We can all agree that Zomato and Swiggy established India’s food delivery sector together. Over time, the two platforms have developed a reputation for public banter, leveraging festivals, trends, memes, and other events to acknowledge each other via advertising and social media.

Zomato has now utilized a similar strategy to congratulate its competitor on its anniversary via a print advertisement on Thursday. In a front-page print advertisement in The Times of India, the brand wished its rival Swiggy a happy birthday. Swiggy is not mentioned once in the advertisement. The text states, “This is a Zomato ad…to wish the other food delivery app a happy birthday.” Thank you for pushing us to do better:’). The ad’s background is a subdued orange, which is strongly related to Swiggy’s brand identity. The use of color and wording clearly identifies the intended audience without explicitly identifying it.

Using the brand’s color as an identity is nothing new for Zomato. Earlier in July, the company celebrated its own 18th anniversary with a similar product. That advertisement likewise avoided advertising the brand’s name, instead relying on the red and white color scheme for identification. The absence caused uncertainty among readers rather than immediate recognition. Guesses varied from Kotak and HSBC to Coca-Cola, Airtel, redBus, and Kellogg’s, with other readers confessing they couldn’t identify the brand at all. The uncertainty persisted throughout the morning on social media and LinkedIn.

The Swiggy birthday ad uses the same premise in reverse. It adopts a competitor’s color instead of its own, while maintaining its own tone of voice. Unlike the July commercial, this one mentions Zomato’s name while setting that line against Swiggy’s color scheme and omitting Swiggy’s name throughout.

While the last commercial was confusing, this one worked because the brand purposefully included its name. The background, along with Swiggy’s color identity and competition with Zomato, resulted in a smart print advertisement. Zomato has not expanded on the proposal beyond this print placement, and Swiggy has not replied either.

The ad’s key sentence, ‘thank you for pushing us to be better,’ appears to set it apart from traditional competitor marketing, which generally focuses on discounts, delivery speed, or feature comparisons.

This type of trade is not new in the broader advertising sector. Blinkit and Zepto have also been known to converse openly, especially on hoardings. Similarly, in 2016, Mercedes-Benz congratulated BMW on its 100th anniversary with a phrase about 100 years of competitiveness, adding that the preceding 30 years had been “a bit boring,” a reference to Mercedes’ lengthier history as the inventor of the vehicle. BMW replied with its own comebacks, citing a healthy rivalry in advertising.