India’s legacy brands shift ad playbooks to win Gen Z’s digital-first spend
With Gen Z representing 377 million consumers and 43% of India’s consumption spending, brands including Zandu Balm, Emami and Colgate-Palmolive India are leaning into creators, digital content and commerce media.
The brand move
India’s 377 million Gen Z consumers account for 43% of consumption spending worth about $860 billion, pushing legacy brands such as Zandu Balm and Emami toward digital, creator-led and commerce media strategies.
The numbers
- 377 million
- 43%
- $860 billion
- over 60%
- $12-15 billion
Why it matters for the brand
Legacy consumer brands should reallocate growth budgets from broad-reach media toward creators, platform-native content and retail media to win Gen Z’s digital-first purchase journey.
What to track next
- Share of FMCG ad budgets allocated to creators, retail media, short-form video and commerce-linked campaigns.
- Whether quick-commerce and marketplaces expand self-serve ad products, closed-loop measurement and audience targeting for FMCG brands.
- Changes in Gen Z repeat-purchase rates after creator-led trial campaigns versus promotions-led acquisition.
- Rising creator fees, engagement fraud rates or declining organic reach on Instagram, YouTube and emerging short-video platforms.
- Growth of regional-language creators and tier-2/tier-3 digital commerce adoption.
The counter-case
The shift may be more tactical than structural: legacy FMCG brands still depend on broad-reach TV, distribution and price promotions, while creator campaigns can generate attention without durable purchase lift. Gen Z is not a homogeneous premium digital audience, and many low-ticket categories such as balm and toothpaste remain habit-led and household-purchased rather than individually discovered online.