---
title: "Festive Season In-App Campaigns for Fintech Apps: The 2026 Playbook"
description: "Diwali is 8 Nov 2026. A sourced playbook for fintech festive in-app campaigns covering UPI and gold data, RBI and SEBI rules, and scam-safe copy."
publishedAt: "2026-10-17T06:00:00.000Z"
updatedAt: "2026-10-17T06:00:00.000Z"
author: "Ritul Singh"
categories: ["App Engagement"]
canonical: "https://www.digia.tech/post/festive-season-in-app-campaigns-fintech-apps-2026-playbook"
---

# Festive Season In-App Campaigns for Fintech Apps: The 2026 Playbook

**TL;DR**

- Dhanteras falls on Friday 6 November 2026 and Diwali on Sunday 8 November, according to [published festival calendars](https://happyfares.in/blog/?p=12763) that can shift slightly by region. As of 18 October, that leaves 19 days to Dhanteras.
- Festive demand does not lift every money action equally. Digital gold purchases via UPI [jumped 62% month on month in October 2025](https://insights.dataful.in/articles/digital-gold-via-upi-hits-2290-crore-in-october-2025), while SIP inflows [rose about 1%](https://oga-prod.angelone.in/news/mutual-funds/sip-inflows-see-modest-growth-to-rs-29529-crore-in-october-2025). Plan by money action, not by a generic "festive uplift".
- The rules moved since last Diwali. RBI's marketing and sales directions [take effect on 1 January 2027](https://www.business-standard.com/markets/capital-market-news/rbi-issues-comprehensive-instructions-for-regulated-entities-on-advertising-marketing-and-sale-of-financial-products-126061600420_1.html), and SEBI has [warned that digital gold sits outside its purview](https://www.business-standard.com/amp/markets/news/sebi-warns-against-investing-in-digital-gold-says-it-may-contain-risks-125110801211_1.html). A new [UPI merchant fee framework started on 15 October](https://www.scconline.com/blog/post/2026/09/16/npci-released-upi-mdr-faqs-explained/) as well.
- The campaign set that fits fintech is readiness nudges before the rush, payment-failure recovery during it, consented investing and credit offers at the peak, and repayment support afterwards.
- Fake countdown timers are a documented scam tactic. A fintech app that copies them trains users to ignore its own warnings.
- Measure completed money actions and trust guardrails against a holdout group. Baseline UPI value rose 13% from September to October 2025 with no campaign involved.

**Sourcing note:** Every figure below is linked to its source. Digia has no first-party festive campaign results to publish here, so the campaign patterns are recommendations built from public data and regulation, not tested outcomes. Where a source is a vendor report or a secondary summary, the text says so.

## Why the Festive Season Is a Different Problem for Fintech Apps

A retail app wants more orders in festival week. A fintech app wants more completed payments and more funded investments, while keeping every one of those actions trustworthy. That second half changes how a festive campaign should be built.


![why festive is a different problem, and the 2026 festive calendar.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/53loe8pn/production/d9d29a3212eb617b2678f368bd7fb2446bb6a9e0-1600x900.png?w=1200&fit=max&auto=format)


Money apps carry four festive pressures at once. Transaction volume spikes, so a failed payment hurts more. Scam attempts rise, so urgency in a message looks suspicious. Support queues fill, so a confusing message costs more than usual. And regulators have been tightening how financial products can be marketed, so copy that worked at Diwali 2025 may not survive review at Diwali 2026. Digia's earlier work on [why fintech engagement is risky](https://www.digia.tech/post/fintech-engagement-risk-trust-first-playbook) and the [complete guide to fintech app engagement](https://www.digia.tech/post/fintech-app-engagement-core-actions-trust-signals) covers the trust argument in depth. This playbook applies it to a 19-day window.

One note on scope. This article is about in-app campaigns, meaning messages, nudges, banners, tooltips and rewards that render inside the app while the user is already there. Push, SMS and email matter too, but in-app is the channel where a fintech team controls the context and the compliance copy most tightly.

