HHow do you pronounce Zomato? Is it Zoe-mom-to or Zoe-my-toe? This is a long running debate in many households in India. In its latest ad, the food delivery app imagines how this could lead to domestic wars. So much so that Zomato executives will not be able to solve this alone, other brands will also have to step in.
The ad features a family debating the correct pronunciation of Zomato, which escalates and all hell breaks loose. And they’re not being civil: There’s chair-smashing, pot-throwing, and TV-busting. In no time, everyone including TV personalities, children, workers, and bystanders are down to their knees in a ZoMaato vs. ZoMaito tug-of-war.
As a follow-up, Zomato released a Carousel Instagram post – its own ‘multiverse’ of ads, where other popular brands add unique twists to short segments extracted from the original. For other brands this call to action (CTA) is actually an experimental campaign, a major departure from advertising convention.
The ‘multiverse’ campaign, although well received, now has to fight for ‘universality’. How many brands can potentially be added to Zomato’s native ad? Not much.
The Instagram ad series starts off on a pretty depressing note. Favy quick (“sticking in the chhutki”, The stakes are high in the next slide. A woman slams a man into a table, leaving him on the floor writhing in pain – Enter the Move (“So that there is no pain in the middle of life., In the third slide, with family members making a mess of the dining table, comes Urban Company (“Cleaning services start from Rs.399/- only”). The last part of the ad, which shows a wall being demolished, provides an allegory for Ambuja Cement (“for strong walls,
Most compelling in the series is a plug-in for Mamaearth when a housekeeper throws tea in her employer’s face—a stand-in for its tea-infused facewash—in the midst of an argument. The ad is also completely comically out of time in the overall whimsical tone of the original ad.
The original ad and Instagram series have received positive reviews and praise for the screenwriter. Fevikwik and Mamaearth also joined the conversation in the Instagram comments. Newspapers and web portals are full of PR articles about the campaign. Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal weighed on this issue and left it up to the users to decide about the correct pronunciation.
Read also: Fevicol’s ‘Chipku Chair’ campaign in Punjab is a lesson in sticking to brand language
Should advertising be selfless?
In the Instagram carousel ads, Zomato writes “Did something for our friends” as the caption. But why would one brand do anything for another? What’s the driving point here besides making a splash in the advertising world and garnering some Instagram shares?
Don’t get me wrong, I think this campaign has a lot of potential. With the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) fever driving people to celebrate and order in, it won’t be surprising if the Zomato vs Zomato debate escalates in real life as well. This will serve the purpose of native advertising – and of every marketing campaign – to occupy some space in the mind of the customer.
Read also: Federal Bank wants you to look forward to bank visits, new campaign kicked off…
a new meme format
Through the ad series, Zomato has also given a new meme format to Instagram users. I will be disappointed if Reels on this format are not promoted by Instagram influencers in the days to come. The company should take advantage of the meme format.
But do these ads fit outside of Instagram posts? At least not in the current ‘Multiverse of Brands’ avatar.
These ads would look as absurd as pre-roll YouTube ads because, without context, an (especially disinterested) viewer would not even understand why Zomato has advertised Fevi Kwik. The videos also will not work as standalone television commercials. Even a clean print campaign would be difficult to crack.
And this is the biggest downside of Zomato Instagram campaign. They do not inform the viewers about the functionality of the food delivery platform. This is not a good call for a young brand like Zomato. The effectiveness of the ads is largely platform-dependent, with Zomato adding very little to its brand value. They may be ‘multiple’ but certainly not universal.
Swiggy has also successfully forayed into package and grocery delivery (Instamart). Its advertising has always been better than Zomato in terms of creativity. And in the IPL season, is the war of words all that Zomato can come up with? It’s good content, bad marketing.
(Edited by Hamra Like)