We’ve entered the season where every brand is rushing to finalize their festive campaigns or at least campaign briefs.
The creatives are in motion. Budgets are being discussed. Offer structures are being debated.
But here’s what almost no one is doing:
Getting their creative brief or campaign designs Critiqued and tested before it goes into execution.
That’s a huge miss because even one weak line in your brief can cost you lakhs in wasted media spend due to high competition.
And if you’re a marketer in fashion, food, or D2C retail, you know what I am talking about.
Instead of “hoping” the creative team interprets the brief correctly or the campaigns would work, let’s run the brief through AI first. Then run the campaign idea through AI once before finalising it, to check if anything is missing.
Think of AI as your first-level brand strategist & critique, one that gives you honest feedback in seconds.
I am sure most of you would be using AI to create briefs and brainstorm ideas, but here is an advanced way of doing that.
In this newsletter, I’ll show you exactly how to use AI to:
- Generate festive hook directions based on your hero product (with a better and tested prompt)
- Review your final campaign brief and point out what’s missing
- Improve conversion focus before you even enter the final design phase
Part 1: Don’t Write Another “Festive Sale Is Live” Ad
Before you write another line that says “Flat 40% Off – Festive Offer Inside,” pause.
That line has been done to death.
And your customer would have already scrolled past 20 like it in one day.
This year, instead of running generic urgency-based ads, use AI to help you find your unique creative angle, one that’s rooted in your product, audience, and brand story.
Here’s how to do it:
Step 1: Pick your hero product:
Choose one specific product or bundle that you’ll highlight this festive season.
Example: “Premium Velvet Cushion Covers with Gold Foil” — for a home décor brand.
Step 2: Paste this prompt into AI:
Act as a D2C copywriter with experience in festive campaigns for Indian audiences.
I’m running Meta ads for a premium home decor brand. The product is ‘velvet cushion covers with gold foil accents’.
I want 5 festive ad hook directions for this product under these themes:
- Emotional (e.g. nostalgia, family, memories)
- Cultural (e.g. Diwali, gifting, rituals)
- Aesthetic (e.g. home transformation, festive decor)
- Functional (e.g. quality, durability, easy care)
- Identity (e.g. aspirational, luxurious, statement-making)
For each theme, write:
- 1 hook line under 10 words
- 1 supporting subtext under 15 words
- Suggested visual concept
Step 3: Use the outputs to finalise your creative direction
AI will give you a range of hook styles. You’ll likely find 2-3 themes that stand out.
If you don’t as it to generate 5 more as you didn’t like the ones it created the first time.
From my personal experience, it usually delivers better ideas in the second run.
Bonus Tips:
Want even faster outputs? Feed in 3 product titles and let AI generate angles across categories. This works especially well if you’re managing multiple SKUs in a festive collection.
Once you pick 2-3 ideas, tell AI that you like them and ask it, “Give me the reasons why they won’t work”. This prompt can also include – “from the Indian customer’s point of view” or “from head of marketing department’s POV”, etc.
Part 2: Use AI to Review Your Brief : Before It Goes to Creative
Most marketers treat their campaign brief as the final word.
But it should actually be a living draft, especially in high-stakes, high-noise periods like Diwali.
Here’s what I do now: before sending a campaign brief to the team, I use AI to critique it like a strategist.
And it works. Every single time, I spot something I missed — either unclear messaging, a forgotten insight, or a weak value prop.
Let’s walk through exactly how to do this.
Step 4: Paste your full brief into AI using this prompt:
Act as a senior brand strategist for D2C campaigns in the Indian market. I’m sharing a draft creative brief below for our upcoming festive campaign.
The product is: [Insert product name].
The brief is:
[Paste your actual creative brief here]
Review this brief critically. Point out:
1. Whether the value proposition is clear and differentiated
2. If the emotional/cultural hooks are strong enough for the festive season
3. Any missing inputs needed by a performance creative team (like audience insights, offer structure, visual direction, etc.)
4. Suggest 2 improvements to make this brief more conversion-focused and festive-relevant
5. Tell me why this brief won’t work (this year/ season)
What this does:
This one prompt turns AI into a campaign consultant that helps you brainstorm:
- Spot unclear or generic messaging
- Identify whether your festive hook actually resonates
- Catch missing elements like CTA, visual ideas, or offer logic
- Suggest stronger framing, even if the core idea is solid
It’s like having a second set of eyes, with zero delay, zero politics, and sharp memory.
Why This Matters Now
By mid-September, your customer has seen hundreds of ads.
They don’t remember pretty ones. They remember relevant ones.
If your messaging isn’t emotionally resonant, culturally anchored, and visually simple, it will disappear in the scroll.
And your brief is what decides whether your creative will hit or miss.
What You Should Do This Week
- Pick one product and run the prompt above to generate hook themes.
- Paste your brief (or campaign ideas) into AI using the review prompt and edit ruthlessly.
- Pick 2–3 ad hooks with different emotional frames, not just discounts.
- Give your team a brief that’s already been critiqued and tested for clarity, relevance, and conversion.
Final Words
You don’t need 100 creative variations this Diwali.
You need 2-3 that actually resonate.
And if you’re still guessing what your audience wants to hear, AI can be your sharpest tool, if you use it right.
Contact me if you want help structuring your festive campaign messaging using AI, before the spend kicks in.