## The 2026 Festive Calendar and What Fintech Users Do in Each Window

Festival dates follow the lunar calendar, so confirm them against your regional panchang before locking creative. The dates below come from one [travel-planning calendar](https://happyfares.in/blog/?p=12763), which itself warns that regional variation is possible.


![why festive is a different problem, and the 2026 festive calendar.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/53loe8pn/production/690811349b9a98c056745676ff06b58c2b93579a-1600x900.png?w=1200&fit=max&auto=format)



| Sun 11 Oct | Navratri begins | Early festive shopping starts | Readiness: KYC, linked instruments, limits |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Tue 20 Oct | Dussehra | Travel bookings, gifting begins | Payment reliability, travel spend support |
| Thu 29 Oct | Karwa Chauth | Gifting, jewellery purchases | Gold and gifting flows |
| Fri 6 Nov | Dhanteras | Gold and silver buying | Investing nudges with disclosures |
| Sun 8 Nov | Diwali (Lakshmi Puja) | Peak payments, gifting, Muhurat trading interest | Payment recovery, rewards, broking nudges |
| Wed 11 Nov | Bhai Dooj | Festive wind-down, statements start to land | Repayment and spend summary |


Two cautions. Durga Puja, Chhath, Onam-style regional peaks and local New Year dates do not line up with this national calendar, so a team with strong regional concentration should map its own user base first. And Muhurat trading is listed for 8 November on [at least one broker site](https://choiceindia.com/muhurat-trading), but that page shows no timings and cites no exchange circular. Wait for the NSE and BSE notice before scheduling any broking nudge.

## What the Festive Numbers Actually Show

Before choosing campaigns, it helps to know which money actions actually move in festival season.


![Month-on-month change in October 2025 vs September 2025 for digital gold via UPI (+62%), UPI daily value (+13%) and SIP inflows (+1%). UPI record numbers. Card spend, September 2025 vs August 2026. In-app vs push click-through rates.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/53loe8pn/production/e37fde865511e01871340ed0c8bcf2a848c5b148-1600x900.png?w=1200&fit=max&auto=format)


### Payments: record highs, and a baseline that moves by itself

UPI processed [24.07 billion transactions worth ₹29.37 lakh crore in September 2026](https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/economy/story/upi-clocks-24-07-bn-transactions-worth-rs29-37-lakh-crore-in-september-as-festive-spending-gathers-pace-558981-2026-10-01). Average daily volume crossed 800 million for the first time, and average daily value hit a record ₹97,913 crore. Volume was 23% higher than a year earlier, and the report attributes the small month-on-month dip mainly to September having 30 days.

Last year's peak shows how sharp the festive curve gets. On 18 October 2025, the eve of Diwali, UPI handled [754 million transactions worth ₹1.02 lakh crore in a single day](https://www.businesstoday.in/amp/personal-finance/news/story/diwali-lights-up-upi-record-rs-102-lakh-crore-transactions-amid-festive-fervour-lower-gst-rates-499190-2025-10-22), both records at the time. October 2025's average daily value of ₹94,000 crore was up 13% on September, a lift that arrived with no help from any single app's campaigns. That detail matters again in the measurement section.

### Gold: a real festive spike, with a regulatory catch

Digital gold purchases via UPI reached [₹2,290 crore in October 2025](https://insights.dataful.in/articles/digital-gold-via-upi-hits-2290-crore-in-october-2025), up 62% from ₹1,410 crore in September. The data comes from NPCI's merchant category classification and covers UPI only, so it understates total gold demand. It still shows Dhanteras behaviour clearly.

### Investing: festive does not mean SIP surge

Monthly SIP inflows were [₹29,529 crore in October 2025, up about 1% from September](https://oga-prod.angelone.in/news/mutual-funds/sip-inflows-see-modest-growth-to-rs-29529-crore-in-october-2025). Active SIP accounts grew from 9.25 crore to 9.45 crore. Festival season is a gold and gifting moment, and a steady-habit product like SIPs does not ride it the same way. A mutual fund app that expects a Diwali spike in recurring investments is planning against the data.

