On Ground Activation Case Study: How Citykart Drew 1,000+ Footfall in Lucknow During Raksha Bandhan

Festive weeks reward brands that give people something to do. For Citykart, CupShup turned Raksha Bandhan into a seven-day on ground activation at 1090 Chauraha, Lucknow, built around a larger-than-life Rakhi that people could photograph, a wall for wishes to their sisters, and discount vouchers for the store. The activation drew 1,000+ footfall and 5+ local media features.

Citykart is an apparel brand with a strong presence across Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, offering fashion and lifestyle products to a wide consumer base. For Raksha Bandhan, the brief was to build brand visibility in Lucknow, encourage people to interact with the brand, and drive potential footfall towards the store.

CupShup designed a seven-day, on-ground brand activation at 1090 Chauraha, Lucknow, running from 22 to 28 August. A 5 ft × 8 ft larger-than-life Rakhi was the visual anchor and the photo opportunity, visitors wrote wishes for their sisters, and discount vouchers connected the activation to the Citykart store.

Treated as an on ground activation, it is a simple chain: attract people, let them take part, reward them, then point them to the store. Over seven days the activation drew 1,000+ footfall and 5+ local media features.

Festive weeks are among the busiest and noisiest weeks in retail. For an apparel brand in a city like Lucknow, three things make them hard to win:

1. Everyone is competing for the same attention. Streets, markets and screens are full of festive offers, and a brand needs a reason to be noticed beyond a discount.
2. Visibility alone does not bring people to a store. A banner can be seen by thousands and still not move anyone towards the shop. People need something to do and a reason to walk in.
3. The festival is the moment, not the product. During Raksha Bandhan people are thinking about their siblings, not about apparel. A brand that joins that conversation earns attention that a product message does not.

The brief was clear: build visibility, create interaction and open a path to the store.

If the festival is what people care about, the activation should be about the festival. CupShup built the idea on three decisions.

1. Make the festival impossible to miss. A 5 ft × 8 ft larger-than-life Rakhi gave the activation a strong visual impact and pulled people towards the area.
2. Give visitors something to do. The Rakhi doubled as a photo opportunity, and a wish wall invited people to write wishes for their sisters.
3. Reward and redirect. Discount vouchers gave visitors an incentive to visit the Citykart store and redeem them.

This is festive brand activation built on participation, not on a sales message. People came for the Rakhi and the photo, and left with a reason to visit the store.

The setup brought six elements together in one compact space:

The photos also show a spin wheel stand beside the Rakhi, labelled "Zara Ghumaiye, Apna Luck Azmaiye", with free shopping voucher values on the wheel. It added a playful reason to stop, on top of the photo and the wish wall.

The result was a setup that looked good from a distance and invited action up close: a bright, lit installation to attract attention, and simple activities to keep people there.

The Rakhi is the kind of installation that appears in ambient advertising examples: a large, lit object in everyday surroundings that people stop for.

The activation saw strong participation across the seven days, with 1,000+ footfall at the site. Three activities did most of the work.

Photo opportunity. The 5 ft × 8 ft Rakhi created a natural photo spot. People came forward to click pictures with the installation, and it became one of the most interactive elements of the activation.

Raksha Bandhan wishes. Visitors were encouraged to write wishes for their sisters. It added a personal element to the activation and gave people a reason to take part, not just look.

Crowd engagement. The activation attracted a steady crowd, with people stopping to explore the setup, click pictures, write wishes and interact with the brand.

The activation also earned 5+ local media features. That extended the reach of the Raksha Bandhan campaign beyond the physical space and added an extra layer of awareness for Citykart in Lucknow.

The gratification element closed the loop. Discount vouchers were distributed to visitors, giving them an incentive to visit the Citykart store and redeem the discount. That created a direct connection between the activation and potential store visits, and it gave people one more reason to engage.

Seven days of on ground activation at one location, built around one festival idea, brought together festive relevance, high-visibility branding, consumer interaction, media visibility and store-led gratification.

Key Outcomes:

• 1,000+ footfall: The activation created a strong on-ground presence for Citykart during the Raksha Bandhan period.
• 5+ local media features: Coverage extended visibility beyond the activation space.
• Multiple touchpoints: Visitors could photograph, write, play and collect a voucher, so there were several ways to interact with the brand.
• A link to the store: Vouchers gave visitors a reason to visit Citykart and redeem the discount.

The Citykart activation offers three lessons for any retail brand planning a festive push.

1. Make the festival the attraction Give people something that belongs to the occasion and that they want to be near. A large, well-lit installation does the work that a banner cannot.

2. Give visitors a role A photo and a handwritten wish turn passers-by into participants. People remember what they did more than what they saw.

3. Close the loop to the store A voucher turns attention into a reason to visit. Without it, even a busy activation ends at the street.

A well-run on ground activation connects the street to the shop. It does so through the occasion rather than around it, and it gives you a clear way to see who showed up. That is the standard to hold any brand activation agency India brands trust to.

If you are planning retail or festive activations with a brand activation agency India brands trust, these CupShup case studies show related thinking:

• Kumari's Jewellery, a retail brand activation.
• Bata India, a hyperlocal retail activation.
• Vi-John, a Tier 3 brand activation.
• Deconstruct, a mall activation in Bangalore.
• Swish, an on-ground campaign built to convert.

For more on how we work, read our guides to BTL activities, ambient advertising examples and experiential marketing examples, or see how we plan offline marketing. Two CupShup films show the same street-level approach: We Took Swiss Beauty's Sunscreen to Goa's Hottest Beach and Tilara's Larger-Than-Life Canter Launch.

An on ground activation puts a brand where people already are and gives them something to do. Citykart used a seven-day Raksha Bandhan activation in Lucknow to build visibility, create interaction and hand out vouchers that point back to the store.

Large, lit or unusual installations placed in public spaces, like Citykart's 5 ft × 8 ft Rakhi, are typical ambient advertising examples. Alongside it, the activation had a photo opportunity and a wall for wishes to sisters, with discount vouchers as the reward. The result was 1,000+ footfall and 5+ local media features.

It puts the brand where people already are, gives them a reason to engage and connects that engagement to the store. At 1090 Chauraha, Lucknow, the Rakhi and the wish wall brought people in, and the discount vouchers gave them a reason to visit Citykart.

It ran for seven days, from 22 to 28 August, at 1090 Chauraha, Lucknow, around Raksha Bandhan.

Look for one that picks a visible location, builds the idea around the festival, gives visitors something to do and attaches a clear reward that leads to your store. Start the conversation with CupShup to plan yours.

Because a festive week rewards brands that give people something to do. CupShup is an AI-led integrated marketing partner for ambitious brands, with 10 years of experience, 400+ brands and on-ground reach across 30+ cities. As a brand activation agency India partner, we plan the place and the moment, run it on the ground and prove what happened, from festive activations like this to national campaigns.

If you want your next festive push to bring people to the store, let's talk. Or see how we have grown brands like yours in our brand activation case studies.