How Indian Brands Use Humor to Connect with Customers
In India’s fast-growing digital market, attention is the hardest currency. Every scroll is a battlefield, and humor has quietly become one of the sharpest weapons brands can use to stand out. A well-timed meme, a cheeky push notification, or a billboard with a clever pun does more than earn a laugh—it builds a connection. Humor works because it’s culturally fluent, instantly shareable, and taps into emotion faster than any discount code ever could. The smartest brands know this and are using humor not as a gimmick, but as a strategy to build loyalty. Marketers, creators, and even the best digital marketing training institute now analyze these campaigns to decode what makes them click. This blog unpacks the art and science behind humor in Indian marketing.
The Psychology of Humor in Branding
Humor isn’t just about making people laugh, it’s a shortcut to being remembered. When something makes you smile, your brain is more likely to hold on to that memory, and brands have been using that fact for decades. A well-written joke or a clever visual does more than entertain; it forges a connection that plain advertising can’t match. On top of that, funny content has a life of its own. People create memes, tag their friends, and share the humor for free at the same time, which gives these brands a reach that they can’t always pay for. And in India, humor has an extra dimension, as audiences enjoy gags that play with language, references to pop culture, and gags that are timely or current. That combination of timing and being culturally relevant makes humor one of the strongest branding tools available today.
Swiggy: Turning Food Cravings into Comedy
Swiggy realized that selling food cravings is easier with humor than a discount code. Their Instagram feed looks more like a meme account than a delivery brand. It features creators pushing out reels and posts that read as if they are native to the internet and not a corporate feed.
Then came WITASA, “What’s in the Ads, Swiggy?” Here, they streamed puzzling billboards throughout cities with odd phrases and very little branding. People started decoding them, and created a frenzy on X and Instagram with their conjectures. The hilarity of the campaign was not only the ad, but to see the internet obsessing over one thing as simple as a delivery brand’s billboard.
What works is that the humor never strays far from the product. Every gag comes back to speed, variety, or convenience, so the joke lands and the brand sticks. The spikes in engagement were not just vanity metrics, these campaigns triggered huge buzz and app downloads. Swiggy doesn’t just sell food, it markets the pleasure of ordering food, and that is why their ads are a part of the culture and not interruptions to it.
Source: https://www.socialsamosa.com/2022/12/case-study-swiggy-ad-campaign/
Zepto: Gen Z Humor and Speed Marketing
Zepto’s whole vibe is loud, snappy, and very online. Their posts don’t feel like ads; they feel like something a friend would send you at 2 a.m. because it’s actually funny. Memes are the backbone of their marketing, and they’re not afraid to go edgy or weird if it makes people stop scrolling.
They’re also insanely fast. If there’s a trending joke or a viral moment, Zepto’s on it before most brands even draft a caption. That speed lines up perfectly with what they sell, orders arriving in minutes. The brand basically says, “We’re as quick with jokes as we are with groceries.”
This mix of humor and speed has worked because it doesn’t feel forced. It’s not polished. It’s just sharp, messy, and in tune with the way Gen Z consumes content: fast, funny, and forgettable unless it’s really good. And Zepto nails that more often than not.
Amazon India: Localized Humor at Scale
Amazon India’s ads work because they actually get what daily life looks like here. The Prime Video promos feel like they were made by people who’ve been stuck in traffic for an hour or argued over the TV remote. Prime Day campaigns hit that last-minute shopper panic perfectly too, everyone knows the scramble of adding things to your cart at midnight hoping it doesn’t sell out.
The best part is how they don’t just translate ads, they build them for different languages. Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, you can tell each one is written by someone who knows the culture, not just Google Translate. It’s rare for a global brand to actually pull that off.
That mix of slick branding and truly local jokes makes people want to share the content. It feels familiar, not forced. They’re selling, sure, but it’s done in a way that feels like a wink instead of a pitch.
Zomato: Push Notifications and Sassy Social Media
Zomato basically turned push notifications into entertainment. Half the time you’re not even hungry, but that one-liner lands, and suddenly you’re thinking about ordering momos. Their copy is sharp, quick, and never feels like a sales pitch. It’s just…fun.
