Amid predictable festive promotions, a rare campaign appears that does not shout, yet changes the conversation. It slips in gently; not always the loudest idea, but often the smallest twist stays. Valentine’s week, every year, arrives with a certain script already written. There are roses on our feeds, candlelight dinners on Reels, brands speaking the language of forever. And almost on cue, the counter-script follows. Anti-Valentine memes, self-love campaigns, playful heartbreak humour that laughs at the idea of romance itself.
But this year, in the middle of all that noise, another kind of love story quietly slipped in. Pidilite introduced its new product, ShoeFix– with a campaign film called ‘Jodi Salamat Rahe’. The film played out like a slightly exaggerated 90s Bollywood romance. A young couple is caught in a dramatic moment of love, violins playing in the background, only for the scene to collapse when a shoe’s sole suddenly breaks. The romance struggles mid-song. The jodi falters, the mood pauses. Only after that emotional world was set did the modern twist enter. With a comic turn, a Blinkit delivery person arrives with the solution (ShoeFix). The jodi is saved, the story resumes, and the film smiles again. It was a tiny cameo, but it grounded the melodrama in everyday life.
What stood out first was the choice of narration itself. ShoeFix is also aimed at Gen Z consumers, yet the film leaned fully into nostalgia. Sharing the insight behind the campaign, Kashyap Gala, Senior Vice President- Consumer Products Division, Pidilite Industries, said, “If you think through, it’s not always both the shoes which go broke. Most of the time only one breaks, and people end up discarding the whole pair. That insight led us to ‘Aapki Jodi Salamat Rahe’. Valentine’s celebrates jodis, so why not celebrate shoe jodis as well? It allowed us to blend functional product performance with emotional storytelling.” He explained that Valentine’s Day celebrates couples, so celebrating shoe jodis felt emotionally right, and that nostalgia helped connect across age groups because even Gen Z enjoys remixed cultural memories when they are entertaining and relatable.
Anurag Agnihotri, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy West, and the creative mind behind the film said, “The 90s were a magical time. Films made love feel real and worth fighting for. And that is exactly what Fevicol ShoeFix stands for. We borrowed the grammar of classic Bollywood romance, added Fevicol’s signature humour, and applied it to both jodis—the couple and the shoe.” He also explained that nostalgia lets audiences connect emotionally before absorbing a functional message, which helped ShoeFix demonstrate durability without turning into a dry product demo.
That balance between humour and function has always been Fevicol’s strength, and ShoeFix carried that legacy forward. Gala pointed to India’s exploding sneaker culture, disappearing cobblers and Gen Z’s emotional connection with footwear as reasons the product was relevant now. He said young consumers like DIY solutions and want durable fixes across all weather conditions, and that ShoeFix was designed to meet that need while being easily available through quick commerce.
However, something that stood out the most, was the sudden quirky twist in the Old Bollywood mood– the entry of a Blinkit delivery guy as a saviour. That small moment quietly hooks the conversation. This is not new, we have earlier seen quick-commerce platforms leading collaborative ads with brands stepping into their films quite often. But this time, the brand led the narrative and let quick commerce walk naturally into its story, and that unique reversal turned the campaign into a larger industry talking point.
For Pidilite, that Blinkit moment was not accidental. Gala said, “We are partners with Blinkit on a day-to-day basis for our business. A lot of our products sell with Blinkit. As we were really crafting this idea, why not bring in nostalgia with something contemporary like instant delivery or the quick commerce channel.” The film’s narrative, he explained, was built around real consumer journeys where urgency and convenience are part of everyday life, so the Blinkit rider became a natural extension of ShoeFix’s promise of an instant solution.
From the creative side, Agnihotri added, “Blinkit is our quick commerce partner. We wanted a way to showcase this partnership organically. The story allowed us to feature the Blinkit partner in a way that mirrors ShoeFix’s promise of an immediate fix. Shoes could get damaged anytime, anywhere.” He also noted that the cameo was never meant to feel like a promotion but like a believable slice of daily life, where a product shows up exactly when you need it.
