MUMBAI: Making the online Diwali festival initiative bigger and better this year, GroupM with along with Google has roped in AskMeBazaar.com as its new title sponsor.
Brands that renewed their partnership with the Grand Diwali Mela this year are Lakme, Horlicks, Kurkure and Hungama.com, whereas Eno and Godrej Securities have come on board as the new partners.
Last year, the Grand Diwali Mela received over 5.5 million visitors in a course of 30 days. Over 125,000 hours were spent browsing various online stalls in the mela. These stalls included products, food items, pooja needs, gaming and entertainment. The Grand Diwali Mela emerged as the largest online sampling platform for brands wherein over 150,000 samples were shipped across India, with 70 per cent sample orders going to Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns. The samples ranged from make-up, skincare and household products.
Askmebazaar.com will be offering a host of deals at the Grand Diwali Mela with discounts on home appliances, mobile phones, fashion apparels, home décor and personal care products.
For the spiritually inclined, this year the ‘Grand Diwali Mela’ has the option of offering prayers and receiving ‘prasad’ from a number of temples across India. As Diwali is also about greeting loved ones, the Grand Diwali Mela will also offer the facility to send online festive greetings showing your ‘namkeen’ side with fun greeting cards from Kurkure.
Talking about the sponsorship, Askmebazaar digital strategy group CMO and head Manav Sethi said, "We are excited to be the presenting sponsor of Grand Diwali Mela 2015. One of its kind virtual mela; one stop destination for entertainment, best deals and best brands in the biggest festive season of India. A truly immersive experience in one destination for consumers. This year look forward to the BIG deals everyday delivered at your doorstep. From furniture to fashion, AskmeBazaar has curated the best deals to ensure every home lights up this Diwali. Askme Group looks forward to India joining us on the GDM, 2015; the biggest mela of the year!”
On the second season of the Grand Diwali Mela, GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas said, “After the success of the Grand Diwali Mela in year one, we are excited to bring the online festival back again this year. We have a new naming partner on board AskMe.com as well and a range of new brands and products for consumers to choose from.”
Speaking about the reach of the festival, Srinivas added, “With GDM, we were able to create a great platform for consumers to come and sample products and interact with brands. Last year we saw a clear spike in terms of mobile usage to access the Grand Diwali Mela. With a clear focus on taking the festival to not just metros, but also tier 2 and 3 towns, where the mobile phone is their window to the world, GroupM and our partners are integrating traditional print, TV and radio with mobile and digital marketing.”
“Grand Diwali Mela organised by GroupM emerged as India’s largest online brand activation initiative during the festival season last year and surpassed any offline brand activation initiative in the country. As more and more consumer products companies embrace the Internet to drive sampling and consumer engagement, we’re delighted to partner Group M to scale this initiative further and help brands make the most of the opportunity online,” asserted Google SEA & India director agency business Punitha Arumugam.
Hungama.com, has come back on board as one of the partners of the ‘Grand Diwali Mela’. Last year Hungamam.com gave users access to films from its Indian and International movies catalogue. Users could also create a Grand Diwali Mela playlist of popular Bollywood numbers. This year, Hungama.com brings on board ‘Hungama Play’ - its premium video on demand (VOD) service via the Grand Diwali Mela 2015.
Besides this, the Grand Diwali Mela is also running contests with prizes to be won.
