Brand Makers
Dil Ka Jod Hai, Tootega Nahin
Inside Zepto’s viral brand machine with CBO Chandan Mendiratta: Where ads think like memes
Chandan Mendiratta, Chief Brand Officer of Zepto, opened up about how the brand’s marketing engine runs more like a content creator’s studio than a corporate advertising department.
While Mendiratta denied to share Zepto's marketing and advertising expenses, he said that the brand doesn't spend much on their marketing activities.
In India’s crowded digital ecosystem where consumer attention is as fleeting as a 10-second reel, brands are no longer selling products, they’re selling moments of conversation. The new-age playbook is all about creating buzz. Quick commerce platforms like Zepto jump on viral trends, shape conversations and turn social chatter into brand equity.
Speaking with Storyboard18, Chandan Mendiratta, Chief Brand Officer of Zepto, opened up about how the brand’s marketing engine runs more like a content creator’s studio than a corporate advertising department. “We apply content creation principles to marketing. Ad filmmakers think of reach and impact but content creators think about shares, comments, engagement. That’s what we bring to brand campaigns,” Mendiratta said.
"How we think differently is, can we look at every campaign as a content piece? I think content creators are very different as compared to the ad filmmakers. Content creators think of, how do I get views and shares. I don't think any ad filmmaker has ever thought of, how do I get shares of this film? When we apply that principle to marketing, we do something that encourages people much better than a film but can we do something which is bigger than a film? Something that touches people emotions, makes people share something, share it with their friends," he explained.
As per a report by Statista, the Quick Commerce market in India is projected to generate revenue of $5.38 billion in 2025. The market is anticipated to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.54% between 2025 and 2030, reaching a projected market volume of $11.08 billion by 2030. In terms of users, the sector is forecasted to grow significantly, with the number of users expected to reach 65 million by 2030.
While Mendiratta denied to share Zepto's marketing and advertising expenses, he said that the brand doesn't spend much on their marketing activities. “Let me talk about traditional media that anyway is ongoing. We have a team that looks into traditional media, which essentially works on performance and consumer acquisition, that’s something that constantly needs to be built.”
He further added that while it’s hard to measure brand value directly, Zepto operates with a conviction that brand-building contributes to long-term value creation.
From ‘Mithai Wars’ to ‘Fake Shaadi’
After turning Soan Papdi into a national comeback story last Diwali, Zepto in partnership with Haldiram’s, introduced "Mithai Wars" this Diwali. Under this Diwali campaign, the brand conducted mithai election from October 10th to 14th. Users received a mystery mithai box from Haldiram’s, with no clue which sweet candidate lies inside until they open it. Once the sweet suspense ends, users can head to the Zepto app to cast their vote and decide which contender wins India’s sweetest election — Soan Papdi, Kaju Katli, Chana Burfi and Peda.
Taking about the campaign, Mendiratta said, “Mithai Wars was our way of associating the brand with the festive emotion of mithai but the real challenge was to create a situation more engaging than anything we’d done before. It wasn’t about just making another film; it was about sparking a conversation. We wanted people to ask how do you get views, engagement and to participate in that dialogue. Essentially, we applied a content creator’s lens to an ad campaign, focusing on engagement over storytelling alone. It’s not just about creating a film; it’s about creating a cultural moment people want to talk about and share.”
Zepto’s Fake Shaadi campaign is another example of the brand’s trend-riding agility. Mendiratta explained that the marketing buzz is inspired by Gen Z’s fascination with attending weddings. “If there’s a wave, we want to ride it. Gen Z wants to attend shaadis, not just scroll through them. So why can’t a brand host the first fake shaadi? The dulha is fake, the shaadi is fake but the fun is real,” Mendiratta said.
Beyond tapping into cultural memes, Zepto sees shaadi season as a massive retail moment. “People spend more on weddings than Diwali. So why not build brand associations with the biggest festival of the country?,” he added.
