The report

1. 

   Free creative report · November 2026

   What Kerala’s electronics stores ran on Instagram

   The top posts and ads of five popular retailers in the Kozhikode region, Onam to Diwali 2026, and what marketing teams can take from them.

   myG · Oxygen · Nandilath G-Mart · Nikshan · Image Mobiles & Computers

2. Executive summary

   Stars win the feed, offers win the ads, and the gaps are wide open

   64.9k

   Stars and openings win the feed

   Likes on the season’s top post: a film star at a myG store opening. Second: Oxygen’s ambassador at the first iPhone Duo sale.

   19 of 25

   Top posts carry no offer

   The selling happens in ads: 10 of 15 top ads lead with a discount or a prize.

   4.0 → 2.9

   Ads lose the Malayali voice

   Local connect drops from posts to ads, though local stories are what earned engagement.

   21 of 40

   Creators carry the sale

   Of Nandilath G-Mart’s latest feed posts were collabs with local creators and pages.

   5 a day

   The content treadmill

   Nikshan posted 33 times in six days at Diwali; myG 34 times in eleven.

   0 of 40

   Nobody leads with EMI

   No top creative leads with EMI or bank cashback, the levers electronics buyers ask about most.

   INFER Insights · 40 creatives from five retailers · scores are one analyst’s judgement

   2

3. What we looked at

   Five retailers, 40 creatives, one scorecard

   25 top posts

   Each retailer’s latest 40 Instagram posts (to 11 Nov 2026). The five with the most likes and comments made the cut.

   15 top ads

   Ads placed on Instagram, 1 Aug – 11 Nov 2026, ranked by reach. Up to five per retailer: Nikshan 5, Nandilath 5, Oxygen 4, Image 1. We found none for myG.

   15 attributes each

   Role, moment, category, talent, lead offer, call to action, language, six scores, the key message and a takeaway.

   Six scores, 1 to 5

   Brand · could you name the store with the logo covered?

   Stopping power · would it stop a thumb in one second?

   Offer clarity · is the deal clear in one look on a phone?

   Product · is the product shown clearly and early?

   Local connect · does it feel Malayali: language, places, humour?

   Distinctiveness · is it unlike the category’s standard sale poster?

   INFER Insights · Public Instagram posts and ads · scored by one INFER analyst

   3

4. Retailer scorecard

   Nikshan is the most balanced; myG and Oxygen win on stars, not offers

   Retailer	Overall	Brand	Stopping	Offer	Product	Local	Distinct	Posts	Ads
   Nikshan	3.5	3.5	3.7	3.4	3.4	3.5	3.5	3.4	3.6
   Oxygen	3.2	4.4	3.9	1.1	2.0	4.3	3.4	3.2	3.3
   Nandilath G-Mart	3.2	3.4	3.1	3.5	2.8	3.3	3.2	3.0	3.4
   myG	3.1	4.2	4.4	1.0	1.2	4.4	3.2	3.1	none found
   Image Mobiles	2.8	3.7	2.7	2.0	3.2	2.3	2.8	2.6	3.5 (1 ad)

   Nikshan

   Malayalam comedy plus clear prices: the only retailer above 3 on every score.

   myG and Oxygen

   The strongest brands and local feel, but their top creatives almost never sell (offer 1.0–1.1).

   Image Mobiles

   Launch events and clean product shots, but the least local (2.3) and least stopping.

   INFER Insights · Mean scores, 1–5, all scored creatives per retailer · teal = highest in column

   4

5. Finding 1 · The feed

   Stars, store openings and launch days won the feed

   

   64.9k likes

   myG · Asif Ali at the Malappuram opening · 1.5M views

   

   36.7k likes

   Oxygen · Dulquer Salmaan takes the first iPhone Duo sold

   

   3.7M views

   Oxygen · new Alappuzha showroom, opening 14 Nov

   

   1.1M views

   myG · Bigg Boss housemates play myG anniversary tasks

   Openings fed 8 of 40 top creatives. myG cut one opening into three of its top five posts; Oxygen ran one opening film as all four of its ads.

