earn more than revenue. They earn resonance.

In this article, we will look at how several brands global and Indian homegrown have turned festivals into fame and fortune, how they’ve used color, laughter, packaging, flavor, purpose to transform their identity during the festival season. And how, in many cases, the uplift in actual numbers is staggering.

Starbucks India: The Coffee Cup Dressed for Diwali

Take Starbucks India. Behind its familiar green mermaid logo, a different mood plays during Diwali. Golden accents, limited-edition gift hampers, festive cups, special dessert flavours, collaborations with local sweet shops. They are signals that this is no longer just a transaction. It’s ritual. A moment between family and friends, shared over caffeine, spices, sweets. The financials show both promise and challenge. In its fiscal year 2025, Tata Starbucks (50-50 joint venture between Starbucks U.S. and Tata Consumer Products) reported revenue from operations of ₹1,277 crore, a growth of about 5 percent over the previous year. But losses surged by 65 percent, rising to ₹135.7 crore, reflecting increases in costs, expansion, operations, and investments.

Starbucks India 2025 Diwali Campaign

So how does festive branding serve them? In 2024, ahead of Diwali, Starbucks India partnered with Bombay Sweet Shop to launch an exclusive festive culinary collection combining Indian sweets and mithai with their coffee-based treats. They introduced gift hampers priced around ₹870, including plush Bearista toy dressed in traditional attire, “Diwali Blend” coffee, dry fruits, fudge all designed to turn a coffee shop visit into an occasion. Those thematic shifts festive packaging, limited time offers, local flavours help draw customers in. The results are not always spelled out in profit, but the customer engagement, store traffic, and incremental sales during the festive weeks are real. For Starbucks, the festival season is a critical lever for growth, even as operating losses suggest the need for efficiency and scale.

Phool: When Purpose Becomes the Gift

Now consider Phool.co, a homegrown startup in sustainable gifts and incense, that turns temple waste flowers into incense, eco-friendly decor, and gift items. During Amazon’s Great Indian Festival 2024, Phool saw a 3.5-times growth in sales on the Amazon platform compared to its usual performance in comparable non-festival periods. What makes Phool’s story special is how its brand purpose aligns with the culture. Diwali is not only about light, but about renewal. It’s about cleansing, giving, about beginnings. Phool’s upcycling of temple flowers, transforming what is often discarded, gives consumers a way to gift that has deeper meaning. Its seasonal boxes feel artisanal, thoughtful. In doing so, Phool doesn’t compete simply on price or spectacle it competes on authenticity. Because during festivals, consumers are often buying more than a product. They’re buying the story that will sit in homes, be given to guests, be part of social media posts, and then remembered. Phool uses that. And in return, the brand builds not only revenue but equity.

Phool Diwali Campaign 2025

Color is another language of festivals, and some brands have mastered it better than others.

Cadbury, with its purple boxes, has made that shade synonymous with Diwali in India, like Coca-Cola has managed to own the color red every December across the Western world. Both cases illustrate the same principle when a brand successfully ties a color to a cultural moment, it creates a shortcut to recognition. Cadbury sells more than 30 million festive packs during Diwali. The genius lies in how they make themselves part of a ritual, their brand campaigns all remind us that festivals are about connections, not transactions.

Cadbury Celebrations Diwali Campaign

What Makes a Festival Campaign Win

From these case studies, several patterns emerge. Together they explain how brands turn festivals into both fame and fortune.

