by harsh vardhanthanks to its multiculture multireligion demography india is often referred to as the country of festivals and if theres one thing thats synonymous to festivities its shopping brands have been making the most of indias aspirational nature since forever but ecommerce giants have created festivals of their own flipkarts big billion day which made its debut in 2014 is one of those events that create quite a stir not just in terms of business but also marketing and at a time when the world is still reeling under the stress of the pandemic brands are seeing this as an opportunity to partner with each other and tide over the crisis advt brand strategist ambi parameswaran says ecommerce brands have perfected this formula for their big sale days i think the partnership works for both the retailer and the top brands special products are created for the big billion sale days at special rates one example that springs to mind is vivek co and their new year sale this started in chennai and is now a panindian phenomenon the idea was that enddecember or earlyjanuary is a poor sales period for consumer durables vivek went to all the major brands and asked them to give a super discount also partner in the media spends full page ads in leading dailies sales persons support etc for almost a guaranteed sales volumethe trend caught on in a big waythe large userbase of ecommerce companies and their cashrich marketing exploits help some comparatively smaller brands not just take their products to a larger audience but also help ecommerce majors get better consumer insights that help them push businessflipkarts partnership helps create a winwin for brands this years big billion days is also partnering with artisans from across the country as part of the samarth initiative the new and wider selections are expected to create consumer delight and the partnerships will be instrumental in helping the brands penetrate more markets and reach millions of new customers not only from metros but also from emerging towns across tier 2 3 and 4 says nandita sinha vice president events engagement merchandising at flipkart advt recently zee partnered with other brands such as pepsi mondelez to promote a new set of shows aired on the network with the pandemic throwing most off gear partnerships have emerged as one of the main themes of marketing business this yearas part of the alliance caf coffee day has created a signature beverage the big billion frappe exclusively curated for flipkart customers at value pricing the national cafe chains chief executive vinay a bhopatkar says this partnership is aligned to our idea of collaborations that will deliver value to our customershowever the increased dependency on online existence exposes brands to the risk of permanently damaging offline businessparameswaran adds big brands have a challenge ahead they need to ensure that the big billion sale helps them garner new customers without losing on every sale and