We all love to mark a friend’s birthday with something unique and surprising. Similarly, Hershey’s tapped into it while celebrating Zepto’s 4th anniversary. But they didn’t just send a card or post a story. They built a big moment. The Hershey Company took over a massive billboard in Mumbai’s ever-buzzing street Bandra. Not with static branding but with something better. They turned it into a giant dispenser of Hershey’s Kisses. A tactile, irresistible installation in the middle of the city’s chaos.
Here’s where it got clever: the more chocolates people took, the more a hidden message appeared. And once the final Kisses pack found a hand, the full message slid into view:
“Happy Birthday Zepto
With love and kisses
Hersheys”
“Birthday wish karne ka tarika thoda casual tha”, but the execution was just precision marketing. Flawlessly delivered by Alakh Advertising & Publicity, the OOH wizards known for rewriting rules of traditional outdoor media. This was a fusion of outdoor and guerrilla marketing with full-sensory, real-time activation that stopped people in their tracks. The main thing was the place buzzing with creatives, college-goers, and conversation. Exactly where you’d want to drop a surprise like this.
For Zepto, India’s fast-scaling quick-commerce rocket ship this playful activation fits like a fast, fun, and unexpected. Just like their brand promise. For Hershey’s, it signaled something more: a confident pivot into experience-led storytelling that felt both premium and personal.
Today’s audiences want more than just visuals. Today’s consumers don’t just want to see a message, they want to touch it, taste it, post it. That’s exactly what Hershey’s gave them. This campaign broke away from static displays. Instead, it invited people to become part of the story. By embedding the product right into the medium, the campaign sparked spontaneous joy that lingers longer than a logo or a tagline ever could. It was OOH you had to interact with and it worked because it was a moment lived.
