Maitri takes Onam advertising from mass entertainment to cultural storytelling

KOCHI: This Onam, Maitri Advertising Works is making a feast of ideas, serving up everything from mass-market entertainment and cinema to heritage, literature, AI and live experiences.

As the agency enters its 30th year, Maitri has assembled a team of around 125 people across Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, the Maldives and Seychelles. Its expanded creative and production capabilities have been particularly busy this festive season, producing more than 70 television commercials alongside print, outdoor, digital and social media campaigns.

The agency’s Onam portfolio covers brands including MYG, Mathrubhumi, Kerala Tourism, Asianet, Amul, Brahmins Foods, AVT Premium Tea, Mathrubhumi Books, Kerala Vision and Kalyan Silks.

The work also brings together a broad cast of Malayalam cinema talent, including Mohanlal, Manju Warrier, Tovino Thomas, Lal Jr, Sreenath Bhasi, Kunjan, Dhruvan, Surjith, Jibin Gopibath, Thirumalai and John Kaippally.

Maitri’s approach has been to treat Onam less as a single advertising theme and more as a creative playground, allowing each brand to find its own connection with the festival.

“We wanted to embrace the scale of Onam rather than limit ourselves to the typical advertising language of the season. The ambition was to own the season creatively, across categories, formats and audiences,” said Maitri Advertising Works managing director Raju Menon.

Maitri Advertising Works chief ideation director Venugopal R Nair said the festival offers unusual creative range, allowing the agency to move between entertainment-led campaigns and stories around books, heritage and Kerala’s future.

For MYG, Maitri set out to make the brand’s mass positioning feel genuinely large-scale.

Instead of following a conventional commercial format, the agency approached the Onam film like a larger-than-life Malayalam masala movie, using crowds, colour, music, dance and high-energy sequences.

The result positions MYG’s festive communication as entertainment in its own right, rather than simply another seasonal advertisement.

With Mathrubhumi, Maitri took a different route, moving away from the familiar Pulikali and Pookalam imagery associated with Onam.

The campaign, Manasil Ennum Maveli, asks what Kerala has built from the values traditionally associated with the idealised Maveli era.

It features Padma Shri awardees Meenakshi Amma, Kolakil Devaki Amma and Lakshmikutty, alongside technology innovators Devan and Devika Chandrashekhar. The campaign connects Kerala’s cultural heritage with the people shaping its present and future.

Maitri also created Manathoru Maveli for Mathrubhumi, aimed at helping younger audiences understand the story and meaning of Onam beyond its familiar visual symbols.

“When you look at the work together, what stands out is how differently each brand has interpreted Onam. There is no single visual or cultural shorthand holding the work together. Each brand has found its own entry point into the season,” said Maitri Advertising Works CEO Jayakumar N.

For Asianet, films are among the biggest draws of the Onam entertainment calendar. Maitri tapped into that association with OG Onam, built around the idea of a cinematic multiverse.

The campaign brings together characters and worlds from major festive releases, using pop-culture references and the energy of Onam entertainment to create a crossover that moves beyond conventional festive advertising.

Mathrubhumi Books takes a quieter route with Aaghoshaaravam. Vaayanaavesham, positioning Onam as a season for reading as well as celebration.

Following the publication of actor Indrans’ autobiography, Maitri created an Onam film featuring the actor, supported by an AI-assisted digital song and social media content.

The campaign has also moved offline, with Mathrubhumi Book Stalls adopting an Onam-themed visual identity to bring the idea into the spaces where consumers discover and buy books.

For Kerala Vision, Maitri combined an Onam offer campaign with a three-part brand campaign designed to reinforce the company’s broader proposition.

The approach gives the brand a dual festive presence, combining immediate promotional communication with longer-term brand building.

AVT Premium Tea provided another opportunity for Maitri to experiment with technology.

Nostalgia: The AI Edition turned a story initially conceived as a live-action film into an AI-led production created with a Dubai-based visual artist.

Despite the new technology, the emotional centre remained familiar: family, conversation and the warmth associated with sharing tea at home.

The campaign then moved from screen to street, with AVT Premium Tea joining the Athachamayam festivities in Thrippunithura through Pulikali stilt walkers.

Maitri has also been expanding its use of AI across films, music, digital content and visual development as it builds its in-house production capabilities.

Brahmins Foods gave Maitri an opportunity to put music at the heart of its Onam strategy.

Brahmins Sambar Hits is an AI-composed musical property featuring four original songs released across major music platforms, each accompanied by a lyric video.

The campaign then opened the creative process to consumers, inviting them to submit lyrics. The contributions were turned into a fifth community-created song, making the audience part of the campaign’s finale.

For the Uralakk Upperi Offer, Maitri turned a simple sales promotion into an entertainment-led idea. Consumers buying two 100g packs of Brahmins Sambar Powder received Rs 50 worth of Kerala salted banana chips.

Actor Krishna Shankar returned as Sambar Samba from the earlier Brahmins Sambar campaign, with an Onam Sadhya providing the setting for the connection between urula, sambar and upperi.

For Amul, Maitri explored CGI and digital-first storytelling through Onam Thookkan and a series of digital reels.

The work adds another layer to an Onam portfolio that spans traditional film-making, digital content and emerging production technologies.

Kalyan Silks, meanwhile, sits at the intersection of Onam, retail and fashion.

As the textile retailer expands its showroom network and strengthens its retail presence, Maitri has worked across communication and creative formats to position the brand within Kerala’s festive shopping and dressing traditions.

Maitri’s Onam work is not confined to advertising. Its events team is also handling public celebrations and brand experiences across different scales.

For Kerala Tourism, Ini Ennum Pookkalam is set to return following the success of last year’s annual Onam event, taking the festival into the public sphere once again.

“Events bring a different kind of energy to the season because the work has to come alive in real spaces and in real time,” said Maitri Advertising Works vice-president and branch head Paul Antony. “This Onam, our events team has been working across celebrations of different scales, making sure each experience feels relevant to the brand while still feeling unmistakably Onam.”

Maitri’s Onam portfolio comes as the agency marks three decades in the business. Its current offering stretches well beyond traditional advertising, encompassing in-house production, AI-led content, entertainment properties, digital experiences and large-scale events.

The common thread is Onam, but the treatment keeps changing. From mass entertainment and cinema to literature, heritage, technology, retail and live experiences, Maitri is using the festival to demonstrate how many different stories can fit around one cultural table.

For an agency turning 30, that may be the most telling part of its Onam play: the season looks familiar, but the ideas do not.