Zed Black taps MS Dhoni for ‘Sab Shubh Hoga’ push to scale cultural relevance in agarbatti market

Zed Black has rolled out its ‘Sab Shubh Hoga’ campaign, fronted by MS Dhoni, as the brand looks to deepen its connect in a category driven by ritual, trust, and habit. The campaign positions the product within everyday moments of hope and positivity-territory that aligns closely with both the category and Dhoni’s public persona. For a largely commoditised agarbatti market, this is less about awareness and more about memory structures. The strategic play here is clear: celebrity as a trust accelerator. Dhoni’s equity-calm, dependable, widely trusted across demographics-maps neatly onto a category where purchase decisions are often subconscious and loyalty-led. Zed Black is effectively borrowing cultural capital to stand out in a cluttered, price-sensitive segment where differentiation is otherwise limited to fragrance variants and distribution scale. More broadly, this signals a continued shift in traditional FMCG categories towards sharper brand-building. Regional and legacy players are increasingly investing in national faces and integrated storytelling to compete with larger packaged goods companies. The use of a universally recognised figure also suggests ambitions beyond core Hindi-speaking markets, pushing for wider geographic salience. Our takeaway: in low-involvement categories, brand is the only moat-and Zed Black is choosing to build it through familiarity, not disruption.