Why Zepto picked Soan Papdi to sweeten its festive campaign

The once-popular Soan Papdi is now more famous for being passed around like a hot potato during Diwali. The dessert 'nobody eats, but everyone receives' has become the subject of countless festive jokes and memes. While other sweets such as Rasgulla and Kaju Katli are gobbled up in a flash, Soan Papdi has earned the moniker of a "recyclable dessert"—constantly passed around from one household to another like an unwanted gift during the festive season.

However, this season, quick commerce platform Zepto is on a mission to give Soan Papdi a glow-up with its cheeky "Make Soan Papdi Great Again" campaign. The three-year-old company released a 60-second commercial giving the humble sweet a human touch. 

The film shows Soan Papdi as a character listening to all the memes and feeling down about its fall from grace. It wasn’t always the case, after all—it started its career as a respected part of India’s dessert culture.

To amplify the campaign, Zepto even gave out free boxes of Soan Papdi with eligible purchases from participating sellers from October 18 to October 20, 2024.

Why Soan Papdi, though?

Anant Rastogi, director of marketing at Zepto, shares with afaqs! that while conceptualising the brand’s Diwali campaign, the brand wanted to tap into something with deep cultural significance that could help its own Diwali as an event. 

And what better than Soan Papdi that has become a part of pop culture in the last four to five years? However, it was challenging to figure out how to build a campaign around it.

The story behind the campaign

Rastogi explains that the team engaged in multiple rounds of brainstorming, initially exploring the idea of extending the popular joke about Soan Papdi being repeatedly gifted. They even played around with ideas like embedding GPS chips in the boxes to track how far they travel, but they discovered that Flipkart has already beaten them to it by introducing a similar concept during the previous festive season.

Finally, the team landed on a quirky idea: ‘Make Soan Papdi Great Again.’ The reasoning from the brand was that while everyone grew up loving Soan Papdi, in recent years, the Indian desert hadn’t received the recognition it once enjoyed. So, instead, they decided to humanise Soan Papdi, giving it emotions and a face. Thanks to AI-generated designs, the Soan Papdi character was born—complete with a box-shaped head. 

Rastogi says the first AI-generated output impressed the team, and they continued refining the concept. “Part of our creative process involves letting ideas sit for a while, allowing time to assess their potential. After repeated iterations, we realised that AI-generated Soan Papdi character was the right fit for the campaign,” he adds.

Following the campaign's release, Rastogi notes that several LinkedIn users responded positively, with comments such as, "I've loved Soan Papdi all along but just played along with the joke."

The in-house team conceptualised the campaign; Third Floor Films produced it, and Jigar Fernandes directed it. The brand developed and brought the campaign to life, from concept to screen, within four to five weeks.

Rastogi explains that the campaign resonated with both younger and older generations. For the younger audience, it introduced them to the story of Soan Papdi, while for the older generation, it reignited their fondness for the treat.

He also notes that the older generation is familiar with the meme references, thanks to the circulation of jokes through WhatsApp forwards.

Is the brand chasing virality?

In today's digital landscape, brands increasingly find themselves balancing the creation of impactful campaigns with the pursuit of fleeting moments of virality. The pursuit of viral content can provide a quick surge in visibility but also runs the risk of being short-lived, with little lasting impact on brand loyalty or perception.

What was the objective behind the campaign?

Rastogi says that virality is not the objective; it is just the outcome of great content. Our goal was to own an event like Diwali. What this campaign did is, if you think of Soan Papdi, you’ll think of Zepto which will translate to a purchase decision. 

“It's about driving preference during the festive period, not just for sweets but for the entire assortment we offer." 

Rastogi also emphasises: "By associating a product with Zepto, it becomes the go-to platform. While sweets are part of the festive association, we offer a wide variety of products, and the goal is to drive overall preference for the brand with campaigns like this."

The only concern during the campaign, according to Rastogi, was to ensure that the headgear of the Soan Papdi character closely resembled the real product. "We didn’t want viewers to watch the ad and miss that it was Soan Papdi we were referencing. The production team did an excellent job bringing this to life. They perfectly executed the AI reference we initially created."

Media mix

In terms of media mix, the campaign focused primarily on digital platforms such as Meta, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Users even created a profile of Soan Papdi as CBO (Come Back Officer), and the campaign went viral on LinkedIn. 

The quick commerce platform also teamed up with Humans of Bombay, a storytelling media organisation focused on individual journeys. On its LinkedIn page, Soan Papdi shared its story, tracing its evolution from a beloved sweet to becoming a meme sensation.