Exclusive: Meesho mounts first massive celebrity-led festive campaign

One of the first strategies was to release a Blockbuster poster with celebrities to create intrigue and speculation whether it is a movie or ad campaign which led to conversation and buzz. Of course, until the Sourav Ganguly tweet mishap happened which the company handled in a smart tongue-in-cheek fashion.

"I’m not going to reveal whether it was a goof-up or not. I love the conversations that are happening in social media. Our objective was to create a lot of conversations around this campaign and I feel the outcome is exactly where we wanted it to be," says Agarwal.

Created by advertising agency Sideways, the two television spots announce the annual festive Mega Blockbuster Sale: 'Saal ke Sabse Kam Daam' from September 23 to 27. The campaign aims to position Meesho as a local marketplace where users can access a variety of products from across the country. The idea was to create a visual world representing celebrities as sellers of various categories, spreading awareness about the company’s unique value proposition of quality products at the lowest prices.

Agarwal says the idea of the campaign came from their mission statement which is to democratise internet commerce both from suppliers and users perspective.

"There are 85 percent of people who consume an assortment (of products) from unbranded or unorganised sectors. That is what Meesho is bringing with a price that users really want. In our campaign, we have tried to bring the local market feel where users can buy the width and depth of the category at the right price point. For suppliers as well, Meesho is getting complete MSME online helping them sell online and that’s also reflected in our campaign. We are using celebrities for the first time in a very unique way as suppliers showcasing the depth and width of the campaign," she says.

Meesho plans to leverage regional celebrities to target markets across the country. With a total of 12 films, each master is shot in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and further amplified in other regional languages like Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Gujarati. The campaign will be promoted across TV, digital, social, WhatsApp and print platforms.

Agarwal says the intent behind hiring a good mix of national and regional celebrities is to have a pan-India presence.

"We are penetrating deep in tier II, III and IV towns of India. For that, it is important that while we cover national television or media we also go deep regionally. That’s why we have a good mix of celebrities from Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone to Rashmika, Ram Charan, Trisha and Sourav Ganguly," she adds.

Meesho recently strengthened its regional foothold by adding eight new languages on the app — Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia.

With approximately 68 million active product listings across 30 categories, Meesho says that while fashion will remain its mainstay, the company is expecting a strong surge in home & kitchen, furnishings, consumer electronics and accessories during the festive season.

Apart from mass media, there will be a strong influencer marketing leg as well which involves multiple micro and nano influencers who will increase the consideration set of the platform.

Meesho says that it currently has over seven lakh active sellers and it expects the seller base to increase by 4X this festive season.

"This will translate into a deeper assortment on the platform. This will also lead to good discounts from these suppliers. We are hoping for a very strong festive season supplied from the inputs from suppliers,” notes Agarwal.

On the objective of the campaign, Abhijit Avasthi, Founder, Sideways says that the campaign has been devised to address the key barrier in the adoption of e-commerce by mass India — a sense of distance and 'not-for-me' feeling.

"Hence, the campaign exhibits the feel of a local market. The look, feel, flavour builds affinity and familiarity. I believe using India's biggest celebrities as sellers who welcome customers to Meesho's 'Mega Blockbuster Sale' will help break clutter as it has not been done before, and makes them endearing too," he says.

The festive season is a massive opportunity for e-commerce players that hinge on aggressive discounts and interesting advertising to capture consumer attention.

In 2021, e-commerce players clocked a gross merchandise value of $9.2 billion, an increase of 23 percent compared to 2020, according to data released by research firm RedSeer.

While Amazon and Flipkart continue to be the big players in the festive sale, more companies such as Meesho, and Tata Cliq are also actively taking a greater part in the sales.