Eternal ad spend up 41% to Rs 1,138 crore in Q2FY27
Eternal, parent of Zomato and Blinkit, spent Rs 1,138 crore on advertising and sales promotion in Q2FY27, up 41% YoY, as AI agents loom.
01 · A spending signal from Eternal
Eternal, the parent of Zomato and Blinkit, closed the September 2026 quarter with advertising and sales promotion expenses of Rs 1,138 crore. That is a 41.2% jump from Rs 806 crore in the same quarter last year and a 20.4% sequential rise from Rs 945 crore in April-June FY27.
The company did not split the figure between advertising, sales promotion or individual platforms. For brand leaders, the aggregate matters less than the direction: Eternal is spending hard to acquire customers while its businesses expand.
02 · AI agents could take over part of acquisition budgets
Deepinder Goyal, founder and vice-chairman of Eternal, said some digital marketing spend on new customer acquisition could move to AI agents as these agents get better at completing purchases. His reasoning: AI agents may offer more efficient customer acquisition costs than the platforms the company currently uses, chiefly Google and Meta.
That is an early-warning sign for performance marketers. If a large e-commerce spender redistributes paid acquisition away from incumbent ad platforms, the cost and attribution models CMOs rely on today could face pressure. Teams should start mapping what AI-assisted discovery means for their own acquisition funnels.
03 · Blinkit chooses retail media over private labels
Blinkit added 308 net new stores during the quarter, taking its network to 2,751. Eternal now expects Blinkit to cross 3,500 stores by March 2027, up from an earlier 3,000-store target, and around 5,000 stores by March 2028. New stores in smaller cities are reaching about 1,000 orders a day in a similar time frame to metro stores, with average order values at 85-90% of metro levels.
The quick-commerce business is also drawing a line on private labels. Blinkit would rather use shelf space and visibility to help third-party brands grow and earn advertising revenue than compete with those brands through its own labels. Albinder Dhindsa put it simply:
“We don’t want to become both the platform and a competitor to the brands on the platform.”
04 · What else the results tell marketers
- Food delivery: Zomato’s net order value rose 21.5% year-on-year to Rs 11,445 crore; monthly transacting customers reached 28 million, up 16%.
- Blinkit: Net order value grew 79.3% to Rs 20,940 crore.
- District: Net order value growth is running above 50% year-on-year, ahead of the 30%-plus CAGR built into the FY30 plan.
- Hyperpure: Serves about 85,000 restaurants, up from 62,000 a year earlier, and is expanding into logistics and kitchen setup.
05 · What CMOs should do now
Quick-commerce platforms are no longer just fulfilment pipes; they are becoming ad platforms where brands can buy visibility. That makes Blinkit a retail media channel as much as a sales channel. The private-label stance is good news for brands that were worried about competing with platform-owned labels.
At the same time, the AI agent signal from Goyal should push marketing teams to test agent-friendly product feeds, structured offers and attribution beyond last-click platforms. The brands that prepare early will be better placed when AI agents begin routing purchase decisions.
Marketing take
When a platform grows ad spend and invites brand advertising over its own labels, treat it as a new media channel before it becomes a crowded one.
Source: Afaqs!
