Zepto Is Turning Fandom into a Marketing Platform, Not Just Another Campaign Theme

According to the 2025 Overseas Hallyu Survey, 84% of the Indian respondents viewed Korean pop culture favourably. This means there is a huge growing market for brands. The existing audience is ready to buy, and the new audiences are waiting for exposure.

Zepto understood the under current and organised an invite-only event - Seoul Street. A Korean street inspired experience in Delhi that brings fandom, brands and commerce together.

Key takeaways

• Zepto’s Seoul Street brought ~300 guests, creators and 6 brands together in Delhi under one K-culture theme.

• Fandom, not the product, was the campaign idea. Creators were the distribution channel.

• For OOH and experiential agencies, the lesson is to combine teasers, experience and creator content in one plan.

How Seoul Street Brought Korean Culture Out of the Screens?

Indians are growing in their interest in Korean culture, and this is also influencing their shopping behaviour. According to EVENTFAQS, Zepto recorded more than 4.6 lakh ramen searches and over one lakh Korean noodle searches.

These are strong signals that Indians are adopting Korean lifestyle and culture at a rapid rate, Zepto took these insights as an opportunity to create a platform that would bring brands, fans, and creators to one place.

They didn’t promote Korean food items. Instead, they brought the culture out of the screens. Seoul Street was an event-special setup that mimicked the market streets of South Korea. Nearly 300 attendees explored food experiences, games, creator activities and brand installations.

This is a meaningful shift in marketing.

Not a trend, but experience plays the main role here.

K-Products Turned the Participation into Full of Experiences:

Seoul Street recreated the atmosphere of a Korean street in Delhi and brought nearly 300 invited guests and six partner brands.

Source Url: ( AnimationXpress )

• Nongshim India offered personalized ramen cups, bowls and chopsticks.

• Sprite hosted a spicy-food challenge.

• Gimi Gimi created a K-style photobooth and interactive games.

• Get.CHEFFIN' organised a noodle-making competition.

• McCain Foods served Korean-inspired Zig Zag Fries alongside a mirror installation.

• WickedGüd presented Korean-inspired ramen flavours.

All brands used their own way to engage with the visitors. But for the first time in the Korean fandom, the brands worked under one common theme.

Guests and creators could taste products, customize merchandise, compete in challenges and take photographs instead of simply viewing advertisements.

This approach is not just marketing; it's utilising entertainment for commerce. The guests got personalized brand experiences, and Seoul Street became a part of their once-in-a-lifetime activity.

How Korean Influence Has Changed the Commerce Engagement in India?

According to Chandan Mendiratta, Zepto’s chief brand officer, this is just the beginning. He has described the idea as “snowballing the fandom”.

“We definitely want to explore this playbook more, where a fandom can be grown further. I call it ‘snowballing the fandom '. The fandom already exists - can we make it bigger?” Mendiratta says.

Mendiratta explains that the idea for the Seoul Street came from observing the growing influence of Korean culture in shopping & commercial products.

• Cadbury launched ‘BTS Oreo’

• Too Yumm! launched their Korean Karare with Varun Dhawan.

• Bingo! created a Korean-themed campaign.

• Knorr linked its Korean Ramen range to Netflix's Squid Game.

• K-beauty products have become mainstream today.

The fandom already exists in India, and brands are already recognising it.

The Seoul Street event became a replica of famous streets of Seoul, where the guests enjoyed the Korean-inspired food counters, games, creator participation and brand-led theme experiences.

Zepto here fulfilled three roles: retailer, media platform and experiential partner.

The idea is straightforward.

• Cultural interest leads to participation.

• Participation encourages product discovery.

• Discovery may lead to a purchase.

As the market is shifting towards community-based businesses, the new emerging brands can utilise the same formula to build awareness and become a Community-focused brand.

Why Delhi? The Korean Fandom Doesn’t End Here

Chandan Mendiratta considers the physical audience as the first layer of their cultural & commercial conversations. Since the fandom exists throughout India, it was not just about creating a Korean street.

The actual idea was to distribute the experience through creators in the relevant niches.

The creators who visited Seoul Street actually acted as separate distribution channels to their audiences. And notably, such creators are heavily concentrated in big cities like Mumbai & Delhi.

“It’s not just about the 300 people attending. “It’s about who comes and who amplifies the event,” Mendiratta explains.

For the Seoul Street, the invited creators were selected based on their relevancy towards the brands and theme.

The event gave unlimited opportunities to the creators for creating shareable content. This approach is a very different model where content and distribution are at the HERO position.

Mendiratta also said that Zepto spends more on distribution than on production, though both are important.

Can This Become a Repeatable Marketing Model?

Zepto has earlier done some similar culture-focused activities such as Fake Shaadi, Naani ka Ghar, and Valentine's Prom Night. The common principle is to use a recognisable cultural reference as a lifetime experience for people.

Seoul Street follows the same principle but goes beyond that. It’s not just Nostalgia but a shared interest among thousands of buyers across India. The platform may turn into theme-based activations where new brands can emerge as star players.

Zepto has moved the platform beyond being a place of consumer interaction and is turning towards brand partnerships, sponsored listings, post-order visibility, outdoor, BTL(, events, films and performance marketing.

Considering it as a marketing model, yes! The brands can actually apply this approach to different communities. But it’s not just about the theme.

Any such community-based activation needs audience interest, relevant partners, engaging activities, suitable creators and a credible connection to the products.

The challenge is to provide value to all three groups:

• Consumers looking for engaging experiences.

• Brands seeking meaningful exposure

• Platforms that want to connect cultural relevance with shopping behaviour.

Plus, measurement is equally important. Brands should track business metrics, attendance, positive testimonials, and other interesting signalling metrics.

Conclusion: Fandom Is the Starting Point, Not the Campaign Idea

Seoul Street is not just a campaign. It’s a new, unique marketing model where fandom is the growth-driving key. Commerce follows later.

Seoul Street has brought fandom, brands, creators and commerce together where experience matters more than transactions.

What’s in it for OOH advertising agencies?

Quick Answer: "The OOH marketing experts need to understand that the market is moving towards community-driven commerce. This is not a trend but a shift in consumer buying behaviour. Culture attracts attention; attention brings engagement; engagement leads to sales."

However, creating something people would genuinely want to engage with needs a deeper understanding of the audience. No brands can just change the theme and replicate the effects. The channel here starts with consumers, not brands.

Planning a community-driven or experiential campaign for your brand? Talk to the Vigyapan Mart team. We combine OOH, events and creator-led activations in one plan.