### Cards and credit: spend rises, then cools

Credit card spending hit a record [₹2.17 trillion in September 2025](https://www.business-standard.com/amp/finance/news/festive-season-gst-boost-credit-card-spend-up-15-percent-yoy-125111001577_1.html), with online spend up 25% year on year. The 2026 pre-festive month looks softer. RBI data reported for August 2026 shows card spend [down 2.8% to ₹2.02 trillion, with online spend down 7%](https://www.angelone.in/news/economy/credit-card-spending-declines-by-2-8-to-2-02-trillion-in-august-2026), even as the card base grew to 124 million. A card or lending app can read that as a pre-festive lull, though one month proves nothing about October.


![Month-on-month change in October 2025 vs September 2025 for digital gold via UPI (+62%), UPI daily value (+13%) and SIP inflows (+1%). UPI record numbers. Card spend, September 2025 vs August 2026. In-app vs push click-through rates.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/53loe8pn/production/fc7a09a9f6a87f3d396cee9835bc6c773985ed74-1600x900.png?w=1200&fit=max&auto=format)


### Shopping: the demand behind the payments

Redseer projects festive 2026 online retail GMV of [USD 15 to 16 billion across 180 to 185 million shoppers](https://redseer.com/reports/india-online-retail-2026-the-fastest-year-in-five-and-the-new-engines-behind-it/), growth of about 25%, with quick commerce expected to grow 110 to 120%. Quick commerce means smaller, more frequent baskets, which means more payment events per user. That raises the cost of every payment friction point.

## Why In-App Is the Right Channel for the Festive Rush

Festive inboxes and notification trays are crowded. In-app messages reach users who already opened the app, which is the moment they are about to pay or invest.

The benchmark evidence points the same way, with caveats. CleverTap's fintech benchmark report, [announced in February 2023](https://clevertap.com/news/press-release/clevertaps-fintech-benchmark-report-1-in-5-users-that-install-fintech-apps-sign-up-within-week-one/), found in-app click-through of 24%, against 9% for push on Android and 6% on iOS. That report is three years old and comes from a vendor. Digia's own [India in-app engagement benchmarks](https://www.digia.tech/post/india-in-app-engagement-benchmarks-2026) compile newer figures, but they are also vendor-sourced and the post flags its limits. Treat both as directional.

The stronger argument is context. A bottom sheet that appears when a user opens the payment screen can address a payment problem in that moment. A push notification cannot. That is the logic behind [behaviour-triggered in-app campaigns](https://www.digia.tech/post/behaviour-triggered-in-app-campaigns-complete-guide), and it matters more when volume is highest.

_Disclosure: Digia Engage works alongside CleverTap and MoEngage, among other engagement platforms, and is not affiliated with either._

## The Rules That Changed Since Last Diwali

A festive plan that ignores regulation is a plan that gets pulled by compliance on 5 November. These are the changes that bear on in-app campaigns. None of this is legal advice, so run final copy past your counsel.


| RBI advertising, marketing and sales directions | Issued 16 June 2026, effective 1 January 2027. Bans deceptive marketing and dark patterns, requires explicit consent, and targets bundling and mis-selling incentives at banks and NBFCs | Festive 2026 is the last season before these bind. Build consent logs and clean opt-ins now |
| --- | --- | --- |
| RBI draft sales-practice directions (February 2026) | The draft required granular, provable consent, no pre-ticked boxes, no compulsory bundling, and declining marketing to be as easy as accepting | The final text may differ from the draft, so verify against RBI's notification. Use it as the design direction |
| SEBI warning on digital gold | On 8 November 2025 SEBI said digital and e-gold products operate outside its purview, with no investor protection cover, and pointed to gold ETFs and Electronic Gold Receipts | Dhanteras gold campaigns need accurate, plain disclosure copy and legal review |
| DPDP Rules phase-in | Consent manager provisions start 12 November 2026, and the main notice and consent obligations start 12 May 2027 | Consent screens designed now should meet the 2027 standard, so they do not need a rebuild |
| UPI MDR framework | From 15 October 2026, a 0.4% fee (capped at ₹300) applies to specified merchant payments above ₹2,000, paid by the merchant. Consumer UPI stays free and app providers may not add platform fees | Do not imply a user-side charge. Merchant-facing apps need to explain the change |
| RBI authentication directions | Reported to apply from April 2026 for domestic digital payments | Never design a message that asks for credentials or nudges users to bypass authentication |