They also know how to jump on trends fast. A meme breaks, a cricket match goes viral, and Zomato’s already got a post out that feels like it was written in the moment. That speed makes them feel more like a friend sending you jokes than a food app trying to push discounts.
It’s a retention hack disguised as humor. Instead of spamming users with boring reminders, they’ve built a personality people actually look forward to. The food’s great, but honestly, the notifications are what keep people opening the app.
Source: https://eflot.com/blog/zomatos-marketing-strategy
Amul: The Original in Topical Humor
Amul has been making us laugh with their hoardings since the beginning of time. Those hand-drawn cartoons of the Amul girl aren’t just hoardings, they’re a continuous comedy on whatever’s happening in India; politics, cricket wins, Bollywood gossip, whatever comes to mind. The style hasn’t changed in decades, and that is what makes it feel so established.
There is something about it that is not overwrought or maybe trying too hard. Just one clever pun, one unique visual delivery, and everyone seems to notice. People grew up on those hoardings and now they’re sharing them online which is incredible as it shows old style marketing will work every time.
Amul doesn’t chase trends; it is the trend. They’ve been able to establish trust just by showing up, week after week, and year after year. You see a new hoarding, it makes you smile, and for a second you feel like India hasn’t changed that much at all.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amul
Fevicol: Humor in stickiness spanning generations.
At this stage, Fevicol ads are pretty much ingrained in Indian pop culture. In print and TV, they have always used the style of humor by amplifying the ridiculous such as sprightly bus full of commuters to impossibly unrealistic furniture structures. Nevertheless, they have ensured that you cannot forget Fevicol. It has proven to be reliable, yet absurd which is considered unusual even for a glue. What is impressive is how they have remained relevant for decades without adopting trends or applying complex messaging. Their humor is relatable based on real-life situations just exaggerated to provide a laugh. Even in a digital world, where everyone attempts to be a digital marketer, Fevicol sticks with the old school style. Fevicol does not inundate you with ads, but when you see one, you smile and remember it. Simplistic storytelling and a consistent tone provides that type of brand memory. Fevicol does not just sell glue; it sells nostalgia and confidence. Every campaign is like a wink from an old friend, which is why they are iconic.
Flipkart: Kids, Humor, and a Billion Reasons to Shop
Flipkart took a bold risk and put kids in grown-up roles in their advertising and pulled it off better than any corporate marketing team could imagine. These campaigns, especially during Big Billion Days, became a cultural moment where everyone was talking about them. Although it was humourous, the kids ad campaigns played purely into the messaging of deals, or variety, or convenience without coming across as advertising. Flipkart was trying to “de-mystify” online shopping for first-time buyers, socializing the process and making it very approachable with a tone of playfulness and family friendliness. To this day, Flipkart has always stayed true to their original identity from them while refining it a little bit; they never ditched the exciting elements that created their brand identity. That consistency is why the “kids-as-adults” concept still lives rent-free in people’s heads long after its inception. The kids ad campaigns are a rare example of advertising form that is not only playful but measurable in sales. The Flipkart kids ads established that humour could be a business strategy, not just a gimmick.
Conclusion
Humor in advertising shouldn’t be treated as a gimmick, but as a strategy that creates trust and keeps brands at top of mind. The humour Indian advertising campaigns, from Zomato’s irreverent push-notifications to Amul’s legendary hoardings, are case studies that show us how cultural fluency and wit can create loyalty and virality. Now, when audiences will scroll faster than you can complete a voiceover, and even expect smart stories, humor will be a major growth lever. Those marketers that really probe the pulse of their audience will begin shaping conversations rather than chasing them. Even learning tools like an SEO course in Mumbai are now heavily focused on creativity, alongside analytics. The future of marketing in India is those brands that get people laughing, thinking and connecting with that laugh, all at the same time.
Digital Marketing Course in Mumbai | Digital Marketing Course in Bengaluru | Digital Marketing Course in Hyderabad | Digital Marketing Course in Delhi | Digital Marketing Course in Pune | Digital Marketing Course in Kolkata | Digital Marketing Course in Thane | Digital Marketing Course in Chennai
