QSR marketing 2025: Why local culture mattered more than ever

India’s quick-service restaurant (QSR) industry continued its rapid evolution in 2025, driven by rising consumer demand for convenience, experimentation with global flavours, and a strategic shift in how brands communicate. According to media reports, the Indian QSR market is projected to hit $43.5 billion by 2030, growing at a strong ~9-10% CAGR, fueled by convenience, urbanisation, digital orders, and expansion into tier II and III cities. 

In 2025, these shifts played out clearly on QSR menus and delivery platforms. Global flavours that were once niche moved closer to the mainstream, with Korean, Japanese, Mexican, and Vietnamese-inspired dishes seeing strong traction. Platform data showed Korean food orders growing nearly 17-fold between 2022 and 2025, with 2025 emerging as a breakout year for the category. A separate trend snapshot also reported 50% year-on-year growth, driven increasingly by demand from emerging cities rather than just metros.

The year also saw renewed interest from international QSR and food-led entertainment brands eyeing India as a growth market. New York Fries, the Canada-based fries and hotdog chain, entered India in 2025, betting on premium quick-service snacking, while Dave & Buster’s made its India debut, signalling growing confidence in experiential, food-plus-entertainment formats among Indian consumers.

Amid these changes in consumption, competition, and category expansion, the way QSR brands approached marketing also underwent a visible reset in 2025. As attention fragmented and mass visibility became harder to sustain profitably, brands moved away from one-size-fits-all campaigns towards more local, culture-led and context-driven communication.

Localisation was key 

While menu localisation has long been a staple in QSR marketing, 2025 pushed brands to go several steps further. Language, pop culture, humour, and regional context moved to the centre of how QSR brands showed up across platforms.

For Rebel Foods, doing localisation right meant building campaigns around city-specific offerings and culturally resonant partnerships rather than relying on a single national narrative.

Behrouz Biryani’s Long Lost Menu campaign exemplified this shift. The brand used AI-led storytelling to revive forgotten regional dishes from different parts of India, positioning heritage not just as a menu innovation but as a cultural conversation. The campaign blended technology with nostalgia, turning localisation into a storytelling device rather than a tactical add-on.

This thinking extended beyond flagship campaigns into everyday communication. Rebel Foods leaned heavily on vernacular digital content, regional creators, and hyperlocal cues to improve cultural resonance. Faasos, for instance, tapped into pop culture and internet humour to connect with younger audiences, using social-first formats that mirrored how Gen Z and millennials already consume content rather than traditional brand messaging.

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Burger Singh doubled down on this approach. Bhargav P V, Chief of Staff, Burger Singh, says, “Campaigns rooted in city-specific storytelling, college-centric activations, and vernacular digital content helped the brand feel culturally fluent rather than mass-produced, especially in Tier 2, Tier 3, and semi-urban markets where this approach delivered the highest impact and volume growth in 2025.”

A clear example was the launch of Burger Singh’s Big Singh Feast in Bengaluru. Instead of relying on a conventional media-heavy rollout, the brand served over 3,300 free meals in a single day and generated more than 15,000 registrations through hyperlocal digital targeting combined with on-ground engagement. The activation created cultural buzz and footfall simultaneously, reinforcing the power of participation-led marketing.

The belief that India cannot be marketed as a single, homogenous market shaped most QSR strategies throughout the year. With smaller towns and emerging cities driving volume growth, and metros facing uneven recovery due to pricing pressure and delivery fatigue, brands adopted differentiated playbooks across city tiers. Marketing decisions, from menu design and pricing to promotions and communication, were increasingly made at a regional or city level rather than centrally.

Rebel Foods rolled out multiple region-specific launches, including Mishti Doi Cheesecake and Kolkata Wraps in the East, southern gravies and biryanis in the South, and shawarma formats in select cities. Festival-led LTOs such as Haleem, alongside Diwali, Holi, Christmas, and Ganpati specials, were planned with city-wise pricing and promotions informed by historical performance and local demand trends.

Burger Singh mirrored this approach, with an even sharper focus on hyperlocal execution. College activations, neighbourhood-level outreach, and city-specific traffic drivers became critical in new and growth markets. “The highest impact came when we planned and activated campaigns closer to the ground rather than from the centre,” Bhargav notes.

This hyperlocal lens also supported the brand’s expansion into smaller markets. In 2025, Burger Singh entered regions such as Assam and campuses like IIT Kanpur. As per media reports, the brand is betting heavily on small-town India for its next phase of growth and is targeting over 750 stores by 2028.

Content-led marketing worked

One of the most significant changes in 2025 was how QSR brands chose to spend their marketing money. Instead of pushing scale through heavy media distribution, brands invested more time in crafting content that could earn attention organically. 
At Rebel Foods, this meant a move towards high-impact content rather than high-budget distribution. “Our core philosophy is that content should be so strong and relevant that it drives its own distribution. It needs to be relatable or useful to the target audience while staying aligned with the brand’s core values,” says Nishant Kedia, CMO, Rebel Foods.

Burger Singh pursued a comparable approach, although its implementation was executed nearer to the grassroots level. “The biggest shift was moving spends and effort from broad, one-size-fits-all campaigns to deeply local, high-intent storytelling that truly resonated with each market. We moved towards prioritising experiences and participation over messaging volume,” says Bhargav PV.

What 2025 set up for 2026

By the end of the year, one thing was clear: QSR marketing in India is no longer about national templates.

Kedia gives a rundown on what can be expected in the coming year. Hyper-localisation across food, pricing, communication, and partnerships is set to deepen in 2026. Social media will remain the primary battleground, but with greater emphasis on culturally relevant content rather than polished brand messaging. Co-branding, creator-led collaborations, and ecosystem partnerships are expected to evolve beyond transactional influencer deals.

He adds, “In terms of trends shaping this approach, consumer eating habits are becoming both more diverse and exploratory.” 

At the consumer level, shifts in eating habits are already shaping marketing priorities, rising interest in hyper-regional cuisines, growing adoption of global flavours like Korean and Mexican, increased demand for healthier and protein-focused meals, and growth in late-night ordering driven by lifestyle changes.

And brands are adapting to these consumer needs. 

“These shifts highlight the need for smarter, relevance-driven communication and product offerings that meet consumers where they are, culturally and contextually, rather than relying on broad, high-spend distribution alone,” he says. 

2025 was the year Indian QSR brands learned to speak locally rather than loudly. As national reach became harder to drive profitably, marketers shifted their focus from mass campaigns to what can be called micro-relevance: culturally fluent content, hyper-local activations, and city-specific storytelling that resonated with diverse audiences across India’s tiered markets.