Despite Zepto’s digital-first play, the brand doesn’t see itself chasing virality for vanity. Instead, it’s chasing relevance and memory structures, connecting emotionally across demographics. “We’re not just a Gen Z brand. Gen Zs are doing fake shaadis, but millennials are the ones asking, ‘What’s a fake shaadi?’ It’s a conversation starter,” he said.
The Earned Media Mindset
At the heart of Zepto’s marketing philosophy lies a simple north star - "Will it get earned media?," as explained by Mendiratta. “Every campaign begins with that question. Will people talk about it, click a picture, share it with friends, or post it online? That’s when we know it’s working,” he said.
From witty packaging like Zepto’s 2024 calendar delivery bags that turned into kitchen wall décor to micro-festival activations like Janmashtami and Teacher’s Day, the brand’s focus is on conversation, not just conversion. “If my bag stays on your wall for 12 months, that’s a marketing win,” he believes.
He explained that Zepto’s marketing approach goes beyond celebrating major festivals. “We’re not just doing Diwali. We’re also doing Janmashtami, Karva Chauth, smaller festivals compared to Diwali, and we run activations across even the smallest of occasions.” He shared how campaigns around these micro-festivals often generate significant organic traction.
“For instance, on Teacher’s Day, we got a lot of earned media. On Janmashtami, we sent out empty Amul butter packets with a card that said, ‘The makhan chor got here before you did,’” he recalled. The idea, he explained, is to constantly look for cultural trends and topical moments that Zepto can creatively ride on. “We approach it with a content creator’s lens, the more often we show up, the likelier we are to hit one or two viral moments. But when we do it, we never really know which one will go viral,” he added.
It's either LinkedIn or Instagram!
Chandan Mendiratta explained that while a lot of Zepto’s performance ads run on platforms like Google and Meta, the brand’s deeper conversations and storytelling happen on Instagram and LinkedIn.
“LinkedIn is something of a unique playbook for us. It’s where the crème de la crème of the country is, an audience that’s very hard to reach. These are people who probably don’t watch TV, have YouTube Premium, and are generally inert to all paid platforms. So how do we reach them?”
He elaborated that Zepto leverages LinkedIn not just for brand visibility but also for strong employer and employee branding, using it as a space to connect with customers who typically avoid paid advertising touchpoints. “We’re very active on LinkedIn, probably one of the few brands in our category that truly are,” he added.
When asked which Zepto campaign went unexpectedly viral, he said, “It’s easy to say last year’ Soan Papdi campaign but Zepto’s Father’s Day 2024 film, released on June 16 is really close to my heart. It was a simple, emotional story about a young man practicing how to say ‘I love you,’ and in the end, we reveal he’s saying it to his dad,” he explained.
The film was born from a deeply relatable insight within the team that many of them had never told their fathers “I love you.” He reflected on how that cultural gap inspired the film’s core idea. “It’s incredibly hard for a son to tell his dad ‘I love you,’ and maybe even harder for a dad to say it back. That emotion is what made the campaign so special,” he shared.
He refrained from discussing specific assortments but said, “Our audience cuts across age groups, from 20 to 50, but the bulk lies between 25 to 45 years. It’s equally distributed between men and women,” he noted. He further added that Zepto is currently present in around 70 cities across India, catering primarily to Tier 1 and Tier 2 audiences.
On expansion, he hinted at growth plans for the next financial year but maintained confidentiality, “We will expand geographically, but we can’t disclose our plans just yet.”
SPOTLIGHT
"The raucous, almost deafening, cuss words from the heartland that Piyush Pandey used with gay abandon turned things upside down in the old world order."
Read MoreThe new face of the browser: Who’s building AI-first browsers, what they do and how they could upend advertising
From OpenAI’s ChatGPT-powered Atlas to Microsoft’s Copilot-enabled Edge, a new generation of AI-first browsers is transforming how people search, surf and interact online — and reshaping the future of digital advertising.