Indriya to boost festive ad spends by up to 200%; digital to dominate media mix: CMO Shantiswarup Panda

Aditya Birla Group’s jewellery venture Indriya is going big this festive season, with Chief Marketing Officer Shantiswarup Panda confirming a 150–200% surge in ad spends compared to last year.

The aggressive push comes on the back of the brand’s rapid retail expansion from six cities during last festive season to 15 cities with 29 stores today, with ambitions to scale up to 100 stores across India in the shortest possible time.

The brand’s marketing blitz is in line with broader industry trends.

While India’s overall advertising expenditure is expected to grow by 8–9% in FY26, the jewellery sector is leading the charge with a 12–13% increase, driven by recovery in consumer demand post price volatility and buoyed by the upcoming wedding season.

Read more: Jewellery brands boost festive ad spends by up to 45% despite Trump tariffs and gold price surge

For Indriya, this means not just scaling budgets but sharpening focus on digital-first campaigns (60% of total spends), robust influencer-driven growth, and AI-led consumer insights to fuel its ambition of becoming one of India’s top three jewellery retailers within five years.

Edited excerpts:

In light of global uncertainties such as Trump’s tariff policies and ongoing price fluctuations, how do you view the growth trajectory of India’s jewellery market?

The jewellery market in India has faced many challenges this fiscal year, marked by volatility and geo-political uncertainty. Gold prices have surged by over 30% since the beginning of the calendar year, and this volatility dampened customer sentiment, resulting in a 15–17% drop in Q1 of FY26.

Read more: We strive to be globally knowledgeable while being locally relevant: Gianmauro Vella of PepsiCo

Despite these headwinds, demand began to recover in July and August, supported by a few festive dates. With the upcoming wedding season and recent GST changes putting more cash in customers’ hands for discretionary spending, the outlook for jewellery retailers looks promising. Indriya remains optimistic about the festive season ahead.

What kind of growth do you anticipate in jewellery sector advertising expenditure (adex) this year?

The jewellery industry is spending more this year than last year. While the overall AdEx is slated to grow at 8-9% whereas the jewellery industry spends has gone up by 12-13% which is far higher in proportion compared to rest of the advertisers. This is in anticipation of a good festive season ahead.

Typically, the jewellery industry spend 25%-30% of their advertising budgets during this period which is likely to remain at same levels even in FY26 while the absolute amount of spends would go up.

How does Indriya plan to scale up its ad spending this festive season?

Indriya was present in only six cities during the FY25 festive season. Currently, we operate in 15 cities with 29 stores and plan to expand to many more cities during this year’s festive season. Overall, the brand has an aggressive expansion plan with an ambition to expand to 100 stores at the earliest.

This significant growth in Indriya’s retail footprint has led us to increase our advertising spend to approximately 150%–200% of last year’s levels. While we prioritize personalized digital media, our strategy is multimedia, with investments allocated to TV, print, outdoor, and cinema.

Read more: D'Decor aims double-digit growth in FY26; eyes 15% revenue from D2C

We have just launched our festive campaign with our new collection, ‘Alka’, unveiled in a soulful music video with a recreated legendary song, ‘Dil Abhi Bhara Nahin’. Indriya wedding campaign has similar medium spread as festive campaign with more weightage to in market audience (wedding shoppers). For this as well digital remains our lead medium while do use TV, print, out of home and cinema.

How would you describe your current ad spend mix between traditional and digital media?

Digital remains the largest advertising medium for Indriya and will continue to be so going forward. However, other media also play a crucial role in creating impact and serve as surround communication channels.

We allocate about 60% towards new media platforms and about 40% is spent on traditional media outlets.

Indriya has Ogilvy & Mather as its creative agency partner. Mindshare (Group M) is our media agency and Schbang is our social media agency. They have been steady partners for us and understand the brand space, customer segments and campaign need very well.

How important is influencer marketing in your media strategy?

Indriya was launched and built on a robust influencer marketing ecosystem, supported by a panel of empanelled influencers who have significantly accelerated our brand awareness and consideration. We have allocated a higher-than-average share of our marketing budget to influencer partnerships, but we do maintain stringent performance criteria, measuring outcomes through impressions, engagement, and follower growth.

Read more: AI and Universal Content IDs are ending OTT chaos, says Nielsen-owned Gracenote's CTO

Within just one year, the brand's Facebook page has grown to over 1 million followers, and the Instagram page has surpassed 400,000 followers, driven by strong, relevant, and engaging content.

How are you utilizing latest tech (AI/ML) ensuring seamless consumer journey?

Indriya currently operates solely through offline retail sales, with no e-commerce presence, and plans to maintain this approach in the near future. However, our website has been developed to be commerce-ready when the time comes. Our current focus is on building online brand awareness and guiding customers through the discovery journey digitally, with the ultimate goal is to bring them into our physical stores for an immersive experience and conversion.

Our customer journey is seamlessly integrated from online discovery to offline purchase. We leverage AI and machine learning extensively, both in content creation and in managing execution across various workflows, driving efficiency throughout marketing operations- from the concept stage to market launch.

Read more: Aditya Birla Group's Indriya eyes becoming top jewellery retailer

AI and machine learning also provide us with valuable consumer insights by analyzing large volumes of data on preferences and purchasing patterns. We use these technologies to forecast trends, optimize campaign performance, and define customer segmentation. While we cannot precisely quantify the impact, these emerging technologies are significantly enhancing our operational efficiency and marketing effectiveness.

With AI increasingly being used in campaign ideation, content creation, and even digital avatars replacing actors, do you think this will alter consumer perceptions and brand authenticity?

As long as the core of brand proposition is based on a deep consumer insight technology is just a tool to create concept and execute those. For Indriya we focus on the insight and ensure that we have consumers at the centre of all that we do. This ensures consumer first thinking and keep the brand authentic and relevant even with use of technology like AI and ML. These are merely tools for creativity, ideation and execution.

Considering the consolidation, layoffs, and uncertainty in the agency ecosystem, how has your brand’s relationship with agencies evolved? What do you now expect from partners in terms of stability and value?

The brand has a strong partnership with all its agency partners and they are a part of the brand building strategy and execution. Our partners are like strategic collaborators embedded in our teams. Stability in partnerships is critical and the teams working on the brand have been consistent without change which helps in continuity of the strategy and evolution of the brand space for us. Going forward, we not only expect creative excellence but data-driven insights, and agility to drive sustained growth.

Read more: From Partners to 90-day Probation: Are India's ad agencies losing ground in client negotiations