Cruelty-free lifestyle brand Zouk organizes one-of-a-kind Vegan Creators Day & Awards in partnership with PeTA India
Held at Loci And Toot in Bandra, Mumbai, the event recognized and honored the contribution that has been made by Vegan creators to promote a cruelty-free lifestyle.
On the 26th of November, Mumbai witnessed a one-of-a-kind event. Cruelty-free lifestyle brand Zouk held its first ever Vegan Creators Day & Awards. The event honored the valuable contribution of vegan creators in influencing Indian consumers in making cruelty-free choices.
Organized in collaboration with PeTA India, India’s top vegan creators came together to share their vegan origin story, how they think about content creation for veganism, and the influence they have had on consumers. Many of them have thousands of followers on popular social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube. These creators share their daily stories of how they adopt a vegan cruelty-free lifestyle, be it in bags and footwear or in food or cosmetics. That is a big draw for Indian consumers who are now very conscious of the impact on animals post the pandemic.
Zouk itself, with over 200,000 followers on Instagram is an active voice in this space. They are credited with making Vegan, Cruelty-free lifestyle products like Bags, Wallets & Footwear very popular in a space dominated by animal-based materials. They now have over 2.5 lakh happy customers pan-India. Last year, Zouk even won the Best Vegan Wallets brand award from PeTA India Fashion Awards 2021.
The well-known nutritionist & Integrative Health Coach Ms. Neha Ranglani, and the celebrated Yoga Instructor, Ms. Ishwari are some top winners from the list chosen by the expert jury panel. The jurors had a tough time choosing the final awardees from thousands of creators.
The popular Marathi actor and the recent Big Boss Marathi Season 4 fame Ruchira Jadhav also graced the event with her presence. Further, the event saw a musical performance and a panel discussion with Ms. Monica Chopra, Manager, PeTA India, Prof. Anu Sinha from St. Xavier’s Institute of Communications and the vegan content creators.
As a run up to the event day, Zouk did multiple live sessions on Instagram. These sessions covered insights from select jury members on topics like “Adopting veganism for building a brand” to an interactive discussion with some creators.
Zouk particularly chose November to host this mega celebration, given it is also World Vegan Month. Zouk has always promoted responsible, cruelty-free lifestyle choices. It imbibes the same values in its varied range of vegan products which assures style and comfort as well. Taking one more step forward in the same direction, Zouk hosted the Vegan Creators Day & Awards to laud digital creators who have been the biggest influencers to bring this change in India.
Overwhelmed by the success of the event, Disha Singh, Founder, and CEO of Zouk, shared her thoughts saying - “From being a small brand, we have grown in scale to be able to celebrate the valuable contribution of creators in our journey. We owe it to them for building awareness about veganism and cruelty-free lifestyle choices, which has benefited Zouk as a brand and many others. So, this was our small way to celebrate the creator community and award some of the top creators, who are loved by millions across India. My team is already planning how we will make the next edition bigger and better. We hope to even include some international vegan creators next time, who can share their experiences and best practices.“
While talking about Zouk, Pradeep Krishnakumar, Co-founder and COO of Zouk, said “When we started Zouk, we researched the different materials used in making Bags. We saw horrific videos of how animal-based leather is made and decided we did not want to put our life’s work to it. Thus, we decided to make Zouk a vegan brand. When we launched, few consumers would comment asking how bags can be vegan. We have taken the effort via putting our digital content and collaborating with thousands of content creators to build that awareness. Today, over 2.5 lakh happy customers of Zouk have adopted a more cruelty-free, responsible lifestyle. Everyone is aware and they are proud of carrying a vegan Zouk product. We also recently launched footwear, which is also PeTA certified vegan. This is just a start and we believe India will see a massive shift towards responsible, cruelty-free consumer choices in the next five years.”
“PETA India is proud to be associated with Zouk, a fully vegan brand that is committed to being ethical in every way and is encouraging more and more people into the conversation about living vegan. The Vegan Creators event is such an engaging way to bring together passionate individuals who care about animals and the planet, and what better than World Vegan Month to celebrate compassion!” said Monica Chopra, Manager of Fashion, Media and Celebrity Projects, PETA India
The event was backed by Loci & Toot, a popular European Restaurant at Bandra in Mumbai. With the vibrant, colorful, and lively ambiance, the vegan menu specially curated by the chef for Zouk and its guests was also one of a kind as the event. The event also had some esteemed digital partners such as St. Xavier’s Institute of Communications, the first college to be granted autonomy by the University of Mumbai in 2010 In 2006, and media partners like Adgullly, one of the most trusted online news sources that obsessively covers the activities stirring up the realm of media, marketing, and advertising, and lastly, Indian Retailer, India's largest news, information and market intelligence provider in the retail sector.
