Data Analytics help us optimise our spends and understand the impact of our GTM efforts: Shikha S Mazumdar, Home Centre India

Home Centre, a destination for homemakers to create their dream homes, earlier this year had launched its Diwali campaign ‘Speaking Gifts’. Capturing the essence of the campaign, its tagline “Iss Diwali, gift karo formality nahi” celebrates the art of thoughtful gifting.

This campaign looks to inspire a shift from conventional Diwali gifting as a formality to heartfelt choices that reflect the spirit of giving, celebrating the relationship and reminding us that every gift can be a genuine expression of care.

The campaign looks to underscore that true gifting goes beyond obligation, embodying thoughtfulness, care, and genuine emotion. Home Centre brings this message alive through three campaign films that celebrate relatable festive moments and reveal how thoughtful gifts can make a lasting impact.

From a surprize from grandparents that cheers up a teenager, to a friend who expresses how she cherishes her friendship with their hosts through her gift and finally, a moment of truth between two twin sisters who discover a gift become formality when given without a thought or consideration for the recipient, all three films express that gifts become gestures that last, not just items exchanged.

Medianews4u.com caught up with Shikha S Mazumdar, Head of Marketing & VM, Home Centre India

Q. Since the company is in the home furnishing segment is the pre festive period crucial as that is when people looke to make home improvements?

We see the pre-festive period as a window to warm up our customers to what is in store for them in the festive season. This is a relatively clutter-free time and hence, getting customer’s attention with fresh content and collection imagery is easier.

We use this period to also to share content that is run up to festive season and educational in nature such as how to prepare home for upcoming festive season, setting up of décor or tables for festive etc and have generally witnessed high engagement rates.

Q. What role is data analytics playing in heling the company optimise its marketing spend across the festive season?

Data Analytics help us optimise our spends and understand the impact of our GTM efforts. We closely look at parameters like footfall & sale growth, New customer acquisition, customer repeats which help us analyse the effect of our marketing and media buying efforts. Each campaign we run for our stores, the loop is completed once the ROI and campaign impact is measured and learnings are leveraged for the next campaign.

Q. Could you talk about the brainstorming that took place with the creative agency that led to the Diwali campaign about thoughtful gifting?

Gifting is an integral part of Diwali for Indians. At Home Centre, we see a remarkable jump in the gift department during the Diwali season and hence, we bring in specific collections that are curated for gifting.

Our campaign “Speaking Gift” which we launched last year tapped into the significance of thoughtful gifting and urged audience to consider gifting as a medium to convey their heartfelt emotions for the recipient through gifts that are just right for them. This year, when we restarted the discussions on the Diwali campaign, Saatchi & Saatchi India – our creative agency partner, came up with the campaign tag line – “Iss Diwali gift karo formality nahi” – which tapped into the cultural nuances and prevalent habits of gifting where often gifts get passed on/recycled or practiced as a traditional exchange such as gifting money.

This becomes a chore which devoid the recipient and the giftee of the true joy that thoughtful gifting brings . We decided to do a 3-film series to capture this as well as created content with leading content creators from across the country around the art of thoughtful gifting. We also collaborated with Chef Ranveer Brar who though a series of 4 short videos emphasised on the importance of gifting beyond formalities.

Q. How does the tagline ‘Iss Diwali, gift karo formality nahi’ reinforce the emotional aspect of gifting as opposed to be something that one has to do?

This campaign inspires a shift from conventional Diwali gifting as a formality to heartfelt choices that reflect the spirit of giving, celebrating the relationship and reminding us that every gift is a reflection of how much we cherish the relationship.

Home Centre brings this message alive through three evocative campaign films that celebrate relatable festive moments and reveal how thoughtful gifts can make a lasting impact.

From a surprize from grandparents that cheers up a teenager, to a friend who expresses how she cherishes her friendship with their hosts through her gift and finally, a moment of truth between two twin sisters who discover gift become formality when given without a thought or consideration for the recipient, all three films express that gifts become gestures that last, not just items exchanged.

Q. The campaign is being rolled out across digital, OOH, BTL, PR, Radio. What will be the budget split between mediums?

We have spent around 60% over Digital including CTV, 15% over BTL and the rest on ATL, content distribution and bloggers.

Q. Which are the key markets being targetted and the TG?

The top markets for us during Diwali is North India with special focus on NCR region. This is followed by the top metro cities Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and then the rest of the cities where we have physical presence.

Our TG is NCCS A 25-55 M/F aspirational urban customers who are social media, fashion-savvy and are looking for affordable, in-trend and quality products for their homes.

Q. Is digital making OOH a more attractive medium?

OOH is an important part of our Media Mix as vicinity marketing in the locations our stores are present has always helped in getting customer attention in these geographies.

We continue to invest in Malls, near by neighbourhoods as well as apartments and high footfall areas where we feel our TA will be present. With the addition of digital screens in OOH, we have been able to showcase our content in a more engaging way and showcasing more collection rather as compared to earlier where we could only show static image. It also allows us to change creative and offers, at a frequent basis and hence is far more dynamic.

Q. The brand will partner with content creators across the country to create engaging content around the art of gifting. This is a time when content clutter will increase exponentially. What tactics will be employed to ensure that the content resonates?

We have looked at the top creators across food, home and fashion category including Chef Ranveer Brar, Shivesh Bhatia, Diipa Buller Khosla, House of Misu to name a few.

These creators enjoy a high reach as well as are known for their strong fan following and high engagement rates. The consistency of message has been ensured so that the consumer could connect these content pieces across creators. We also started our content campaign 6 week prior to Diwali so that we could catch customer attention before the clutter starts.

Q. How is AI redefining the marketing function at Home Centre?

We have been leveraging AI especially in the content side as it allows for versatility, quicker turn-around time at a fraction of a cost as compared to regular campaign shoots or content creation.

A part of our digital creatives especially on ecommerce and social media are regularly created through AI to enhance/ redesign the product ambience or showcases use cases. Recently, we also Created our Independence Day Sale film entirely through AI and it received very high engagement rates and shares.

Q. How does Home Centre add value by focussing on hyper personalisation?

Personalisation has helped us in increasing conversion rates, customer loyalty, and engagement by delivering tailored messages and experiences.

We have leveraged personalisation especially in our CRM efforts wherein we’ve created cohorts basis their shopping history and potential cross-category behaviour and targeted them with content/offers that guides them on their next purchase decision.

Last year, we sent personalized Diwali gifting messages from Chef Ranveer Brar leveraging AI where he wished each customer by their name. This year we’ve gone ahead a step and created customized messages from Ranveer Brar for each Customer looking at their shopping behaviour and sent personalised messages inviting them to shop. This has so far shown good results and response rate.