Sources for the table above: [RBI advertising, marketing and sales directions](https://www.business-standard.com/markets/capital-market-news/rbi-issues-comprehensive-instructions-for-regulated-entities-on-advertising-marketing-and-sale-of-financial-products-126061600420_1.html), [RBI draft sales-practice directions (February 2026)](https://vinodkothari.com/2026/02/rbis-draft-directions-on-sales-practices/), [SEBI warning on digital gold](https://www.business-standard.com/amp/markets/news/sebi-warns-against-investing-in-digital-gold-says-it-may-contain-risks-125110801211_1.html), [DPDP Rules phase-in](https://www.azbpartners.com/bank/indias-digital-personal-data-protection-act-phased-rollout-and-key-compliance-milestones/), [UPI MDR framework](https://www.scconline.com/blog/post/2026/09/16/npci-released-upi-mdr-faqs-explained/), [RBI authentication directions](https://moneylife.in/article/from-april-2026-all-domestic-digital-payments-will-require-2fa-under-rbis-new-directions/78398.html).

Two honest limits. The RBI marketing directions apply to regulated entities, meaning banks and NBFCs, and a fintech that sits on top of a regulated partner is likely to feel the requirements through its partner agreements. That second part is an inference, so confirm it with your partner. And the details of the final RBI text beyond the 1 January 2027 date, the ban on dark patterns and the consent requirement were not available to us in full, which is why the draft is flagged as a draft.

## Eight Festive In-App Campaigns for Fintech Apps

Each pattern below states the trigger, the placement and the guardrail. They are recommendations, not measured results, and they reuse formats described in Digia's guide to [in-app experiences for fintech and BFSI apps](https://www.digia.tech/post/in-app-experiences-fintech-bfsi-apps-india) and its [eight activation patterns](https://www.digia.tech/post/indian-fintech-apps-user-activation-8-in-app-patterns).

### 1. The readiness nudge (now to Dhanteras)

Festive payment volume is the worst time to discover that a user's KYC is incomplete or their linked instrument has expired. Trigger a bottom sheet or an inline home-screen card for users with pending KYC or no linked payment instrument. Keep the copy about the user's own account state. Success is KYC completion and instrument-link rate. Suppress for users already in a flow and for anyone who dismissed the card twice.

### 2. Payment-failure and pending-status recovery (peak days)

This is the highest-value festive campaign, and it is invisible when it works. On a failed or pending payment screen, show an inline status message that says what happened and what happens next. Only promise a reversal timeline that your payment partner actually guarantees. The moment after a failed payment is when users decide whether to trust the app again, a point Digia's fintech guide calls the resolution moment. Success is retry completion and support contact rate.

### 3. Dhanteras gold and investing nudges

Gold is the one festive money action with a proven spike. It is also the one where SEBI has flagged risk. Target users with prior gold interest or purchase history instead of the whole base. Name the provider and the product structure in plain language. Do not use words like "safe" for a product that is not insured or regulated that way. If your gold product is a regulated instrument such as a gold ETF, say so, because that distinction is now part of the buyer's decision.

### 4. Festive rewards and scratch cards

Festive rewards work, and they are easy to get wrong. Digia has written about [how a scratch card can run on slot-machine psychology](https://www.digia.tech/post/paytm-scratch-card-reward-psychology) and about [pairing gamification tools in fintech](https://www.digia.tech/post/best-in-app-gamification-tools-fintech-apps-india-2026). The festive rule is simple: reward the money action you want repeated, such as completing KYC or paying a bill on time, and avoid rewards that push users toward riskier trading. Publish the real odds or reward range where users can see them.

