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Zomato Broke Every Marketing Rule—and It Worked !

Esight Team
12-06-2026
7 min read
Zomato marketing campaign graphic featuring a smartphone displaying the Zomato app, witty push notifications, food illustrations, and the headline "How Did Zomato Break Every Marketing Rule and Still Worked?" by Esight.

Almost all of the brands invest lakhs in advertisements which are only forgotten. Zomato ended up spending hardly any rupees on regular marketing and advertising, and on a single 280 character tweet, the right meme at the proper time, and a perfectly-timed push notification to make you laugh before you open the app, it's the brand which will endure as an Indian household name.

This is the way to do it at Zomato. There's so much you can keep forever in your business mind even if you have taken a business course from a top MBA.If you are a business man anywhere in India, there are some things you could learn that you can never forget in a business school. Every best digital marketing company in Kochi these days should be keen to embezzle the Zomato model. Let's quickly explain this.

Why has Zomato decided to discontinue their ‘Normal' advertising?

In 2018, the social media team at Zomato took a bold step and decided to do away with the corporate jargon.As you can imagine, the decision to avoid corporate jargon was a risky one by the social media team at Zomato around 2018. No Edited away, no stock photo posts, but instead writers who sounded like the one you normally talk to and text at night around 11 PM, saying “bro order something na.” 

Their X (Twitter) account started a trend—says the Crowley brothers: witty one-liners, memes that at the perfect moment, and answers that spouted snitches (talking screenshots) and shared complaints to. A few years back, in 2023, Zomato had 17+ million active users on a monthly basis and brand recall tests showed that they were No.1 in food-tech, not because of the product itself, but for the way which the brand communicated.

What was the uniqueness of Zomato's Push notifications over all the others'?

Reflect on all of those push messages unread — and then the last Zomato message that you have laughed at. The three pillars of their strategy were: Timing precision: If it was raining at the evening when a message came out on the phone stating that it was raining outside, they must have got someone's love, come on you deserve biryani. Personalisation at scale, using the past ordering history of a person poured in the phone, they must have made this message, come on you have ordered food many times before, your tastes have not changed. 

Copy designed to entertain – not just inform – a person must have loved it that much, come on, you deserve biryani. The outcome: Open rates are said to be as much as 3-4 times above the industry average. If you're like all the best Kochi digital marketing companies, you want to ask yourself: Do you make the customer feel uneasy or does your reminder put a smile on their face?


So, how did Meme Marketing Aid Zomato in Gaining the Social Media Sport?

It seems simple enough to be a good marketing strategy to adopt. It isn’t. Everyone who attempts it seems to sound like a loafer-in-law who hopes to speak the contemporary language of the new generation. They built their own team in-house, made up of the people who wrote the posts they have, and they shared them on their personal pages as well — they've got it when we're going the extra mile. 

Their memes were about Indian universalities like the hunger of late nights, after-work debate on the lunch for the office, exam tension, or when it's monsoon time. There were no niche subjects, it was everything that was relatable in Kochi to Kolkata. What came from the new app? Millions of impressions each week and people sharing copies of every post in advance of it even hit the web!

Also Read:  https://esightsolutions.com/blog/Moment-Marketing-in-2026:-What-It-Is,-Why-It-Works,-and-How-to-Do-It-Right/28


What lessons can be learnt from the Zomato playbook, for the Kerala business?

Just take off the scales and Zomato's game is straightforward: discover your brand voice, be responsive, produce content folks would like to see and be everywhere every day. It is possible in any Restaurant in Thrissur, at any Clothing Boutique in Calicut or in any Tech Startup in Infopark. Three transferable lessons:

  • Conduct a specific drill and then dominate one platform — Zomato was the first to have Twitter and expanded.

  • If warmth and humanity are your goals, so are the beats, formally and stiffly, every time.

  • The daily reach is more powerful than virality — one viral post followed up every day would be worth more than many posts that aren't viral but are viewed consistently.

This is too much for most of them to handle - it is. This is what is of importance when you form an alliance with the Best digital marketing company in Kochi to make it within reach—from a plan to actual implementation.


But does Zomato use other channels for marketing other than social media?

The "social" was the outward appearance, while the inward was a fellow whose mighty engine was personalised emails based on order history and city, SEO optimised restaurants and menus landing "restaurant near me" searches, social for content performance optimisation targeting people looking to find a restaurant they can go to for highly valuable acquisition and finally in-app content including stories, polls, and editorial pieces. 

A 2024 report from the data firm Statista reveals brands are twice as likely to achieve a positive sale in integrated multi-channel strategies, compared to single-channel ones, with the sales rate being as high as 287%. The best digital marketing company in Kochi is not only going to handle your Instagram Page, but they are going to construct the overall system.


What is the purpose of Zomato's story for the growth of your business?

Zomato wasn’t the better product than Swiggy on day one — rather it was by making its brand look human, funny and present that it was able to win on day one and keep users engaged. The ones that are rising in the fastest pace in Kochi and everywhere throughout Kerala, realize that digital marketing isn't a single-time expenditure yet a long-term venture to remember them, appearing in a systematic approach and carrying out across every channel with a genuine worth.

This is exactly what Esight Solutions is made of, if you're searching for the best digital marketing company in Kochi to accomplish such a brand presence. With a finger on the pulse when it comes to SEO, social media, content strategy and performance campaigns, Kochi-based but with lots of experience, we can ensure that your brand is heard (and seen) by your audience through the right approach, voice and team for each move.

There's a story to tell with your brand. Try to make it heard—let's make it heard.


Frequently Asked Questions

1.How is it that Zomato has been able to increase their users with digital marketing?

To generate a huge sense of brand recall, Zomato conducted hyper-personalised push notification campaigns, went viral with social content and leveraged meme marketing, to urge people to have a good time wherever they touch its app. This contribution resulted in 17+ million people accessing the site monthly and a strong category leading awareness.

2.Is the Kochi small businesses able to implement Digital Marketing Strategy of Zomato?

Yes. People appreciate consistent brand voice, platform focus, entertaining content and personalised communication, whether it's for a small or large group of people. Brand fundamentals can be employed in a retail shop, restaurant or service organization of Kochi on a small budget with correct guidance.

How was adopting a personalisation strategy important to Zomato's digital marketing?

One aspect that was always emphasised was personalisation, ranging from notifications based on users' weather and order history to emails customised according to their city and cuisine preferences.One of the main features was always personalisation — whether it was alerts based on weather history or orders, or emails based on the user's city and cuisine preferences. Each message was personalized, instead of mass-mailed, which increased open rates, decreased churn and increased long-term loyalty.



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