Influencers become realty’s new sales force this festive season

New Delhi: As India steps into the festive quarter, real estate developers are rewriting their advertising playbooks. The dominant theme this year is clear: influencers have moved to the center of the conversation. Whether it’s luxury launches, mid-segment campaigns, or aspirational plots, brands are leaning on digital creators to drive engagement, build credibility, and add aspirational sheen to their projects.

While print, OOH, and television continue to make appearances in festive media mixes, they are increasingly relegated to selective impact buys. The real fuel for festive campaigns is influencer-led storytelling, supported by targeted digital outreach.

For Elan Group, festive spending has risen by nearly 50% year-on-year. Almost 80% of that allocation is reserved for digital media. Print, OOH, and television are deployed selectively, primarily for brand recall or marquee visibility. This digital-first skew is anchored in storytelling powered by influencers. The company has even paired this with Bollywood star power, roping in Shah Rukh Khan to headline its campaigns. But the heart of the strategy is not traditional celebrity endorsement alone; it’s the amplification through social media creators who bring relatability and freshness.

“At Elan Group, our advertising mix in 2025 reflects evolving consumer behaviour with a decisive tilt towards digital-first engagement through targeted ads and influencer-led storytelling,” Vidhi Attri, Head-Marketing, Elan Group, shared.

Mumbai-based Runwal Realty has also leaned further into digital, raising its digital allocation from 35% last festive season to 45% this year. Overall, festive budgets have grown by 12–15%, with an additional 15% bump in spends tied to new inventory launches. The company views influencers as an integral part of this increased digital spend.

“Over the last few years of festivities, our approach towards placing ads has shifted significantly. The biggest transformation has been digital. Performance campaigns, immersive virtual walkthroughs, programmatic targeting and influencer-led storytelling have become central to how we connect with the audience,” Rima Kirtikar, CMO, Runwal Realty, highlighted.

Meanwhile, Aarize Group has opted for a 50-50 split between digital and traditional media this festive season, but within digital, influencer storytelling plays an outsized role. Print spends have been deliberately pared back, while OOH is maintained at about 25–30% for recall. What makes Aarize stand out is the way it uses data to sharpen influencer campaigns.

“We use CRM to track everything, including revisits, lost leads to closed sales if any, etc., to find out how effective any digital campaign is, so that tweaking can be done to get to desired matrices and numbers,” said Renu Singh, Director (Sales & Marketing), Aarize Group.

Meanwhile, House of Abhinandan Lodha emphasised that influencers help unlock personalisation in a way mass media cannot. “There is a lot of one-on-one personalised communication that digital helps you to create. Digital has become mainstream in many more ways, allowing you to communicate with different cohorts in distinct ways. That is the big advantage. Influencer marketing, too, has started playing a big role in bringing everything together,” Pawan Sarda, Chief Growth Officer of the House of Abhinandan Lodha, explained.

According to eXp Realty India, advertising is no longer about visibility alone; it is about building authentic connections, instilling confidence, and guiding families as they make one of the most important investments of their lives. “2025 is shaping up with unmatched momentum. What’s different this year is how developers are blending credibility with reach. Print and television continue to anchor trust, OOH is capturing urban visibility, while digital has firmly become the core driver for precision targeting and engagement. This sharper multi-channel approach mirrors the broader industry shift towards digital-first, collaborative ecosystems where agents and developers work together to deliver value,” Sam Chopra, President & Country Head, eXp Realty India, said.

“The festival season has historically served as a crucial timeframe for the real estate sector, and 2025 is expected to adhere to this trend. Currently observable is a transformation in the methods employed by developers for advertising; although conventional mediums like print, television, and outdoor platforms retain significant importance, there has been a notable transition toward digital-centric campaigns,” B K Malagi, Vice Chairman, Experion Developers, noted.

Why influencers matter more than ever
The reliance on influencers is not accidental. Real estate has always been a category driven by aspiration, trust, and community influence. In today’s fragmented media environment, social creators replicate the word-of-mouth effect at scale. They bring authenticity to otherwise complex buying decisions, especially for younger and first-time investors who prefer to research online before stepping into a sales office.

Moreover, influencers allow brands to regionalise messaging. A Marathi-speaking creator in Pune, a Hindi-speaking lifestyle blogger in Lucknow, or an NRI-focused YouTube channel all provide precision that national campaigns cannot. With festive demand surging, such micro-targeting becomes invaluable. As festive campaigns roll out in full swing, it is clear that influencers are not just shaping perception but actively becoming the bridge between aspiration and action in India’s property market.