### 5. Credit and EMI offers with consent

Festive spend is when credit offers perform, and it is also when mis-selling risk peaks. Show an EMI or credit offer at the point of purchase and not as an unprompted banner. Use one opt-in per product, no pre-ticked boxes, and make declining as easy as accepting. Log when and how consent was given, because the RBI direction of travel treats the ability to prove consent as part of compliance. Show the total cost, not only the monthly figure.

### 6. Gifting and shagun flows

Sending money as a festive gift is a peer-to-peer action, and UPI remains [free for individuals](https://www.scconline.com/blog/post/2026/09/16/npci-released-upi-mdr-faqs-explained/). A short in-app prompt with an occasion-specific greeting can lift usage of the send flow. Tell users which limit they are likely to hit before they hit it, using the real limits of your app and bank partners.

### 7. Muhurat trading nudges (broking apps only)

If the exchanges confirm a Diwali session, a short tooltip near the order button or a bottom sheet with the confirmed timings is useful. Keep it informational. Digia's fintech guide cites [SEBI's finding that 90.9% of individual equity F&O traders lost money in FY25](https://www.digia.tech/post/fintech-app-engagement-core-actions-trust-signals), which is a reason to avoid celebratory or urgency-driven copy around trading.

### 8. Post-festive repayment and bill-shock support

The festive campaign set should not end on Diwali night. After Bhai Dooj, statements land and spend cools. Reported [credit card spend has fallen sharply in November after a festive October](https://www.business-standard.com/industry/banking/credit-card-spends-fall-sharply-in-november-after-festive-october-high-124122400925_1.html) in earlier years, and that is the point at which users look for repayment help. Offer due-date reminders and a spend summary, and offer EMI conversion only with consent. This is also the cheapest place to build trust, because it helps the user at a moment when most apps have gone quiet.

## Festive Scams and Why Urgency Is Dangerous

Every festive season brings a wave of fraud that borrows the language of offers. Quick Heal's [October 2025 advisory](https://www.quickheal.co.in/documents/media/2025/ai-powered-cyber-scams-surge-this-diwali-et-ciso.pdf) described the patterns: counterfeit travel and booking portals, fake e-commerce sites with "lightning deals", fraudulent UPI payment requests around event ticketing, QR codes that redirect to credential-harvesting pages, and AI-written phishing that references a victim's own shopping habits. It also noted that fraudsters use fake countdowns and account-suspension threats to push users to click without checking.

That last point should change how a fintech app writes festive copy. A ticking countdown inside your app imitates a scam tactic, and your own users may have just been warned about it. Four rules follow:

- Never ask for an OTP or PIN in any in-app message, and say so in a small standing line on payment screens.
- State a real end date in plain text and skip the animated timer.
- Add a visible warning before a user approves a UPI collect request from an unknown payee.
- Keep festive offers inside authenticated surfaces so users can tell them apart from links in messages.

The same instinct applies to tone. Digia's [guide on designing non-annoying nudges](https://www.digia.tech/post/designing-non-annoying-nudges-frequency-placement-context) argues that frequency and context decide whether a nudge feels helpful, and in fintech that judgement is also a trust judgement.

## Frequency, Suppression and the Crowded Festive Inbox

Every team in the app wants a festive slot. If marketing, lending, investing and payments each fire their own banner, the user sees four competing messages on one home screen. Set the order before the sprint and not during it.

A workable priority order puts payment recovery and security warnings first and promotional offers last. Cap festive promotions at one per session. Build a suppression list that excludes users mid-payment, mid-KYC, with an open support ticket, with marketing consent withdrawn or flagged for risk review. Digia's piece on [when not to show a nudge](https://www.digia.tech/post/when-not-to-show-a-nudge-building-suppression-logic) walks through the logic.

