The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

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By Amit Bapna, APAC editor-at-large

February 17, 2023 | 4 min read

Swiggy, the Indian food and grocery delivery app, has created a love-themed campaign to showcase the app's central role in people's daily lives.

In a bid to showcase how Swiggy has become an integral part of people’s daily lives in India, the food delivery brand has teamed with independent agency Talented to create a love-themed film.

The film, Wrong Address, follows the love story of two neighbours, Aashna and Raghav who met and begin dating after a Swiggy order is accidentally delivered to the wrong address.

However, in an unusual move for a love story, the ad does not feature any people on screen. Instead, it brings the story to life through voice-overs while showcasing the different services of the food delivery app such as Dineout, and Swiggy Genie, as well as features including voice search and saved addresses.

While the technique has been done before - Google's film ‘Parisian Love’ is a notable example - Swiggy and the creative team saw an opportunity to adapt the formula for the Indian market.

P G Aditiya, the co-founder of Talented says, “Swiggy is entrenched in the daily lives of over 50 million Indians, with over 20 million daily active users. Since it is ubiquitous and is already a part of internet culture, not showing characters didn’t feel intimidating.”

“There was an opportunity to take a leaf from genre masterpieces like the Google work, as well as feature films like ‘Searching’, ‘C u soon’, and elevate this format for the Swiggy universe."

The ad film was released to coincide with Valentine's Day and there's already hope that the characters may have a life beyond this execution.

Swiggy's famous 'Gulab Jamun' uncle, a previously unknown actor who was cast in the first Swiggy ad in 2018, has gone on to become a recurring and iconic character in India.

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Aditiya says, “Uncle has his advantages - as a face, he’s so ubiquitous with the brand that he can, say, make mass India love him without speaking a word on a 30-second TV spots during the cricket season.”

In contrast, Aashna and Raghav are currently only voices, but Aditiya says, if the right creative idea came along, we could see more of them again soon.

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