The holiday season 2025: When screens, streets & stores merge — and why it matters for marketers

It’s early December. Across India and Southeast Asia, people are already getting into the holiday groove. But this year’s holiday season doesn’t just feel like any other. It feels different.

Because this time, consumer journeys don’t begin and end online — they ripple across screens, streets, and store aisles. And for brands, that means the holiday season isn’t just about discount banners and flash sales: it’s about orchestrating a full-funnel, multi-screen experience that ends in real-world conversions.

The digital surge behind holiday cheer

A new high‑water mark for ad spends

Brands in India are ramping up holiday advertising like never before. According to a recent report, consumer-facing brands in India are increasing their festive ad spends by 15–20% year-on-year in 2025. (storyboard18).

Within digital, three channels stand out:

In short: brands are not just spending more — they’re redistributing budgets aggressively towards digital video, DOOH, and e-commerce media.

Consumers are engaging — and converting

The holiday season in 2025 isn’t just louder. It’s stickier. A recent report shows that many Indian shoppers plan to spend more than ₹20,000 this season. Significantly, nearly half of holiday shoppers say they are open to trying new brands (brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com).

Meanwhile, consumer behavior is evolving: instead of a linear “see ad → click → buy” pattern, there’s now a cross-device, cross-moment journey. Many customers begin their discovery on mobile (browsing, deal-hunting), while CTV and DOOH add inspiration and branding heft (brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com).

This layered, omnichannel behavior is reshaping how brands plan their campaigns — and how they measure success.

Which industries are leading the charge — and why

Not all categories benefit equally from this festive explosion. The data reveals a few clear leaders:

• E‑commerce & Retail: By far the biggest spenders and biggest beneficiaries. In 2025, estimates suggest that e‑commerce may account for up to half of all festive ad spends (exchange4media.com).

• Consumer Electronics & Appliances: Smart TVs, phones, holiday gifts — these dominate both ad spend and festive demand spikes, especially where CTV and DOOH give high-impact exposure (about.ads.microsoft.com).
• Beauty / Personal Care / FMCG: There’s growing demand — during 2025 sale events (e.g. Black Friday), online order volumes increased, with FMCG / beauty / home products emerging as some of the fastest-growing categories (TimesofIndia).
• Automotive, Real Estate, Jewellery, Fashion: These categories leverage high-impact formats (DOOH, CTV) and offline footfall to reach affluent audiences during festive buying windows (brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com).

Essentially: where high-intent purchase meets gifting or aspiration, brands are investing — heavily.

The big opportunity: Drive‑to‑store — because many shoppers still want to touch, try & buy

Here’s a truth often overlooked in the digital fervor: the offline store still matters, especially during the holidays.

• Electronics & appliances: Shoppers want to see, test, and feel the product.
• Fashion, beauty, jewellery: Fitting rooms, testers, and impulse gifts matter.
• Automotive, real estate: Test drives, inspections, in-person consultations remain critical.
• Grocery, essentials, last-minute gifts: Physical stores remain preferred for immediacy and convenience.

With heavy footfall in malls, marketplaces, and festive hubs — and consumers increasingly deciding on the go — there’s a moment brands can’t ignore: bridging the digital inspiration with real-world action. That’s where drive-to-store strategies become mission-critical.

How mediasmart’s drive‑to‑store engine helps brands capture that moment

At mediasmart, we believe the future of festive marketing isn’t digital versus offline — it’s digital + offline, harmonized. Here’s how:

Audience intelligence meets real-world signals

By tapping into data, location patterns, and behaviour signals, we build audiences likely to visit stores — not just click ads.

Cross-screen orchestration — from inspiration to conversion

• CTV for high-impact storytelling and gifting positioning
• Mobile to deliver personalised offers, store locators, flash sale alerts
• DOOH to retarget neighborhoods and high footfall zones with contextual messages

Real-time geo-fencing & proximity activation

As users move near a store, or enter a relevant zone, ads trigger dynamically. Creative can adapt: “20% off till 9 PM, 500m to your nearest store.”

Attribution & incremental footfall measurement

We measure real-world store visits, incremental lift, and cross-screen conversion attribution—powered by real-time location intelligence and proximity-based targeting.

Post-visit retargeting

Once a user has visited a store or shown interest, follow-up ads can target them across mobile or CTV — for loyalty, repeat purchase, or cross-sell.

In short: mediasmart helps brands bridge the digital-to-physical divide — exactly where festive purchase intent peaks.

What this means for holiday season 2025 (and beyond)

• Brands that rely purely on e-commerce or online conversions will leave opportunity on the table.
  
  
• Big-ticket, gifting, aspirational categories — electronics, auto, beauty, jewellery — stand to gain most from a combined screen + store approach.
  
  
• The holiday season is no longer a “sale window.” It’s a journey window: from discovery → inspiration → physical experience → purchase → loyalty.
  
  

Final Thoughts

Holiday 2025 proves something many marketers have suspected for years: digital and physical shopping aren’t rivals anymore. They’re collaborators.

When a mother watches a festive ad on her Smart TV, adds the deal to her phone, then walks into a store a few hours later — that journey is the new reality. And it’s exactly the kind of experience mediasmart’s solutions are built for.

For brands that get this right — aligning storytelling with timing, screen with street, and data with emotion — the payoff isn’t just in clicks or views. It’s in walk-ins, conversions, and loyalty.

Because in the festive season, intention meets opportunity. And the screen that inspires might just lead your customer to your store.