When Amazon Turned Cardboard Waste into Comfort

Hello, awesome marketers and founders.
This is Luv, and here’s your weekly Marketing Shot :)

A big thank you and welcome to the people who have recently subscribed.

Don’t get SaaD. Get Rippling.

Hundreds of apps create silos, wasted time, and missed opportunities. Rippling replaces SaaD (Software as a Disservice) with one system to run HR, IT, and Finance – without the drag.

Take a stand against SaaD today.

Is SaaD hurting your org?

In January 2025, at the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, over 500 million people came together for one of the largest human gatherings on Earth.

Now, if you’re a huge brand like Amazon, what would you do? Put up a few billboards? Hand out branded merchandise? Hire a celebrity to make an appearance?

Amazon India decided to do something far more meaningful. Something that made people feel the brand rather than just see it.

Turning Boxes Into Beds

The campaign was called “Dibbo se Badhkar” and that’s exactly what it was.

Instead of treating their famous brown boxes as disposable packaging, Amazon saw them as an opportunity.

They took 76,000 square metres of used cardboard and turned it into 1,000 portable beds.

But these weren’t symbolic gestures or photo props.

These were real, practical beds- carefully designed, tested, and built to give tired pilgrims warmth, comfort, and dignity.

Each bed was made using multi-layered, sanitised cardboard.

A Smart Distribution Strategy

Many campaigns fall flat in execution, but Amazon thought this one through beautifully.

The beds weren’t just placed randomly for photo ops.

They were delivered to places where people genuinely needed them: police outposts, first aid stations, volunteer zones, rest zones and lost & found centres across the Mela grounds.

The organising committee even acknowledged later that a large number of pilgrims had a better experience because of these beds. That’s not marketing talk, that’s real-world impact.

Learn AI in 5 minutes a day

What’s the secret to staying ahead of the curve in the world of AI? Information. Luckily, you can join 1,000,000+ early adopters reading The Rundown AI — the free newsletter that makes you smarter on AI with just a 5-minute read per day.

Sign up to start learning.

That's a wrap for today! Stay tuned for the next edition.

Thanks,
Luv