Bengal’s ₹65,000 cr Puja economy is becoming the brief

Durga Puja’s main five days ended with Dashami on October 20, but the bigger marketing story is not the usual rush of pandal tie-ups and Puja films. A quieter shift is underway: brands that once handed West Bengal a Bengali-dubbed national ad are now starting from Kolkata itself—its rituals, neighbourhood food, music and small local references.

01 · Why the East is no longer an afterthought

The commercial case is strong. West Bengal’s festival-linked economy is estimated at around ₹65,000 crore in 2025, with Kolkata accounting for roughly 65–70% of it. A 2019 British Council study had put Puja-linked industries at ₹32,377 crore.

• Durga Puja commands 8–10% of national festive budgets.
• For regional powerhouses in Bengal and the East, the share climbs to 25–30%.
• Digital now accounts for 60% of India’s ₹1,55,105 crore ad market, per Pitch Madison Advertising Report 2026.

That makes Puja a tentpole in its own right, not an add-on to a Diwali-led plan. Arjun Ranga, Managing Director, Cycle Pure Agarbathi, says India’s festive calendar is diverse, and while Diwali is a major moment in North India, Durga Puja is an equally important festive occasion for consumers in the East.

02 · Insight beats translation

Parikshit Bhattaccharya, Chief Creative Officer, BBH India & Propagate India, argues that work built on insight “true of the land and its people” becomes a competitive advantage. Last year, CaratLane’s Puja piece stitched several well-loved Rabindrasangeet songs into a musical, made for the Bengali sensibility rather than a pan-India audience.

“Great storytelling and connection can rarely happen in your second language,” Bhattaccharya says.

Rashi Ray, Director, Response India, puts it plainly: “regionalisation is not translation.” A national campaign cannot simply be translated and expected to feel local. Her agency’s four decades in Bengal have shown that there is not even one Bengal—India is too layered for a single template.

Shared context gives region-first work an economy of expression. As Ray notes, a brand can say something in three words because people already know the other seven.

03 · One hero film cannot carry the quarter

The Puja shopper now moves between traditional retail, e-commerce and quick commerce. Pitch Madison 2026 figures underline the shift: e-commerce advertising grew 27% to ₹10,257 crore in 2025, and quick commerce ad spends are projected to rise from ₹4,000 crore to ₹6,000 crore in 2026.

Ranga describes consumers discovering a product digitally while the final purchase still happens at a neighbourhood store. So brands are layering stories, products and occasions across the purchase journey. Cycle Pure Agarbathi treats devotion, home preparation, individual rituals and fragrance as separate chapters of one larger story.

04 · What marketers can take from it

The takeaway is not to make every ad hyperlocal for its own sake. It is to treat a region’s culture as the source of the idea, then support it with a channel plan that follows how people actually buy. Ray’s framing is useful: regional markets are not just audiences—they can be idea generators. The brands that listen will keep finding their brief in Kolkata’s neighbourhoods long after Dashami.

Source: Indian Advertising Media & Marketing News – exchange4media

Mad About Marketing Desk The strategists and writers at Mad About Marketing, writing up what we see in the work every week.