   INFER Insights · Likes and views as shown on Instagram, 11 Nov 2026

   5

6. Finding 2 · Offers

   Posts entertain, ads sell: 19 of 25 top posts carry no offer

   Top ads (15)

   Top posts (25)

   Share of creatives

   Price discount

   60% · 9 ads

   8% · 2 posts

   Lucky draw or gifts

   7% · 1 ad

   12% · 3 posts

   Exchange

   0%

   4% · 1 post

   No offer at all

   33% · 5 ads

   76% · 19 posts

   Every top ad asks for action (call, WhatsApp, visit, shop online). 18 of 25 top posts ask for nothing.

   

   Nikshan: 100-inch TV at ₹1,95,900, live 44 days

   

   Nandilath: Big Diwali Sale, real model prices

   INFER Insights · Lead offer per creative · top 5 posts per retailer and top Instagram ads, Aug–Nov 2026

   6

7. Finding 3 · What earns engagement

   Malayali stories and humour earned the likes; a clearer offer didn’t

   How each score moves with a post’s engagement (correlation, 25 top posts)

   Stopping power

   +0.55

   Local connect

   +0.41

   Brand recognisability

   +0.38

   Product visibility

   −0.14

   Offer clarity

   −0.37

   Dark = rises with engagement · light = falls. A guide, not proof: 25 posts.

   

   Nikshan: an offer that “woke Dad from a coma”

   

   Oxygen: a tailor’s story sells a phone sale

   

   Nandilath: “Prices up? I don’t care”

   INFER Insights · Pearson r of each score with log(likes + comments), n = 25 top posts

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8. Finding 4 · Paid creative

   Ads trade the Malayali voice for a price grid

   Top ads

   Top posts

   Average score, 1–5

   Local connect

   2.9

   4.0

   Distinctiveness

   3.1

   3.4

   Offer clarity

   3.6

   1.7

   Product visibility

   3.9

   1.9

   10 of 15 top ads show the product and nothing else. Nandilath restyles one card template for Onam, Navratri and Diwali.

   

   Nandilath: Navratri card, one of a set

   

   The exception: Nikshan gives the wet grinder its own Diwali ad

   INFER Insights · Mean scores, 15 top ads vs 25 top posts · scored by one analyst

   8

9. Finding 5 · Creators

   Local creators now carry a big share of the sale message

   Collab posts in each retailer’s latest 40 feed posts (posted with creators, local pages or sub-accounts)

   Nandilath G-Mart

   21

   Nikshan

   7

   myG

   6

   Oxygen

   4

   Image Mobiles

   4

   Nandilath’s Big Diwali Sale went out through food, travel and town pages across Kerala, from Kasaragod to Kollam, each in its own local voice.

   1.57M views

   A creator’s reel of the myG Malappuram opening, a little ahead of myG’s own (1.52M).

   9.4k likes

   A comedy creator’s Nandilath collab: 13 times the likes of Nandilath’s own top post.

   5.1k likes

   A creator’s Nikshan Diwali reel: five times Nikshan’s own best post.

   INFER Insights · Collab posts sit outside the 40 scored creatives; counts and likes as shown on Instagram, 11 Nov 2026

   9

10. Finding 6 · Pace

    The feed never stops: up to 38 retailer posts a week

    Own posts per week at the time of the study (latest 40 posts, to 11 Nov 2026)

    Nikshan

    38

    myG

    22

    Oxygen

    9

    Image Mobiles

    9

    Nandilath G-Mart

    6, plus 6 creator collabs

    At this pace, a creative team ships a new piece every working hour or two. Nobody has time to stop and look at what the store across the road ran last week.

    INFER Insights · Own posts dated within each retailer’s latest 40, divided by the days they span

    10

11. Retailer playbooks

    Five stores, five ways to play the season

    myG

    Events as content

    Star-led openings, a Bigg Boss tie-in and football moments. Top post: 64.9k likes. No Instagram ads found in the window.

    Score 3.1

    Oxygen

    Ambassador and launch

    Dulquer Salmaan at the first iPhone Duo sale, story films, and one opening film cut four ways for ads.

