Havas Media India, the media agency on record for Instamart, recently launched a first-of-its-kind print advertising campaign for Instamart and Go Zero, the guilt-free ice cream brand, embedding a functioning LED light into a print ad that activates the moment a reader turns to the page.
The campaign features a full-page newspaper spread designed to replicate the interior of a refrigerator. As the reader turns to it, the embedded LED switches on, recreating the instinctive, muscle-memory act of opening a fridge door. An Instamart delivery partner is revealed holding a tub of Go Zero ice cream, collapsing the distance between the craving and the brand in a single physical gesture.
The spark for the idea came from a sample innovation shared by the Instamart team, a card embedded with an LED which Havas Media recognised as a powerful platform waiting for the right strategic context. The team identified the fridge as that context: the place where both Instamart’s and Go Zero’s core propositions converge, simultaneously the site of the impulse and the answer to it. Instamart exists to eliminate the gap between a craving and its fulfilment; Go Zero exists to take the guilt out of the indulgence that follows. Translating a card-format innovation into a newspaper-scale execution was the creative and engineering leap that brought the idea to life.
Havas Media identified print as the right canvas for this moment because of its inherent physicality a medium you hold, turn, and engage with, and one that is capable of genuine surprise when it behaves in a way that goes beyond the expected.
Bringing the idea to life required substantial production engineering: designing, manufacturing, and embedding a functioning LED mechanism inside a newspaper spread at scale, coordinated across Havas Media’s strategy, creative, production, and media planning teams, in close partnership with the Swiggy Instamart brand team.
Uday Mohan, COO, Havas Media India and Havas Play, said: “What excites me about this work is the discipline behind it. The LED is not a novelty; it is a precisely engineered media moment that emerges directly from the insight. Taking a format innovation and finding its perfect strategic home that is the standard we hold ourselves to: every element of the plan should be doing strategic work, not just creative work.”
Mayur Hola, Head of Brand, Swiggy, said, “Print works best when it makes you pause and participate, not just flip the page. We wanted to recreate a behaviour that’s almost muscle memory, like opening the fridge and bringing that moment alive within the newspaper. It’s simple, instantly relatable, and brings together convenience and craving in a single interaction. That’s exactly what Instamart and Go Zero are about- showing up in that instant, and making it effortlessly accessible.
Kiran Shah, Founder, Go Zero: “Ice cream is rarely planned. It’s a spontaneous, in-the-moment craving. This idea captures the exact moment of discovery: opening the fridge and finding something you want instantly. It’s playful, intuitive, and brings our guilt-free indulgence proposition to life in a way that people can actually feel.
The campaign is a reflection of what the best client-agency partnerships can produce: a client’s instinct for innovation, sharpened by strategic thinking and brought to life through disciplined execution.
