“Our IPL campaign will make us relevant to a much larger audience”: Zepto’s Amritansu Nanda

A chat with the CMO of Zepto about the grocery brand’s maiden IPL association.

Every time a player hits a six in the Indian Premier League (IPL), we can see a Zepto ad promoting its 10-minute delivery promise. The brand has come onboard as an associate sponsor of Disney+Hotstar for the 15th season of IPL. Barely a year-old brand, this is its first association with the mega cricketing property.

Amritansu Nanda, chief marketing officer, Zepto, said, the brand aims to leverage the IPL to boost awareness and consideration for Zepto across the 10 cities where it currently operates.

“Among the high impact properties, the IPL stands out. Not every channel will have the same impact that an IPL partnership will have. So we wanted to prioritise IPL as part of our annual media plan. The idea was that through this campaign we will be relevant to a much larger audience,” he said.

Nanda says in many ways what Zepto stands for and what IPL delivers, both in terms of the TG and the broader perceived values from a customer standpoint, are very similar.

“So IPL is fun and Zepto is also a very fun brand. IPL is all about instant gratification. Zepto’s key promise to the customer is also instant gratification - ‘Whatever you need, will be with you in a very short duration of time.’ So that's why there's a lot of fitment between IPL as an event and Zepto associating with it,” he said.

The elements they have sponsored, like the Super 6s, are also in line with this instant gratification.

It chose Disney+Hotstar, instead of opting for television or on-ground sponsorship, as it speaks to the digitally savvy audience.

“The spillover with television or on-ground sponsorship is unimaginable. In the grocery space frugality is in our DNA. And we have to be very sure that we are going to get the bang for our buck. Every media spend has to have a really strong ROI element, whether tangible, in terms of instant business or intangible, in terms of increasing brand awareness,” he said.

“Disney + Hotstar talks to the urban crowd, which are predominantly SECs A and B. They are all subscribed users. Since they have done digital transactions, they are quite likely online shoppers as well. So for us, it's highly impactful. IPL is also largely a family viewership platform. So the message will land with the primary grocery shopper in that household,” Nanda added.

Moreover, since Zepto is predominantly servicing the top 10 cities, Hotstar allows it to geo-target to minimise spillover.

Besides Disney+Hotstar, the brand’s surround campaign is also contextual to cricket to boost the recall associated with the IPL.

“People would have mostly seen us on Hotstar so they will associate Zepto with cricket. And we are basically building campaigns around that. So people see cricket related ads in some Zepto colours and that boosts the recall,” he said.

In its IPL ad, where singer Kailash Kher’s vocal cords illustrate its 10-minute delivery promise, Zepto has made a slight shift from its previous ads. While the earlier ads highlighted the use case scenarios of the app, this one highlights how other apps don’t stick to their promise of quick delivery.

“Our earlier brand campaigns had more functional ads. But we realised that, in most cases, we are talking to our existing customers and they need to know the additional layers of offerings and information that this brand has to offer. We want to stand out from the concept of ‘Indian Stretchable Time’. And we're trying to reinforce the concept that there's one service that values your time. So it sets specific value propositions and is a standout in the overall Indian service sector.

Unlike many other brand communications, Zepto’s communications can be acted upon immediately. People can order on Zepto directly while watching the match on the OTT platform. Nanda says the brand has witnessed 40 per cent higher business during the IPL. There is also a significant spike in second order metrics as well.