Q] What are the key pillars guiding your marketing strategy for 2025, and how are they aligned with changing consumer expectations?
Over the years, we’ve tried different approaches across content, channels, and media, adapting to evolving consumer behaviors and trends. Our strategy for 2025 rests on three pillars: (i) building brand love by delighting customers across discovery, interaction, packaging, and digital touchpoints; (ii) hyper-personalising journeys both on-app (menus, pricing, offers) and off-app (digital platforms, WhatsApp, and more) and (iii) keeping the customer at the center with relevant, value-driven communication and communities they truly want to engage with.
Q] How do you allocate your marketing budgets across OOH, digital, or traditional media? What does the split look like right now?
We start with brands, not channels. Each brand serves a distinct purpose - Behrouz and Faasos lead categories, Oven Story and Wendy’s build awareness, while Lunchbox, The Good Bowl, and Biryani Life target value seekers. We first define brand objectives: launches, innovation, salience, or performance, then choose the right channel mix. Currently, we’re investing very little in mass media like OOH and TV. About 90–95% of our spend goes to digital, and 5–10% to OOH or print. Within digital, 60% is performance-driven (Google, Meta, Instagram) and 40% for salience (YouTube, Meta, influencers, social content). Budgets are flexible, reviewed monthly, and revamped quarterly to push the right brand at the right time and maximise ROI.
Q] Both Wendy’s ‘Roast’ campaign and Lunchbox’s Onam campaign showed very different but equally engaging ways of involving customers. How did these ideas come to life?
For Wendy’s fifth year in India, we brought its global sass and roast culture to life through immersive experiences, rave-themed stores, branded party buses, creator-led roast formats, and social engagement on LinkedIn, making customers active participants rather than passive viewers. For Lunchbox’s Onam campaign, we focused on culture- Navratri, Ganpati, Pongal, and more. We launched a mini Sadya meal across 150–200 pin codes, filling a gap where such meals were otherwise unavailable, with banana-leaf-style packaging, curated menus, AI Mahabali avatars, and a MakeMyTrip Kerala contest. The goal was to make Onam accessible and engaging for both Malayalees and anyone wanting a taste of Kerala’s culture.
Q] What kind of ROI and results have you seen from the cultural or festive campaigns?
ROIs have been strong, with a 30–40% year-on-year jump driven by sharper propositions, clear campaign objectives, and precise communication. AI and technology help us in targeting cohorts, choosing channels, and tweaking creatives, which boosts performance. On the salience side, metrics like cost per reach and click-through rates have improved thanks to AI-powered targeting and personalisation.
Q] You mentioned AI-driven personalization. How is it working out, and how do you ensure it doesn’t feel intrusive?
It’s working well, as seen in our ROI metrics. In-app, AI personalises recommendations, offers, and upsell prompts, delivering a Netflix-like experience that boosts conversions and revenue. Externally, click-through rates on Google, Meta, and WhatsApp are up, while cost per reach is down by 30–40%, enabling 2–3x wider reach. We’re now exploring AI for creative development (graphics, videos, and campaign assets) to keep content genuine, relatable, and engaging.
Q] Earlier this year, you launched QuickiES, a 15-minute or free delivery service. What was your strategy and how has it performed?
QuickiES performed well in its first few months, offering key learnings. One major insight was that customers don’t just want quick snacks, they want everything fast, from pizza and biryani to full meals. Most sales came from core menu items rather than snacks, showing that speed is becoming a consumer expectation, not a bonus. Repeat rates rose 70–80%, and monthly ordering frequency increased 30–40%.
For the launch, we ran the ‘Foodgasm in 15 minutes or free’ campaign, blending appetising visuals with the promise of speed, supported by mass media, YouTube, outdoor, and influencer activations. We’re now exploring how to institutionalise fast food preparation and delivery. QuickiES needs a precise recipe for success, balancing variety, quality, and speed with sustainable unit economics and business P&L. Beyond QuickiES, we’re revamping EatSure app workflows and kitchen SOPs to cut prep and delivery times, ensuring the consumer demand for hot, fresh, and fast food is met across all brands.
Q] With influencers being key to your strategy, do you have upcoming collaborations, and how are you expanding into Tier 2 and 3 cities?
Our influencer strategy has evolved from celebrity-led to micro and mid-tier creators who create organic and authentic content. As we expand into Tier 2 and 3 cities, awareness remains crucial, we blend vernacular influencers with local activations like flyering and regional print to drive connection and cultural relevance.
Q] With 45+ Rebel Foods brands, which ones get the most investment, and how do you decide when to scale back?
Most of our 45 brands are partner-led, where marketing is driven by them. For our 10–15 own brands (depending on geography), we prioritise based on lifecycle stage, performance, and annual goals. Currently, Behrouz, Faasos, Wendy’s, and Lunchbox receive consistent investment with clear objectives, while other brands get campaign-led or event-specific support. All brands are seeing year-on-year growth in margins, sales, and digital brand love, with Wendy’s and Faasos emerging as this year’s top performers.
Q] What are your marketing efficiency goals for the next 12 months, and what will drive them?
We’re targeting a 20–30% improvement in CAC and ROAS. Our focus remains on sharper personalised targeting, content, community-led campaigns, and reaching the right audience through the right channels. Each campaign is guided by clear objectives and consumer insights to ensure genuine resonance and efficiency.
PROFILE
Nishant Kedia, Chief Marketing Officer of all owned and licensed brands at Rebel Foods, has 13+ years in D2C brand building, strategy consulting, digital transformation, and operations, focusing on consumer-first approaches to create India’s most loved food brands. An IIT Delhi BTech and ISB MBA, he has worked with McKinsey and ITC, providing strategic counsel, managing projects, and setting up a greenfield plant.
ABOUT THE BRAND
Rebel Foods, one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing internet restaurant companies, houses brands like Faasos, Behrouz Biryani, Oven Story Pizza, The Good Bowl, Sweet Truth, and Wendy’s. With 450+ smart kitchens across 75+ cities in India, UAE, UK, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia, its Rebel OS platform powers rapid creation, scaling, and management of multiple brands.
FACTS
Media, Digital, Creative Agency: In-house
PR Agency: Clarity Comms
