Zandu Balm turns to ‘Peedaland’ campaign to win Gen Z as competition intensifies in ₹6,000 crore pain relief market

Zandu Balm is stepping up its digital and cultural marketing push to connect with younger consumers as competition intensifies in India’s ₹6,000 crore topical pain relief market.

The Emami-owned brand has launched a new campaign built around “Peedaland”, a fictional universe where everyday discomforts such as screen-time headaches, tech neck and fatigue are portrayed as characters. The campaign marks an attempt to adapt the communication of a legacy pain-relief brand to the consumption habits and cultural references of younger, digitally connected consumers.

The campaign, developed by Tree Communications and Abbas Mirza, will run across television, digital, OTT and social media platforms. The rollout covers Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal.

For Zandu Balm, the strategy represents a shift from relying primarily on established brand recall to creating newer cultural associations around the product.

“Few brands have shaped popular culture the way Zandu Balm has,” said Mohan Goenka, Director, Emami. He pointed to the brand’s association with the song “Munni Badnaam Hui” as an example of how its advertising has historically extended beyond conventional product communication.

“Building on that legacy, #UndoWithZandu reflects our approach to keeping the brand culturally relevant that reimagines every day ‘peedas’ for today's digitally connected consumers,” Goenka said.

The campaign comes at a time when pain relief brands are competing not only on product efficacy but also for consumer attention across an increasingly fragmented media landscape. For established brands, this has made maintaining relevance among younger consumers a key marketing challenge.

Goenka said the task for a heritage brand was not simply to preserve its existing relevance but to continuously earn it with newer generations.

“The challenge for a heritage brand is not preserving relevance but continuously earning it,” he said.

The campaign’s focus on technology-related discomforts also reflects how the brand is attempting to position traditional pain-relief products around newer consumption patterns. Screen-heavy lifestyles, prolonged device use and fatigue provide the narrative backdrop for the campaign, allowing Zandu Balm to connect its traditional positioning with contemporary everyday experiences.

The company is also using humour and culturally familiar storytelling to communicate with Gen Z, a consumer segment that has become increasingly important for brands with long-established identities.

“If Gen Z has taught brands one thing, it's this: life's peedas may keep changing, but consumers still want solutions that work instantly,” Goenka said.

The campaign’s performance will ultimately depend on whether the cultural narrative translates into stronger consumer engagement and, more importantly, product consideration among younger buyers. For heritage FMCG brands, the challenge is increasingly to retain the trust built over decades while finding new reasons for younger consumers to enter the franchise.