Swiggy Instamart delivery covers reference old ads, crossword puzzles

The covers converse with customers after the transaction is over to keep them engaged.

While many companies are renting out media spaces for visibility, Swiggy Instamart is using an original space already available to the brand - their grocery delivery covers. When you receive an order from Swiggy Instamart, the cover features text and puzzles. The text pays homage to iconic ad campaigns (some that the brand have recreated in past ad campaigns), as well as some of the most famous ads in the Indian advertising and media landscape.

The puzzles on the ad featured a crossword puzzle and a tic-tac-toe puzzle. The copy references the fact that grocery delivery on Swiggy Instamart does not take a lot of time and the rest of the free time can be spent solving these puzzles to relax your mind.

The Vodafone pug ad made a splash when it landed. Created by Ogilvy & Mather, the ads showed a faithful pug puppy that follows a little girl (the protagonist) wherever she goes. The ad’s tagline read “wherever you go, our network follows”, to draw emphasis on the fact that the different geographies of India would still receive signal when you’re part of the network.

This Swiggy Instamart cover pays homage to the same ad by fictionalising the pug of the ad. The copy of the ad references the Pug ad in the context of quick grocery delivery.

Tic Tac Toe games on Swiggy bags

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A crossword on a Swiggy Instamart bag

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A 'join-the-dots' puzzle on a Swiggy Instamart bag

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Another ad that the covers reference is Cadbury’s 5-Star’s Ramesh-Suresh ads. The Ramesh Suresh ads feature a pair of friends with similar names who are shown in the ads as eating a 5-Star chocolate and losing themselves in the flavour of the caramel.

The covers bear ‘reviews’ from a S.Resh and R.mesh who rate Swiggy Instamart’s delivery highly for their speedy delivery.

Packaging has long been a touchpoint from multiple brands to talk to their customers and have a conversation with them even after the transaction is over.

Reviewing the creatives, Ashwini Deshpande, co-founder and director of Elephant Design opines that the intent is good, but emphasises on the context that the bags arrive in.

"I walked myself through the experience as I ordered some groceries from Instamart. When do people order from Swiggy Instamart? When they need something instantly. So when it arrives, they quickly get on to using the contents and the bag is unlikely to be admired at that moment," she explains.

Ashwini Deshpande

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She adds that the execution is also important when it comes to such ideas. "In this case, the print quality is poor and there is no way you can play tic-tac-toe on that cloth. So I would take such activations as ideas executed for generating interest on social media.. great intent, but impractical in most parts. I would call this ‘design’ without ‘design thinking’ - as there is no real user need being addressed," says Deshpande.

Licious has also used the boxes to address their returning-customer base. The company uses social media to run contests for their returning customers. The customers have a chance to feature a cartoon of themselves at the pack.

Polo also leveraged the wrapping to tell stories. The brand defines these as ‘micro-stories’ which run on the cover of the mints - running three to four sentences long. Putting design on the packaging makes sure that the customers linger and look at the wrapping for longer. This ensures that the brand retains in the customer’s mind and lingers in their memory.

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