ONAM
MARKETING
ANGLES
Onam drives ₹1,100+ crore in ad spend and a 20-30% retail consumption spike. Here are six research-backed angles if you want a real share of it.
Based on 2025 market data. Pick an angle. Steal the thinking. Or let us execute it.
The Spending Mandate
"Kaanam vittum Onam unnanam." Malayalis will spend. The question is whether they spend on you.
THE PROVERB
There is an old Malayalam proverb: "Kaanam vittum Onam unnanam." It means you celebrate Onam even if you have to sell your property. The data backs it up. Remittances to Kerala hit ₹2 lakh crore annually, which is 19.7% of India's total remittance inflow [3]. Per household, that is an average of ₹2.23 lakh. Remittances now account for 23.2% of Kerala's Net State Domestic Product, up from 13.5% in 2018 [4].
THE CONCENTRATION
Here is what most brand managers miss: only 12% of Kerala households receive remittances [4]. It is concentrated. The top 12% have the highest disposable income in the state. But 73.3% of households now get these remittances as regular monthly digital transfers, meaning the spending is predictable, not lumpy [4].
THE AD SPEND
Total ad spend crosses ₹1,100 crore and grows 15-20% year on year [1]. Jewellery alone does ₹7,000-8,000 crore in a single Onam season [7]. Textiles were revised upward by the Kerala Textile and Garments Association: they now estimate ₹30,000-40,000 crore in garment sales [8]. Consumer durables do ₹5,000 crore across July-September [8]. Electronics does ₹100 crore in Kochi alone [5]. Bevco (state liquor) did ₹826 crore in 12 days [2]. Godrej Appliances saw 40% growth in washing machines and ACs during Onam 2024 [6].
YOUR MOVE
If you are an FMCG, electronics, or D2C brand: this concentrated spending is yours to capture. The brands that treat Onam as a premium-tier buying moment (not a discount-clearance event) win. Kerala's middle class upgrades during Onam: larger TVs, front-load machines, hybrid cars, 18-carat gold.
Why this works
Hard data makes this easy to take to your leadership. The numbers are public (RBI, KMS, ET, Hindu BusinessLine). The insight about concentrated spend (top 12% of households) is something most generic Onam blog posts miss.
The 10-Day Calendar
Uthradam. Thiruvonam. Avittam. Every day has a different consumer behaviour. Your content should too.
Onam is 10 days, but not all days are equal. The three peak days (Uthradam, Thiruvonam, and Avittam) drive completely different consumer actions. Here is what most brands get wrong: they run one post on Thiruvonam and call it a campaign.
UTHIRADAM
Last-minute shopping frenzy. Vegetable markets, textile shops, and electronics stores see peak footfall. Bevco did ₹137 crore in a single Uthradam day in 2025, 9.23% higher than the previous year [2]. Men drive this spending (Onam bonuses hit bank accounts). Content should tap urgency and last-minute gifting.
THIRUVONAM
The main day. Families gather for Sadya. The catering sector serves ₹250 crore in a single day [9]. Bevco is closed [2]. Content should be about togetherness, food, ritual. Women drive the decisions on this day (what to wear, what to cook, where to order from).
AVITTAM
Continued celebrations, travel return begins. Brands that run post-Onam "extend the festive" campaigns see lower CPM and higher engagement because fewer brands are competing. This is the most overlooked day.
EXTENDED WINDOW
The month of Chingam is considered lucky for housewarmings, weddings, and major purchases [28]. Onam 2025 had an unusually high number of weddings in Chingam, which boosted demand across electronics, textiles, and gold [5]. This extends the buying window well beyond the 10-day festival.
WEATHER RISK
There is also a weather angle most people ignore. "Atham Veluthal Onam Karukkum" is a Malayalam proverb: if Atham day is clear, expect rain during Onam [8]. Rains in 2025 hurt AC sales (down 30-40%) and brick-and-mortar footfall [10]. Digital content is weather-proof in a way physical retail isn't.
YOUR MOVE
Build a day-wise content calendar. Different creative for each phase. Pre-Onam (urgency and demand gen), Thiruvonam (cultural belonging), post-Onam (extension and loyalty).
