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You may have noticed it already. Your Instagram feed starts looking a little different as the festive season gets closer. More creators are talking about clothes, gifts, beauty products, food, travel and everything else we suddenly seem to need before Diwali.
Brands are spending heavily on it too.
India’s festive creator marketing spend is expected to reach ₹900 crore in 2026, up from about ₹700 crore in 2025. Around 7,200 brands are expected to run creator campaigns this festive season, compared with 4,500 in 2023.
But the bigger change is where those campaigns are happening.
Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru still dominate, accounting for about 62% of creator activity, but the remaining 38% is coming from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Smaller and regional creators now account for around 70% of festive activations at some agencies.
And it makes sense. India doesn't really have one festive market.
A creator in Mumbai talking about Diwali shopping is useful to one audience. A creator in Kolkata talking about Durga Puja, someone in Gujarat talking about Navratri or a creator in Maharashtra talking about Ganesh Chaturthi can speak to a very different audience.
Brands are starting to spend accordingly. Diwali still accounts for 49% of festive creator activity, but Navratri, Durga Puja and Dussehra together make up another 31%, while Ganesh Chaturthi accounts for 11%.
There is also a lot more money behind this than there was a few years ago. Overall festive advertising in India is expected to reach around ₹66,000 crore in 2026, with creator led advertising growing by at least 30%, according to industry estimates.
What brands are buying isn't just reach anymore. They want someone who already has the attention of a particular group of people and can make a product fit naturally into that conversation.
And with ₹900 crore now moving into festive creator campaigns, the creator economy is becoming an integral part of how India shops during its biggest spending season.
