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With Odisha’s Jagannath Puri Rath Yatra slated for June 27, brands are eyeing this monumental spiritual gathering as their next major marketing frontier. Set to attract over 15 million pilgrims, this year's Yatra is poised for unprecedented brand engagement.
According to experts, the nine-day event is expected to generate over Rs 50 crore in brand value as brands are all set to move beyond mere billboards and banners, opting instead for purpose-led, public-first activations that embed them into the Yatra experience.
This is also a drastic shift from last year’s brand value which stood approximately at Rs 3-4 crore. The previous year's lower figures were largely due to the absence of a structured, centralised association for brand activations, which limited commercial scale and coordination. According to Rajesh Radhakrishnan, Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer at Vritti Mindwave Media, Rath Yatra this year has demonstrated significant growth, with brands increasing their spend by 30-40% over last year.
“There is a rising realisation among marketers about the yatra's cost-effectiveness in reaching rural and small-town audiences. The emotional connection and high brand recall it generates have led to more innovative activations, blending tradition with modern engagement strategies. This evolution has solidified its position as one of India’s most impactful rural marketing platforms,” Radhakrishnan said.
Meanwhile, the exclusive brand activation and integration rights for this year have been secured by Chaipaani, in collaboration with the Puri District Administration. This new approach will focus on pilgrim-first civic infrastructure, with brands supporting initiatives like hydration kiosks, shaded rest zones, refreshment areas, multilingual helpdesks, and real-time digital information via the Jagannath Dham app. Other vital services include bio-toilets along the beach and a pan-India prasad delivery service.
“We’re consciously moving away from transactional sponsorships toward purposeful participation, where the brand’s role is to serve first,” said Shruti Chaturvedi, Founder of Chaaipani. “What we’re enabling isn’t just marketing—it’s meaningful presence. Brands are showing up not just on hoardings and signages, but with service. Brands are integrating with pilgrim’s real life experiences.”
Brand Participation
An array of brands will be participating this year - ranging from FMCG, digital payments, insurance, logistics, and beverage brands.
Radhakrishnan added that health and wellness brands are leading the charge, followed closely by FMCG and beverage companies. The health category sees immediate relevance given the physical demands of pilgrimage - from hydration needs to medical emergencies. FMCG brands, he said, particularly those in personal care and hygiene, find natural fit with the cleanliness requirements of religious practices. Fintech and insurance are emerging as dark horses, targeting the aspirational rural audience that travels for such events.
According to Sarabjit Singh Puri, Chairman, Fateh Rural Ltd, brands at the Jagannath Puri Rath Yatra will have access to a wide array of branding options. These encompasses stalls in prominent locations, beach branding, hoardings in the mela area, rickshaw branding in the mela area, and pole kiosks. Additionally, inflatable displays, activations around a classical dance troop, cultural programmes with stage backdrops, banners (6x3), and sponsorship opportunities for the cultural night are also offered. While the estimated branding costs will be around 5 lacs to 50 lacs each.
“Jagannath Rath Yatra is a great platform to create connections with millions of rural consumers. To create brand awareness and to catch millions of pilgrims at one given point in time. It is a great platform for brand visibility. With an estimated 15 lakh visitors during Rath Yatra, the crowd composition includes 57 per cent rural population, 33 per cent business professionals, 5 per cent NRIs, and 5 per cent others,” Puri said.
Spiritual gatherings have long been fertile ground for marketers. This year’s Kumbh Mela generated Rs 2,000 crore in brand value, rivaling properties like the IPL in worth, and YouTube India viewers in terms of numbers. With over 450 million visitors, it attracted brands like Coca-Cola, Patanjali, Dabur, Airtel, and ITC.
While the Rath Yatra is smaller in scale, its hyper-focused rural audience and cultural resonance position it to potentially exceed Rs 200 crore in brand value over the coming years, as expected by the Chaipaani group.
The OOH Opportunity
Despite its significance, the Yatra has yet to become a full-fledged goldmine for advertisers and OOH players, especially when compared to the Kumbh Mela, which reportedly attracted an estimated Rs 750 crore in OOH advertising spends. According to Sanjeev Goyle, Chief Executive Officer - OOH & Rural, Rapport (IPG Mediabrands), Rath Yatra could still attract Rs 20–25?crore in rural and pilgrimage-specific OOH.
Radhakrishnan echoed the same figure and shared, “This year, brands are allocating between Rs 20-30 lakh on average, with a balanced 50-50 split between experiential activations (sampling, demos) and traditional branding (hoardings, wraps). Notably, premium sponsorships have seen a 30-40 per cent increase in investment compared to last year.”
He added, “Unlike conventional rural campaigns that target dispersed populations, the Rath Yatra creates a concentrated audience of over 15 million pilgrims in a focused geographic area. This creates what I call a ‘mega-activation ecosystem’ where brands can achieve massive reach with surgical precision. The event's unique positioning allows brands to move beyond mere visibility to experiential integration, making it more valuable than scattered rural OOH campaigns.”
Goyle further explained that formats that are immersive, utilitarian, and contextually relevant outperform conventional static ads will prove to be most effective in pilgrim-heavy zones like Puri. On-ground interventions that serve a purpose while also amplifying brand visibility enhancing the pilgrim experience rather than merely advertising to it.
He also shared examples - branded utilities (offering water, shade, watch tower, changing rooms, mist spray) meet urgent on-ground needs while building deep emotional goodwill, positioning the brand as a caring, culturally aligned presence. Similarly, mobile vans ( backlit Toto vans) are proving highly effective, as they can travel alongside the procession, distribute prasad, devotional items, or cold refreshments, and engage crowds with chants or interactive branding elements.
However, according to Radhakrishnan, the most effective formats are service-integrated activations rather than traditional advertising mediums. Hydration stalls, medical aid stations, and comfort amenities are proving far more impactful than static hoardings. “The key insight is that pilgrims respond better to brands that solve immediate needs rather than interrupt their spiritual journey. Mobile sanitisation units, branded rest areas, and food distribution points create positive brand associations while serving the community. This approach transforms advertising from intrusion to invitation,” he added.
As the Jagannath Puri Rath Yatra evolves from a purely spiritual gathering to a high-impact marketing ecosystem, brands are increasingly recognizing its unique blend of cultural depth, emotional resonance, and rural reach. While it may not yet rival the scale of the Kumbh Mela, the Yatra’s focused footfall and shift toward purpose-driven activations mark a new chapter in faith-based marketing.
Goyle further highlighted the importance of the Yatra and concluded by saying that, “While India has several large-format events like the Kumbh Mela attracting over massive 660 mn pilgrims, the Rath Yatra in Puri stands apart due to its hyper-focused geography, high-density footfall, and deep emotional engagement. The Yatra compresses massive reach into a short, high-intensity timeframe, offering brands unskippable on-ground exposure.”
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