Why this works
Most brands run one Onam post on the main day and call it done. This gives you a 10-day content plan that mirrors actual consumer behaviour, recognises gender-differentiated spending patterns, and accounts for weather risk.
The Long-Form Advantage
Malayalis don't just scroll. They watch 12-minute reviews during Onam. This changes how you brief content.
THE PLATFORM
The most under-appreciated fact for national brands entering Kerala: the Malayalam internet runs on long-form video. YouTube channels like Karikku, Sujith Bhakthan's Tech Travel Eat (2.19M subs in 4 years) [25], and Jayaraj G Nath (tech journalism in Malayalam) drive serious viewership and serious purchases. These are not 30-second Reels. These are 8-15 minute deep dives that people actually watch.
During Onam, screen time spikes because families are at home. Malayalam audiences over-index on long-form YouTube for consideration and conversion, while Reels work for awareness [26].
THE CASE STUDY
Croma proved this works. They ran an "Electro Onam Sale" campaign with two Malayalam tech creators: Gadgets One (1.5M subs) and ADOPIX (850K subs). Both posted YouTube Shorts showcasing Onam tech deals. Each got 100K+ reach. But the real result: Croma stores reported a noticeable increase in footfall during the sale period [16].
THE D2C INSIGHT
A single 12-minute product review in Malayalam during Onam week beats a bunch of 30-second Reels for consideration metrics [26]. The reason: Malayali audiences have high media literacy. They prefer in-depth reviews. And they have the time (they are on holiday). National D2C brands that ship the same Reels-only brief into Malayalam creator sets under-perform [26].
YOUR MOVE
Fund 3-4 Malayalam YouTube creators to make Onam-themed review or content pieces. The format does the targeting work for you. Pair it with short-form for awareness.
Why this works
This breaks from the standard Reels-only brief most brands default to. You get first-mover advantage on a format your competitors are ignoring. The Croma case study proves this is not theory. The long-form insight is backed by platform-level data on Malayalam content consumption [26].
The Cringe Barrier
Why do national brands' Onam posts get 47 likes? Because they sound like they Googled 'Onam traditions' that morning.
A marketing manager in Mumbai or Gurgaon briefs a creative team to "do something for Onam." The result is a graphic with a Kathakali face, a generic 'Happy Onam' line, and a product photoshopped next to a pookalam. It gets 47 likes. The Malayali audience scrolls past.
WHY IT FEELS FAKE
1. Using formal, written Malayalam instead of the natural Manglish mix people actually speak. "Onam festival is harvest festival we celebrate" (translated English) vs. "Ente Chingam month celebration begin cheythu" (natural Manglish) is the difference between being ignored and being shared.
2. Ignoring that Kerala has the highest literacy rate in India at 96.2%. Malayalis consume more news, more YouTube, and more OTT than most other regional language audiences. They notice when a 'Kerala house' in your ad has the wrong architecture. They spot a Madurai accent pretending to be Malayalam in seconds.
THE FIX
Not 'hire a Malayali translator.' Create content that references real, specific Onam details: the exact price of banana chips this year (₹480/kg, up from ₹320 because coconut oil went from ₹320 to ₹382) [11][12], that marigold prices doubled because of crop damage in Gundlupet [13], or that Volkswagen launched black-edition cars specifically for Kerala because Malayalis prefer black cars more than any other regional market [19][20].
YOUR MOVE
Audit your existing Onam content. Find the gap. Then produce a single replacement piece that references current-year specifics. One piece of proof is worth a hundred proposals.
Why this works
You have probably seen your own Onam post flop. Naming this openly makes you feel understood, not attacked. The specific cultural details (chips prices, car colour preferences) show genuine knowledge, not a Google search. Low commitment entry point: just an audit of your last Onam post.
The Diaspora Double
4M Malayalis live outside Kerala. Onam is the one week they all become your target audience at once.
THE SIZE
The Malayali diaspora in Bangalore alone is estimated at 1.5M+. Add Mumbai, Delhi, Dubai (3.5M Malayalis in the GCC), and the US/UK/Canada. That is a population bigger than Kerala's own major cities, all spending Onam away from home.
