What does a nostalgic toffee name and tagline, a stolen chocolate consignment, and a croissant have in common? At first glance, very little. Yet all three recently became unexpected talking points online, drawing audiences and brands into conversations that extended far beyond the products themselves. In each case, an unplanned moment evolved into a cultural flashpoint, giving brands a chance to capture attention in ways a campaign could not have. They created organic marketing opportunities, not because marketers planned them, but because the Internet did.
This underscores a growing reality—some of the most valuable brand opportunities today are not born in creative rooms, but emerge organically from online conversations.
Most recently, the video of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gifting a packet of Melody toffees to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni created a viral moment that demonstrated how quickly the Internet can propel a familiar brand back into public discourse. Netizens created memes on ‘#Melodi’, other brands joined the conversation, and the Internet couldn’t help but reflect on the nostalgic tagline of the legacy product.
For Parle Products, the company that manufactures Melody, the moment acted as a reminder of how deeply embedded some brands become in popular culture. Mayank Shah, Chief Marketing Officer, Parle Products says, “While Melody has enjoyed strong consumer affection for decades, seeing it spark conversations across geographies and generations created an organic moment that no conventional marketing plan could have scripted. For us, it was less about capitalising on a trend and more about participating authentically in a conversation that consumers themselves had initiated. We responded in a way that stayed true to the brand’s personality, adding to the dialogue while allowing consumers to remain at the centre of the narrative.”
Parle responded to the global moment and the subsequent buzz by reposting the video with the caption, “Sweetening relationships since 1983.” Interestingly, the company also launched a separate Instagram account for Melody to capitalise on the organic marketing push. Parle even collaborated with Vadilal to launch Melody ice-cream.
This is not an isolated incident of the Internet giving brands an unplanned marketing push. A recent global example is KitKat. When the brand released a statement about 12 tonnes of chocolate being stolen while the consignment was in transit from Italy to Poland, the Internet turned the heist into a viral meme with pop culture references and relatable comments. The brand launched a ‘Stolen KitKat Tracker’, turning the heist into a chocolate hunt.
What makes such opportunities valuable for brands is that they don’t behave like traditional advertising. They generate earned media rather than paid impressions. They travel through shares, screenshots and jokes instead of media plans. Most importantly, they feel native to the conversations consumers are already having. Rajni Daswani, Chief Growth Officer - People & Business, SoCheers says, “Moments like these highlight that people no longer wait for brands to tell them how to feel. They create their own moments and pull the brand into conversations. The brands that get picked up are the ones that have built enough cultural clarity for people to recognise their identity and create the narrative.”
This points to a shift in control, from brand-led storytelling to audience-led narrative-building. Once a moment enters the Internet ecosystem, it gets shaped by how people interpret, remix and circulate it within their own cultural frameworks.
Explaining why some moments become cultural conversations, Kobita Banerjee, Group Creative Director, OML says, “Audiences engage with moments that either make them feel too much of something or drop a reference to something they already know. The Melody moment had both—a gush of pride and nostalgia, and a bait for Internet-natives well-versed in ‘#Melodi’ memes.”
Such instances reinforce that brand relevance is no longer driven solely by advertising reach. Internet culture has become an influential force in deciding how brands are perceived, making it essential for them to be part of conversations and communities on social media.
Last year, Britannia capitalised on this insight when a creator mispronouncing the word ‘croissant’ as ‘Prashant’ became a talking point. The brand embraced this mispronunciation, translating it into a viral campaign. Shekhar Agarwal, General Manager, Marketing, Cakes, Rusks and Croissants, Britannia Industries reveals, “For a digitally native brand like Treat Croissant, we have ingrained it in our DNA to mine insights from social trends and conversations online. The Croissant–Prashant phenomenon stems from the same belief and objective. What started as a creator’s humorous mispronunciation of ‘croissant’ as ‘Prashant,’ quickly became an internet sensation, with consumers driving the trend through memes, jokes and social conversations. Recognising the momentum behind the moment, we leaned into it as opposed to taking a corrective step, and embraced the new identity through social content, creator engagement and playful brand participation. The response reinforced how quickly a simple, relatable moment can evolve into a larger cultural conversation when consumers make it their own.”
When Internet shapes marketing
As Internet users increasingly influence brand narratives in real time, a single tweet can redefine reputation, a viral meme can outpace a multimillion-dollar campaign, and a customer review, a creator’s reaction video or an unexpected trend on social media platforms can reshape how a brand is seen within hours. Even traditional campaigns are now viewed through the lens of the Internet. “Brand narratives no longer end with the ad, the experience or the activation; they end with a compilation of what the brand did, how the creators added sub-plots, and how the memes made it unmissable,” Banerjee says.
In this new landscape where audiences are effectively co-authoring narratives, brands are responding spontaneously—joining memes, addressing criticism in real time and adapting their tone to match the cultural pulse of the moment. However, industry experts believe that none of it would hold any meaning if the brand identity is not strong.
Melanie Joe, Executive Creative Director - Copywriting, TheSmallBigIdea elaborates, “Audiences will take your brand somewhere you didn’t plan for, and if your identity isn’t strong enough, you’ll just drift wherever the Internet takes you. You might get noticed in the moment, but it does nothing to build your brand over time.” This makes brand-building necessary, because while the Internet can take you places your marketing budget cannot, it will only be effective once you have given your audience something to work with.
Hence, brands becoming part of a spontaneous conversation or moment is not always as random as it seems. “Something that looks unplanned on the surface is often built on years of deliberate work and the confidence that makes spontaneity possible,” Daswani emphasises.
However, she points out that the audience can tell whether a spontaneous conversation or reaction feels genuine or orchestrated. “Authentic ones compound, and the forced ones are often criticised and deliver only short-term impact.”
These distinctions become especially visible in the speed-driven ecosystem of social media, where the pressure to participate can often blur the line between meaningful engagement and opportunistic posting, making intent just as important as execution.
Joe backs this, adding, “Most brands spot a trend, scramble to make a pun out of it, post it before anyone has really thought it through, and call it a day. This formula is made for virality, but not relevance or affinity. The brands that actually benefit are the ones who don’t need to force the connection.”
This, according to her, requires a level of brand clarity where everyone understands the raison d’être of the brand.
Shah concurs, saying, “For us, participating in Internet conversations is not about chasing every trend, but about identifying moments that naturally align with the brand’s values, voice and consumer sentiment. We see these cultural touchpoints as opportunities to engage with, remain contemporary and foster deeper connections.”
For brands, the challenge is to not simply participate in Internet culture or react to unplanned marketing moments, but to understand them, authentically respond to them and add value to the conversation. In today’s attention economy, the brands that are listening closely enough to spot a meaningful opportunity, the moment it arrives, are the ones winning the game.