This idea of blending quick commerce into brand stories has been explored differently earlier. For example, Plush teamed up with Blinkit to send sanitary pads in legal-style envelopes, turning quick-commerce deliveries into a message about menstrual awareness. Prince Kapoor, Co-Founder, Plush, said, “We’ve approached Q-commerce thoughtfully from curated storefronts and sampling to heartfelt letters with samples because we’d rather educate than just sell. One Blinkit initiative created an overwhelming response, proving the power of context-led discovery.”
Nisha Khatri, Head of Marketing, Libas, shared, “We view quick-commerce as a high-frequency touchpoint where real-time discovery happens. Our Zepto x Libas collaboration moved beyond transactions to build contextual recall outside fashion environments, strengthening our digital-first strategy and making fashion more accessible for today’s fast-paced consumers.” She also added that when platforms appear naturally inside a brand’s story, as in the ShoeFix film, the integration feels intuitive rather than promotional.
And for convenience-driven categories, the alignment has been even more direct. Haresh Karamchandani, MD and Group CEO, HyFun Foods, said, “We partnered with quick commerce platforms like Blinkit, Instamart and Zepto because their promise of speed aligns with our category. Frozen snacks need quick preparation and delivery, helping preserve quality while expanding reach into neighbourhoods where traditional retail presence is still evolving.”
In many of these cases, the collaborations were led by the quick-commerce platforms themselves, which is why Pidilite’s move felt unique but also less like a gimmick and more like a natural next step. Once the Blinkit cameo anchored the film in modern consumer behaviour, the nostalgic narration did not feel outdated.
The campaign travelled across digital platforms, outdoor activations and on-ground social engagements in Mumbai. But the Blinkit cameo continued to spark conversations around cross-brand collaborations. Industry experts believe such moments will become more common as advertising tries to mirror real life.
Harish Bijoor, Business & Brand-strategy expert & Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. said, “We live a life surrounded by brands, indoors and outdoors, so if one brand tells its narrative alone it feels artificial. Expect more brands participating together to create stories that look real instead of advertising.”
Suumit Kapoor, Brand Growth Consultant, said, “A brand that accurately reflects the world its consumer inhabits stops asking for trust and starts receiving it. The objective this serves does not appear on most media plans. It is something older and more valuable: the consumer’s quiet conviction that this brand belongs in their lives.”
Kapoor also emphasised that cross-brand cameos are not a creative shortcut but a test of how real a brand’s world actually feels. He noted that advertising for decades built controlled, single-brand universes, while today’s consumers live among many brands at once, and campaigns that reflect that everyday reality feel more trustworthy. However, he cautioned that the window for such integrations to feel organic is short. As more brands attempt them, audiences quickly recognise placements done for obligation rather than storytelling. The real risk, he said, is not creative experimentation but losing authenticity when partnerships become contractual gestures instead of narrative necessities.
Pidilite’s film seems to have struck that balance. The Blinkit rider appeared for a few seconds, delivered ShoeFix, and disappeared, leaving behind a smile and a solution. Gala stated collaborations will likely increase as consumer journeys spread across multiple platforms, but they should only happen when they add meaning to the story rather than distracting from it. Agnihotri echoed that sentiment, noting that cameos work when they feel timely and real, not when they overshadow the narrative.
The ShoeFix campaign showed how a new product launch can move beyond a simple demonstration when it is built on a clear consumer insight. With over 50 million organic views already and early traction on quick-commerce platforms, the film proved that even a functional adhesive story can scale when it solves a real everyday problem.
By placing ShoeFix inside a nostalgic Bollywood narrative and weaving in a Blinkit delivery to reflect how consumers actually solve problems today, ‘Jodi Salamat Rahe’ showed how product truth, cultural memory and modern buying behaviour can work together. As a long-standing leader in the adhesives category, Pidilite has quietly shown a path for other brands on how collaborations with quick-commerce platforms can feel natural rather than transactional. It also hints at how these platforms themselves are evolving, from being simple delivery utilities to becoming cultural touchpoints within advertising. As brands continue to experiment with such integrations, one question remains: will the next wave of brand launches be built around shared consumer ecosystems instead of isolated brand worlds?