THE SHIFT
The diaspora is changing. The Kerala Migration Survey 2023 found that GCC migration dropped from 89.2% to 80.5% of total outbound [4]. The US, UK, Canada, Australia share is growing because of student migration and skilled tech workers. These are higher-income earners. Per capita remittances rose to ₹61,118 [4]. The average remittance per household more than doubled from ₹96,185 in 2018 to ₹2,23,729 in 2023 [4]. And for the first time, Kerala recorded outward remittances of ₹43,378 crore (nearly 20% of its inflow) [4].
WHAT THEY WANT
Nostalgia-driven content (they miss home, Onam content hits harder). Online ordering of Sadya kits, banana chips, traditional wear. Watching Malayalam YouTube and Instagram to feel close to home. Higher disposable income (diaspora professionals in tech/finance).
THE MULTI-MARKET ANGLE
Any Malayalam-language content you produce for Kerala will also reach the Western diaspora. Students in the UK, Canada, and Australia actively seek out Malayalam social media during Onam because it is their strongest connection to home. That makes Malayalam-language Onam campaigns effectively multi-market by default — same production cost, larger addressable audience.
PROOF IT WORKS
Zomato's 2024 campaign showed a young Malayali professional traveling home, with Zomato delivering the sadya [17]. Linen Club's "Ona Vakdhanam" campaign used the promise-keeping theme to connect with Malayalis globally [18]. CarDekho launched an "Onam Auto Fest" microsite targeting diaspora Malayalis shopping for cars via mobile [22][27].
YOUR MOVE
Shoot in Malayali pockets of Bangalore or Mumbai, not in Kerala. The content serves dual purpose: it reaches the diaspora in those cities AND feels aspirational to consumers back in Kerala. One shoot, two audiences.
Why this works
This expands the number of teams who can use this. You don't need to be 'entering the Kerala market.' If your brand has Malayali customers in metros (D2C, food delivery, fintech, co-working, real estate), this applies. The 'shoot in your city' move removes the logistics objection. The migration shift data (GCC declining, West growing) is new to most marketing teams.
The Quick Commerce Shift
Onam used to mean crowded markets. Now it means 10-minute delivery. Your content strategy needs to match the new retail reality.
THE SHIFT
This is the biggest structural shift in the 2025 Onam market: quick commerce is rewriting retail, and the traditional supply chain is struggling to adapt. Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart hit 4M+ daily orders nationally in March 2025, more than double YoY [23]. During Raksha Bandhan, Zepto sold 820 rakhis per minute at peak [24]. For Onam, quick commerce platforms went beyond groceries: they sold silver rakhis, electronics, traditional wear, and Onam gift hampers [24].
THE GAP
In Kerala, traditional merchants are feeling the squeeze. Vegetable and textile sellers in Kochi flagged a "significant dip" as shoppers moved online [14]. The Kerala Merchants Chamber of Commerce confirmed that conventional shops are struggling while malls report 80%+ conversion rates [5]. Malls have adapted with festive zones and Mahabali mascots [5]. Traditional Broadway and MG Road shops have not [5]. Buyers now come with Instagram-sourced designs that traditional textile shops cannot stock [14]. This is a content-to-commerce pipeline that works only if your brand is discoverable on social media. A Kudumbashree group sold 5,400 Onam gift hampers at ₹799 each via a mobile app (PocketMart) in two weeks [15].
THE GST ANGLE
There is a pricing tension worth watching: the 2025 GST reform announcement actually hurt Onam sales in the short term. Consumers deferred TV purchases (down 8%), AC purchases (down 30-40%), expecting price drops [10]. This created a gap that brands with content strategies could exploit by explaining why Onam prices and extended warranty were still the better deal.
YOUR MOVE
Create shoppable content designed for the quick-commerce decision window. Short, punchy, product-first. And if you are a D2C brand, your entire Onam strategy should assume the transaction happens on a mobile screen, not a store shelf.
Why this works
This is where the market is going, not where it's been. Most Onam content strategies still assume a retail, print, or TV funnel. The Kudumbashree example proves that even non-tech groups are using mobile commerce. The GST tension angle gives you a specific conversation starter with consumers.
SOURCES
Every data point on this page is sourced. Here is the full list.
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