OnePlus India Uses Diwali to Close the Generation Gap
The brand's third #MakeItSpecial film pairs Gen Z creators, Smriti Mandhana and an elderly couple to make tradition feel like participation.
OnePlus India has rolled out the third edition of its festive campaign #MakeItSpecial. This year, the brief is not about a new phone feature but about a social gap: younger and older family members now celebrate Diwali differently.
What the film actually does
The campaign film starts with an elderly couple observing Diwali the familiar way — diyas lit, home decorated, sweets laid out. After their guests leave, a video call from their grandchildren, played by Vishnu Kaushal and Govind Kaushal, brings a digital-native celebration into the room: dance challenges, games and music.
India women’s cricket vice-captain Smriti Mandhana then joins the grandparents, introducing them to a Diwali dance challenge shot on the OnePlus 15 and led by choreographer Nicole Concessao. Music plays on the OnePlus Pad 4, while diyas, kaju katlis and rangoli stay in the frame. The devices are not presented as replacements for tradition.
The psychology: participation over persuasion
Ishita Grover, director of marketing at OnePlus India, frames the idea as bringing generations together “not by asking one to become the other, but by helping each discover how the other celebrates.” That is a sharp positioning move: the product becomes a shared instrument, not a symbol of change.
For brand builders, this solves a classic tech-marketing problem. How do you sell the new without making the old feel wrong? The answer here is to keep both behaviours valid and give the device one visible job inside the ritual.
What marketers can borrow
- Identify the existing ritual your brand can enter instead of inventing a new one.
- Pick a tension that is already true for consumers, such as digital versus traditional celebration.
- Cast people who embody each side rather than asking one side to switch.
- Give the product a single clear job in the ritual — shoot the dance, play the music.
- Extend the film into a real community, as OnePlus did with Marzi for the 50-plus audience.
The campaign film will run on YouTube, Instagram and X during the festive season.
Source: ETBrandEquity.com
