Case Study: How an unreal wedding became Zepto’s strategy for wedding-season visibility

Zepto and Britannia launched The Great Indian Fake Shaadi as a cultural activation aimed at establishing a stronger presence during the wedding season. The campaign centred on a staged, fictional wedding designed to tap into India’s ongoing fascination with wedding-related content while differentiating itself from the season’s repetitive themes.

The event brought together more than 100 creators and 15 brand partners, incorporating familiar wedding elements with exaggerated, humorous twists, including a branded baarat and choreographed flash mobs. A nationwide user-generated content contest invited people to explain why they should receive an invitation, which helped broaden participation and sustain visibility before and after the event.

According to the company, the initiative generated more than 40 million impressions across platforms, supported by on-ground content output, post-event coverage and media interactions. The campaign contributed to increased conversation around Zepto during a high-engagement period and positioned the brand more prominently within wedding-season discourse.

Category introduction

The global quick commerce (q‑comm) market is projected to reach nearly $185 billion in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 9% and 25%, depending on region and report source. India, as a key growth driver, will contribute about $5.4 billion in 2025, growing at a 16%–22% CAGR and rapidly expanding user penetration. Grocery dominates q‑comm, accounting for around 44% of revenue, followed by fresh food and beverages.​

Demand is driven by urban consumers prioritising convenience and time savings, with mobile applications handling over 90% of orders globally.

Brand introduction

Summary

Zepto partnered with Britannia to create The Great Indian Fake Shaadi, an imaginative and entirely unreal wedding experience engineered for India’s peak wedding season. The campaign merged experiential storytelling with cultural insight to build brand affinity, spark earned media, and deepen the brand's participation in conversations that matter to young India.

Problem statement / objective

The brand wanted to establish a deeper cultural foothold and evolve beyond transactional utility.

Core objectives:
– Build brand association with wedding season
– Generate high-impact earned media
– Create a culturally relevant moment that sparks conversation
– Position Zepto as a brand linked with celebration, not just essentials

Brief

The brief was to design an idea that:

– Stands out in a heavily cluttered wedding season
– Creates a culturally sticky moment for the brand
– Unlocks social buzz at scale
 – Integrates seamlessly with Britannia while keeping the brand at the cultural centre
– Generates sustained coverage before and after the event

Creative Idea

“An unreal wedding for a very real cultural moment.”
The Great Indian Fake Shaadi was built as a surreal, humorous take on India’s wedding obsession.

Nothing was real. Not the groom. Not the bride. Not even the guests.
This deliberate absurdity created freshness, shareability and a vibrant storytelling playground for the brand.

Challenges

– Cutting through the season’s repetitive wedding content
– Creating an idea strong enough to drive earned media at scale
– Maintaining brand linkage without diluting the cultural experience
– Managing on-ground logistics with multiple partners
– Ensuring the narrative extended across digital, PR and social

Execution

For the Great Indian Fake Shaadi, the brand brought together over 100 creators and 15 brand partners on-ground. The experience blended wedding rituals with playful twists  from a Pure Magic Baarat and a Bingo Tedhe Medhe flash mob to a perpetually naraz fufaji adding to the drama.

The event generated significant buzz, amplified further by a nationwide UGC contest where users created content on why they deserved an invite. We received highly creative entries from across the country.

The brand also captured conversations with Chandan Mendiratta, Chief Brand Officer, on the cultural relevance of the format popularised by Gen Z and now a talking point among millennials making the event a genuine conversation starter across audiences.

Results

Quantitative

•  6 high-impact media interactions

• 20 post-event coverage clips

• 395,557 combined reach from carousel posts

• 706,652 reel reach

• 4.37 million reach (on-ground)

• 2.29 million reach (post-event)

• 15.6 million PR value (post-event)

• 7 million PR value (on-ground)

• 31.83 million views garnered through content created on ground with an engagement rate of 4% 

• The campaign overall achieved 40Mn impressions. 

Qualitative

• Successfully built brand presence in wedding season

• Elevated Zepto’s cultural positioning

• Reframed Zepto from functional utility to experiential, culturally aware brand

•  Generated strong editorial interest

• Strengthened consumer recall during a high-emotion season
  
  

Chandan Mendiratta, Chief Marketing Officer, Zepto said, “When people think of weddings, they should instinctively think of Zepto. That association is what we set out to build with The Great Indian Fake Shaadi. Wedding season is one of India’s biggest cultural moments, and this initiative allowed us to participate in it meaningfully, not just through products but through experiences that resonate. The campaign helped us move from being a functional quick commerce service to becoming a brand that shows up naturally in celebrations and conversations. We look forward to expanding this cultural connection across more moments that matter to our consumers.”