If your campaigns run through MoEngage, remember that [delivery controls](https://www.moengage.com/docs/user-guide/campaigns-and-channels/in-app-message/analyze/campaign-delivery-mechanism-for-in-app-messages) such as a global minimum delay and a daily frequency cap per device exist for exactly this reason. Use them as the enforcement layer for your priority order.

## Running the Sprint When Releases Are Frozen

Many teams freeze app releases in the weeks around the biggest festival, because the cost of a bad release at peak load is high. That freeze collides with the festive plan, since campaigns need changes at short notice. The fix is to keep campaign content outside the release cycle.


![Month-on-month change in October 2025 vs September 2025 for digital gold via UPI (+62%), UPI daily value (+13%) and SIP inflows (+1%). UPI record numbers. Card spend, September 2025 vs August 2026. In-app vs push click-through rates.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/53loe8pn/production/c95a7cbd95e8b38331b2e5b6af520fc9808f9d3b-1600x900.png?w=1200&fit=max&auto=format)


Digia Engage renders in-app experiences natively from campaigns defined in a dashboard, and Digia's docs describe [campaigns being pre-fetched when the SDK initialises](https://docs.digia.tech/digia-engage/developer-guides/integrations/moengage.md), so display does not wait on a network call at the moment of render. That helps when festive networks are congested. It also means copy and targeting can change without shipping a build, which Digia covers in its piece on [git-style continuous deployment for low-code](https://www.digia.tech/post/git-continuous-deployment-low-code). Before the freeze begins, test each campaign on a real device with [Live Testing](https://docs.digia.tech/digia-engage/user-guides/live-testing.md), and read [how to launch a campaign in under 24 hours](https://www.digia.tech/post/how-to-launch-in-app-campaign-under-24-hours-checklist) for the checklist version.

One practical trap deserves attention. If your triggering system syncs on an interval, a pause is not instant. In MoEngage, for example, campaigns sync to the device on a 15-minute interval counted between app opens, as covered in the [Digia and MoEngage integration article](https://www.digia.tech/post/digia-moengage-how-integration-works). Plan your kill-switch with that delay in mind, and keep a server-side switch for anything that must stop immediately.

## Measuring a Festive Campaign Without Fooling Yourself

Festival week inflates everything, so a campaign can look successful while doing nothing. UPI average daily value rose 13% from September to October 2025 on its own, and any app that compared October to September would have credited campaigns for that lift.

Use a holdout group that sees no festive messages and compare against it. Report outcome metrics that count completed money actions, such as completed payments and verified KYC, and not impressions or clicks. Add guardrails that catch harm: payment failure rate, support contacts, marketing opt-outs, complaint volume and uninstall rate. Digia's [guide to fintech engagement metrics](https://www.digia.tech/post/fintech-engagement-metrics-core-actions-trust-signals) lays out the four-layer dashboard, and the same guide explains why instrumenting states beats instrumenting screens.

If a festive campaign raises clicks and also raises complaints, it did not work.

## Topics Not in the Brief That Fintech Teams Should Include

**Regional calendars and language.** The national festival dates above hide a patchwork of regional peaks. A team with heavy concentration in West Bengal or the South should build its calendar from its own user geography and test copy in the user's own language.

**The compliance cliff on 1 January 2027.** Because the RBI marketing directions bind from that date, the consent patterns you ship this festive season become the pattern your team has to keep or retrofit. Designing them to the stricter standard now costs less than rebuilding them in December.

**DPDP consent design.** The main DPDP notice and consent obligations arrive on [12 May 2027](https://www.azbpartners.com/bank/indias-digital-personal-data-protection-act-phased-rollout-and-key-compliance-milestones/). A festive campaign that collects new data permissions today should already use clear, purpose-specific consent.

**Support alignment.** If an in-app message promises a reversal timeline or a reward credit, the support team must say the same thing. Brief them on every festive campaign before it goes live.