    Score 3.2

    Nandilath G-Mart

    Prizes and creators

    A lucky draw with 25 cars, customer testimonials (1.3M views), festival price cards and 21 creator collabs.

    Score 3.2

    Nikshan

    Comedy that sells

    Exchange-anything sketches, Dil Se Diwali, a TV ad live 44 days and a business AC ad live 75.

    Score 3.5

    Image Mobiles

    Launch-day events

    An iPhone Duo first-sale night in Kochi, customer hand-overs and a flying-laptop carousel.

    Score 2.8

    INFER Insights · Score = mean of six 1–5 scores across each retailer’s scored creatives

    11

12. White space

    The levers buyers ask about most, and nobody led with

    0

    EMI

    of 40 top creatives lead with EMI or no-cost finance.

    0

    Bank cashback

    of 40 lead with it. It shows up in creators’ posts, not the stores’ own.

    1

    Exchange

    of 40 leads with exchange, and it was Nikshan’s most-engaged post.

    1

    Shop online

    of 40 points to an online store. The rest send people to a showroom or a phone.

    1

    Laptops

    of 40 features a laptop; none a watch or earbuds. Phones and appliances take 22.

    The first store to make EMI, cashback or exchange its own named, funny, Malayali idea gets the field to itself.

    INFER Insights · Lead offer, call to action and category of the 40 scored creatives

    12

13. What to do with it

    Five moves for your next sale season

    1

    Put the offer inside the story. Nikshan’s exchange sketch, one clear deal inside a Malayalam joke, was its most-engaged post.

    2

    Give your ads the feed’s voice. Local faces, places and humour in paid creative, not only a product and a price.

    3

    Own a lever nobody owns. EMI, bank cashback or exchange as a named, repeatable idea.

    4

    Make every opening a content week, and brief creators with one message so twenty local voices tell one story.

    5

    Look at the competition every month, not once a year. At 9 to 38 posts a week, last season’s view is already stale.

    INFER Insights · Recommendations drawn from the 40 scored creatives

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14. The time it saves

    This report is 3½ working days of your team’s time. You read it in 30 minutes.

    If your team made it by hand	By hand	With us
    Log 200 posts and 60+ ads from 5 rivals	13 h	0
    Pick winners; save every image and video	2 h	0
    Tag 40 creatives on 15 attributes	4 h	0
    Build the charts, write the findings	8 h	0
    Read it and decide what to make next	30 min	30 min
    Total, per round	27½ h	30 min

    40 days

    a year back to your creative team if you track rivals every month: about two months of one designer’s time.

    Spend it on the work: brief with evidence, skip the “what are others doing?” round, and find the gap before the next sale.

    INFER estimate for this report’s scope: about 3 min to find and log each post or ad, 3 min to save each creative, 6 min to tag each

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15. 

    Want this for your brand, every month?

    Your competitors’ posts and ads, scored on what your team cares about, with a live dashboard and a monthly read-out.

    Free 20-minute walkthrough

    We take you through this report for your category and your rivals.

    Aashil Rahman · aashil@infersurveys.com

16. Notes and caveats

    How to read this report

    Public data only. Posts and ads as they appeared on Instagram on 11 Nov 2026. Spend and reach figures are not public.

    “Top” means most likes and comments among each retailer’s latest 40 posts, or the highest reach among its Instagram ads, 1 Aug – 11 Nov.

    Different windows. Forty posts span six days for Nikshan and four weeks for Oxygen, so Onam shows up in ads, not posts.

    Ads coverage. We found no myG ads in the window; Image’s one ad ran from a branch page; Oxygen’s were all live in November.

    One analyst. Every score is one INFER analyst’s judgement. A full study would use several raters and compare them.

    Collabs. Creator collab posts are counted on slide 9 but are not among the 40 scored creatives.

    Names. People are named only where the retailer’s own caption names them.

    Images belong to their owners and are shown for commentary and review.

    INFER Insights · Kozhikode Electronics 2026 · aashil@infersurveys.com

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