Chief brand officer Chandan Mendiratta calls it ‘snowballing the fandom’. Seoul Street is Zepto’s test of a playbook that treats existing communities as a marketing platform.
Cheenu Agarwal20 Oct 2026
05:30IST
New Update
The Korean wave is not new to Indian marketers. K-pop, K-dramas, and Korean food have been making their way into Indian pop culture for years. Brands, in turn, have transitioned from merely referencing the trend to building products, campaigns, and collaborations around it.
Now, Zepto is exploring what happens when an existing fandom becomes an immersive experience.
The quick-commerce platform recently brought Korean culture offline through Seoul Street, an invite-only recreation of a Korean street in Delhi. The event featured food, creator-led activities, and unique brand experiences, bringing together Nongshim India, Sprite, Cheffin, Gimi Gimi, WickedGüd, and McCain Foods.
For Zepto, however, the Korean theme is just the beginning. The larger experiment is what Chandan Mendiratta, Zepto’s chief brand officer, calls “snowballing the fandom”—taking an existing interest-based community and creating more ways for it to participate, engage, and amplify that passion.
“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.
This distinction is important. Brands have already engaged with the Korean wave through products and advertising. Oreo has worked with BTS; Too Yumm! launched Korean Karare with Varun Dhawan; Bingo! created a Korean-inspired campaign around creators and a dance challenge; and Knorr linked its Korean Ramen range to Netflix’s Squid Game. K-beauty, once a niche, is now mainstream in Indian beauty retail.
In other words, the fandom already exists. Zepto’s question is whether it can become a marketing property.
From K-Wave to K-experience
Mendiratta explains that the idea for Seoul Street came from observing how Korean culture is influencing consumer behaviour.
“We noticed an underlying current of interest in all things Korean. We consume a lot of Korean content and, as a result, we consume many Korean products—be it beauty, food, or others,” he says.
The event attempted to bring these interests together in one physical space, inspired by the streets of Seoul, with food counters, games, creator participation and brand-led experiences.
As the title sponsor, Nongshim India allowed visitors to personalise cup noodles, ramyun bowls, and chopsticks. Sprite ran a spice challenge, Gimi Gimi set up a K-style photobooth and various activities, and Cheffin hosted a noodle-making competition, while McCain and WickedGüd introduced Korean-inspired foods at the event.
However, the brands involved are not merely traditional sponsors. Mendiratta notes that brands increasingly approach Zepto with products and ideas to build experiences around them.
“A lot of brands come to us wanting to collaborate. They might say, ‘We have spicy noodles. Can we do something unique around that?’” he says.
Zepto has noticed a growing number of Korean products and references surfacing through these brand conversations.
“Over time, we’ve seen more Korean brands and culture coming in—Cadbury launched its BTS Oreo, for example. The fandom may be small now, but it’s growing. That’s why we decided to create a Korean-themed event,” says Mendiratta.
The investment split between Zepto and its brand partners remains undisclosed.
The audience goes beyond the event
For Zepto, the physical audience is only one layer. The platform deliberately uses creators as a distribution channel, since these activations are also designed to generate shareable content that extends well beyond the venue.
“It’s not just about the 300 people attending. “It’s about who comes and who amplifies the event,” Mendiratta explains.
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This is why Zepto focuses on cities such as Delhi and Mumbai. While consumers in smaller cities may watch the content, the creator ecosystem that produces and distributes it is concentrated in the larger cities.
“Most of these creators are based in cities like Delhi and Mumbai, though their content is consumed nationwide,” he adds.
For Seoul Street, creators were selected based on their relevance to both the brands and the theme, with food creators representing a significant portion of the guest list.
The event also doubled as a content production set. Mendiratta points out that Zepto spends more on distribution than on production, though both are important.
This makes the model different from a conventional offline brand event. The physical experience is effectively the first layer; creator content and social distribution extend its life beyond the venue.
Is quick commerce becoming an experiential partner?
This is where Zepto’s broader role in the marketing ecosystem becomes interesting.
The platform has increasingly moved beyond being simply a place where consumers transact. Its brand partnerships now span on-app placements, sponsored listings and post-order visibility, as well as outdoor, BTL, events, films and performance marketing.
Mendiratta says the company sees opportunities across both on-app and off-app formats.
For Seoul Street, Zepto played three roles: retailer, media platform, and experiential partner.
This model is especially relevant for newer brands seeking awareness, but even established names like McCain are leveraging it to enter fresh cultural conversations.
Why Korea, and why now?
The timing is not about discovering the Korean wave. Zepto acknowledges that the fandom has been building for some time.
Instead, the company appears to have reached a point where the cultural signal is strong enough to test an offline format.
Mendiratta says Zepto’s approach is to identify cultural moments that people are eager to talk about.
“We always look for those earned media moments—things people want to talk about. With Seoul Street or a K-Pop-themed event, the idea is to make people say, ‘What is this? I want to be part of it,’” he says.
Interest from creators and audiences before and during the event reinforced the belief that this fandom could travel beyond its entertainment roots.
That’s what separates Seoul Street from a conventional Korean-themed campaign. Rather than using K-pop or Korean food as mere creative devices, Zepto is trying to build a space where food, music, creators, products, and community converge.
The next fandom
Earlier experiential initiatives from Zepto—like ‘Fake Shaadi’ and ‘Nani ka Ghar’—celebrated culturally familiar moments. Seoul Street marks a shift: it is rooted in a shared interest, not just a shared memory.
This opens up a broader playbook for Zepto.
Mendiratta says the platform is eager to explore other fan circles, although details of the next activation remain under wraps.
“If this goes well, we’ll definitely think of more occasions and more fan communities to engage,” he says.
SPRITEZeptoKorean foodChandan Mendiratta
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