**Low-end devices and congested networks.** Heavy festive creative, such as large animations or video, performs worst on the devices and connections that carry the most new users. Digia's [guide to in-app videos and stories](https://www.digia.tech/post/in-app-videos-stories-sequences-without-app-release) covers file size and preloading.

**Merchant-side confusion.** The new UPI MDR applies to merchants and not to consumers. If you run a merchant app, send an explanation of what changed before your merchants hear a rumour.

## Pre-Launch Checklist for Festive Fintech Campaigns

1. Dates confirmed against the regional panchang for your largest user regions.
2. A priority order written down for recovery, security, readiness and promotional messages.
3. A suppression list built and tested.
4. A cap of one festive promotion per session enforced in the campaign tool.
5. Every financial claim checked by compliance, including gold and credit copy.
6. Consent captured per product and logged, with decline as easy as accept.
7. No countdown timers and no request for credentials in any message.
8. Failed and pending payment screens tested with the festive campaign layer active.
9. Every campaign tested on a low-end device and a throttled network.
10. A holdout group defined before launch.
11. Guardrail metrics wired into a live dashboard with named owners.
12. A kill-switch tested, including its propagation delay.
13. Support briefed on every message and every promise.
14. A post-festive repayment and summary campaign ready for 11 November.

## Key Takeaways

- Dhanteras is on 6 November and Diwali on 8 November, so the planning window is short.
- Digital gold spikes at Dhanteras and SIP inflows barely move. Match campaigns to the money action.
- Payment recovery is the highest-value festive campaign and the least glamorous.
- The RBI marketing directions take effect on 1 January 2027, and festive 2026 is the right time to build to them.
- SEBI has said digital gold sits outside its purview, so gold copy needs careful disclosure.
- Countdown timers imitate scam tactics, so state real end dates in plain text.
- A holdout group is the only honest way to measure a festive lift.
- Plan the post-festive repayment campaign now, because that is where trust is cheapest to build.

## Further Reading

**From Digia**

- [The Complete Guide to Fintech App Engagement (2026)](https://www.digia.tech/post/fintech-app-engagement-core-actions-trust-signals)
- [Why Fintech App Engagement Is Risky](https://www.digia.tech/post/fintech-engagement-risk-trust-first-playbook)
- [In-App Experiences for Fintech and BFSI Apps in India](https://www.digia.tech/post/in-app-experiences-fintech-bfsi-apps-india)
- [How Indian Fintech Apps Drive User Activation: 8 In-App Patterns](https://www.digia.tech/post/indian-fintech-apps-user-activation-8-in-app-patterns)
- [Fintech App Engagement Metrics](https://www.digia.tech/post/fintech-engagement-metrics-core-actions-trust-signals)
- [India In-App Engagement Benchmarks 2026](https://www.digia.tech/post/india-in-app-engagement-benchmarks-2026)
- [When NOT to Show a Nudge](https://www.digia.tech/post/when-not-to-show-a-nudge-building-suppression-logic)
- [Designing Non-Annoying Nudges](https://www.digia.tech/post/designing-non-annoying-nudges-frequency-placement-context)
- [Behaviour-Triggered In-App Campaigns](https://www.digia.tech/post/behaviour-triggered-in-app-campaigns-complete-guide)
- [Launch an In-App Campaign in Under 24 Hours](https://www.digia.tech/post/how-to-launch-in-app-campaign-under-24-hours-checklist)
- [Paytm's Scratch Card Runs on the Same Psychology as a Slot Machine](https://www.digia.tech/post/paytm-scratch-card-reward-psychology)
- [Digia + MoEngage: How the Integration Actually Works](https://www.digia.tech/post/digia-moengage-how-integration-works)

