How Swiggy’s ‘Wrong Address’ struck the right chords with netizens

The brand team and the creative agency behind Swiggy’s Valentine’s Day campaign walk us through the insights and execution process

by Simran Sabherwal
Published: Feb 23, 2023 12:56 PM | 6 min read

This Valentine's Day in the midst of every brand proclaiming unrequited love, one brand’s film stood out and garnered a lot of brand love for its viral digital film, ‘Wrong Address’ - which highlighted how entrenched Swiggy is in people's lives and memories with the film showcasing how life and relationships evolves through a simple application. With ‘Parisian Love’ being a strong influence, the film introduces its protagonist Aashna in a new city craving for ‘Gharwali chicken curry’ delivered to her ‘Bangalore Home’. Enter Raghav, who accidentally puts in her address to have his Swiggy order delivered. From there the film takes the viewer through the journey of the young couple’s love story shown through the app’s UI and the usage of various Swiggy services – such as the quick commerce service Instamart, Dineout, Genie, to the usage of special instruction and even the possibility of modifying addresses on the app. To know more about the campaign exchange4media got in touch with team Swiggy and its creative agency behind this clutter-breaking film, Talented.

The Brief:

For brand Swiggy, the objective was clear – highlighting the convenience that Swiggy offers and its role in the everyday lives of its users. According to Ashish Lingamneni, VP - Marketing, Swiggy, “Swiggy’s vision is to provide unparalleled convenience for urban consumers and we keep looking for opportunities on how we can find stories which can help us breathe life into that vision. Occasions like Valentine’s Day give us an opportunity to tell a slightly larger story on the role that Swiggy is playing in urban citizens’ lives.” Adds Sneha John, Director, Brand Marketing and Social, Swiggy, “Valentine's Day was the perfect occasion to highlight how Swiggy has become a part of people's lives and the role it plays in cementing relationships as well. We were clear that we wanted to showcase the entire ecosystem of what Swiggy does….The one-line brief we had - to tell the story of a relationship purely through the Swiggy User Interface (UI).”

Leveraging Insights

The clear and sharp brief helped the creative team – with the job being to make sure that the story was brought alive creatively and not just about innovating the format. With the task clearly set out, Pooja Manek, Founding Member & Creative, Talented Agency says that right from the initial stage a lot of time was spent in cracking the story plot. She says, “The fact that you're not showing people on the screen, the job of the dialogue and the SFX is just so much harder to make sure that you're not losing comprehension. Those intricacies were things that we actually got a lot of time and space to work on. While modern couples use Swiggy for its convenience, we wanted to work on how we can bring a convenience app into the sphere of romance and love, and actually build a stature of thoughtfulness, meaningfulness and effort.” This focus on the build-up of romance is highlighted in sequences which show Aashana and Raghav putting in effort in their relationship either by sending over home-cooked food or adding special instructions on a Swiggy order. These acts of love may seem like an easy thing to do considering the convenience the app provides, but these gestures also reflect the effort and thoughtfulness exhibited by the protagonists in this meaningful relationship. Adds Manek, “We treated Wrong Address as a film and not an ad. Swiggy is a very secure brand and it took a backseat in the love story and let the characters take centre stage.”

For Malvika Thirani, Creative, Talented agency - who wrote the script - ‘Wrong Address’ was an opportunity to experiment creatively. She says, “The premise that the film will be a North Indian-South Indian love story was dead strong from the get-go. Coming to other insights such as chicken soup or deodorant being misspelt, came about organically. Sending someone chicken soup when they are unwell is universal and Raghav’s dialogues come from a place of actual love and concern. The film was a mix of simple, easy-to-understand visuals with caring dialogues, which tied the entire film and the insights landed well because of that.”

While Swiggy emerges as the enabler in the love story, the challenge was to ensure that the story stands out as a memorable film and not just as a Swiggy advertisement. Nabil Kureshi, Creative Producer, Talented agency says, “While we had to relate a brand story and Swiggy’s role in the relationship, the story of the two protagonists was at the core as we were fighting for Aashna and Raghav. What would they do? Why would they do something? What is their motivation? We all felt strongly for the characters and were rooting for them. This shone through each of the sequences. The way sequences were cut from the script, we had to be brutal in that regard but overall it was a collaborative process.”

Another key insight identified was the addresses that are added in the Swiggy app over time. Lingamneni says, “Many people we spoke to had old addresses on Swiggy and this was an interesting starting point as this was saying that in the modern world, your history of romance is actually present in your Swiggy app. We caught the insight of addresses reflecting your relationship history at some point and wanted to try and bring that alive.”

A large part of the success of the brand film could be attributed to the relatability factor. Bala Padmanabhan, Brand Strategist, Talented Agency adds, “All the little moments that you see in these films are actually based on true events and this is reflected in the reception. People do delete addresses or add a note or communicate with their delivery partner. These little moments through Swiggy UI elevate the experience of the film. It's a visual storytelling format and the production work on sound design also elevates what we were trying to say.” John concurs, “The reason why it's travelling so well is that it resonates with many – for example, migrants to the big city who are missing their Gharwali Dal or chicken, curry, etc are parts of the film that is relatable to many and even to modern couples in modern relationships.”

The Metrics

Reach - 9,080,383

Overall engagement - 71k+

ER - 0.78%

YT Overall views 1.3M, just in 2 days.

Avg % view: 71%

Engagement: 1500+ shares, 150 comments, 900 likes

Team Behind The Campaign

Ashish Lingamneni: VP, Marketing, Swiggy
Sneha John: Director, Brand Marketing and Social, Swiggy.

Bala Padmanabhan: Brand Strategist, Talented agency
Malvika Thirani: Creative, Talented agency
Nabil Kureshi: Creative Producer, Talented agency
Pooja Manek: Founding member and Creative, Talented agency