Element	Why It Matters	Example or Evidence
Cultural Relevance + Local Symbols	Festivals have deep, familiar rituals. When brands incorporate local sweets, traditional motifs, regional festivals, people see them as part of their world, not intruders.	Starbucks’ partnership with Bombay Sweet Shop; Cadbury using Diwali daž decorations and potlis; Phool using temple flowers.
Gifting & Packaging	The object of gifting must itself feel special: the box, the wrap, the look. That motivates buyers.	Cadbury Celebrations gift boxes; premium packaging for chocolate lines; gift hampers from Starbucks; Phool’s handcrafted gift boxes.
Tiered Pricing & Product Range	Not everyone will pay premium; many will buy small, mid-range gift items. Rural and small-town consumers respond to affordable packs.	Cadbury’s ₹50-₹500 packs; Mondelez servicing both mass and premium segments; growth in both urban and rural markets.
Marketing & Emotional Storytelling	Festivals are emotional. Ads that show real families, relationships, gatherings, reconnecting across distance, memories these resonate, often more than product features.	Cadbury Celebrations ads emphasizing gestures of generosity; Coca-Cola’s holiday storytelling; Starbucks’ local festive menu.
Distribution & Timing	You have to be ready in supply, retail display, logistics. The competition is intense. First-mover advantage helps. Also early engagement matters (starting from Rakhi or regional festivals leading into Diwali).	Mondelez begins portfolio launches well before Diwali; Amazon’s festival sales begin with visibility; Starbucks opening new stores.
Purpose & Differentiation	Brands that offer something more sustainability, local artisan partnerships, ethical production, upcycling do more than sell. They build loyalty.	Phool; Cadbury’s AI-based campaign promoting local hawkers; brands emphasizing eco-friendly gifts.

So, What’s on the Table?

Let’s put numbers to what’s being risked and what can be won.

• When a product line earns 40-50 percent of its annual sales during festival weeks, planning missteps cost a lot. Inventory shortages, late launches, weak packs = lost opportunity.

• Online marketplace data: Amazon India’s Great Indian Festival 2024 saw over 140 crore customer visits during the event period. Over 70 percent more sellers crossed ₹1 crore in sales compared to the prior year. Many small and medium businesses (SMBs) saw 2×-3.5× sales growth during the festival period vs non-festival baselines.

• Specifically for Phool, a 3.5× increase in sales on Amazon during the Great Indian Festival was reported.

• For Starbucks India, ₹1,277 crore in revenue in FY25 puts them among the larger café-format brands; but the losses (₹135.7 crore) indicate that festive revenue alone will not guarantee profitability unless cost structure, scaling, brand loyalty, and reuse of festive gains (beyond the season) are managed carefully.

• Mondelez India reported revenue from operations of ₹12,746.98 crore in FY24, with profit of ₹2,020.87 crore. The gifting and confectionery portion is a significant share, especially during festival periods.

• FMCG brands expect double-digit growth in these festival periods; ad spends rise by 8-25 percent around festivals for confectionery and gifting categories.

And when the Lanterns Fade: What Remains?

The best festive branding isn’t forgotten when the lights are packed away. What endures are the feelings, the memories, the associations. A few things that survive:

• Colour & Signature Elements: Packaging, designs, motifs that consumers come to associate with festival. For example, Cadbury’s purple and gold, or Coca-Cola’s red truck; Starbucks’ gold accents and special cups.

• Ritualised Habits: If consumers have picked up the habit of gifting a certain brand at festival or having a festive flavour only offered during that time, it becomes part of their ritual.

• Purpose & Values: Brands that showed up “for something more” sustainability, community, artisan support often gain reputational credit that lasts. Phool is an example. Cadbury’s campaigns that support local hawkers or promoter-retailer partnerships also build long-term trust.

• Expectations and Customer Loyalty: If the brand delivers delightful experiential moments (good packaging, timely delivery, tasteful ads, consistent quality), customers are more likely to become repeat buyers, even outside festivals.

In India, festivals are not just retail peaks. They are heartbeat moments when consumers allow brands into their homes, into their photographs, their conversations, their rituals. Brands that treat this season as a checkbox lose. Brands that treat it as culture, as story, as respect with relevant symbols, with empathy, with purpose gain.

Fame comes when a brand becomes part of how people remember a festival. Fortune comes when that emotional connection translates into revenue. And the two reinforce each other loyal customers buy, but also talk, share, build reputation.

Because when the diyas go out and the sweets are eaten, what matters is not the product but the memory. The laughter. The moments that brands helped create and that people hold on to. That is how festivals become engines of cultural legacy. And when done well, engines of profit.