**External sources**

- [UPI September 2026 data, Business Today](https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/economy/story/upi-clocks-24-07-bn-transactions-worth-rs29-37-lakh-crore-in-september-as-festive-spending-gathers-pace-558981-2026-10-01)
- [Diwali 2025 UPI records, Business Today (22 Oct 2025)](https://www.businesstoday.in/amp/personal-finance/news/story/diwali-lights-up-upi-record-rs-102-lakh-crore-transactions-amid-festive-fervour-lower-gst-rates-499190-2025-10-22)
- [Digital gold via UPI, October 2025, Dataful (NPCI data)](https://insights.dataful.in/articles/digital-gold-via-upi-hits-2290-crore-in-october-2025)
- [SIP inflows October 2025, Angel One (AMFI data)](https://oga-prod.angelone.in/news/mutual-funds/sip-inflows-see-modest-growth-to-rs-29529-crore-in-october-2025)
- [Credit card spends September 2025, Business Standard (RBI data)](https://www.business-standard.com/amp/finance/news/festive-season-gst-boost-credit-card-spend-up-15-percent-yoy-125111001577_1.html)
- [Credit card spending August 2026, Angel One (RBI data)](https://www.angelone.in/news/economy/credit-card-spending-declines-by-2-8-to-2-02-trillion-in-august-2026)
- [India Online Retail 2026 outlook, Redseer](https://redseer.com/reports/india-online-retail-2026-the-fastest-year-in-five-and-the-new-engines-behind-it/)
- [CleverTap Fintech Benchmark Report press release (27 Feb 2023)](https://clevertap.com/news/press-release/clevertaps-fintech-benchmark-report-1-in-5-users-that-install-fintech-apps-sign-up-within-week-one/)
- [RBI advertising, marketing and sales directions, Business Standard (16 Jun 2026)](https://www.business-standard.com/markets/capital-market-news/rbi-issues-comprehensive-instructions-for-regulated-entities-on-advertising-marketing-and-sale-of-financial-products-126061600420_1.html)
- [RBI draft sales-practice directions, Vinod Kothari (Feb 2026)](https://vinodkothari.com/2026/02/rbis-draft-directions-on-sales-practices/)
- [SEBI warning on digital gold, Business Standard (8 Nov 2025)](https://www.business-standard.com/amp/markets/news/sebi-warns-against-investing-in-digital-gold-says-it-may-contain-risks-125110801211_1.html)
- [DPDP Rules phased rollout, AZB & Partners (14 Nov 2025)](https://www.azbpartners.com/bank/indias-digital-personal-data-protection-act-phased-rollout-and-key-compliance-milestones/)
- [UPI MDR framework explained, SCC Online (16 Sep 2026)](https://www.scconline.com/blog/post/2026/09/16/npci-released-upi-mdr-faqs-explained/)
- [RBI digital payment authentication directions, Moneylife](https://moneylife.in/article/from-april-2026-all-domestic-digital-payments-will-require-2fa-under-rbis-new-directions/78398.html)
- [Festive cyber scams advisory, Quick Heal (7 Oct 2025)](https://www.quickheal.co.in/documents/media/2025/ai-powered-cyber-scams-surge-this-diwali-et-ciso.pdf)
- [Credit card spends fall sharply in November after festive October, Business Standard (Dec 2024)](https://www.business-standard.com/industry/banking/credit-card-spends-fall-sharply-in-november-after-festive-october-high-124122400925_1.html)
- [2026 festival dates, HappyFares](https://happyfares.in/blog/?p=12763)
- [Muhurat trading listing, Choice India](https://choiceindia.com/muhurat-trading)
- [MoEngage campaign delivery mechanism](https://www.moengage.com/docs/user-guide/campaigns-and-channels/in-app-message/analyze/campaign-delivery-mechanism-for-in-app-messages)
- [Digia Engage MoEngage developer guide](https://docs.digia.tech/digia-engage/developer-guides/integrations/moengage.md)
- [Digia Live Testing guide](https://docs.digia.tech/digia-engage/user-guides/live-testing.md)

_Want to run festive fintech campaigns without waiting on a release? [Book a demo](https://www.digia.tech/book-a-demo) and the Digia team will show how Digia Engage works alongside your existing engagement platform in a regulated app._