Emvies 2007: 10/10 for Mindshare Fulcrum

Surf Excel has built a name for itself with its radically different advertising. But at the Emvies case study presentation round, Mindshare Fulcrum set out to prove that there’s more to the brand than just cute creatives.

Last year, Surf Excel identified 10 tough spots on clothing (such as the collar and the elbow patch) and decided to highlight these in its communication. The consumer insight that the agency received was that there are some stains which are very difficult to remove from particular areas of clothing. It was thus essential to mark these areas and bring them to the notice of consumers and provide them with an effective solution in the form of Surf Excel. A TVC was launched around the central idea, ‘Surf Excel Daag Nikaale, 10/10’. But this communication, although it generated awareness, unfortunately, didn’t have the desired sales impact.

So, MindShare Fulcrum got thinking and decided to conduct an activity that would induce mass sampling of the product. The buzzword being ‘10’, the agency decided to leverage India’s biggest theatre – cricket. On finding that India’s cricket match ratings equal those of the top ‘K’ serials, MindShare thought of associating the brand with real life instances from live cricket where players stain their clothes on the field, and ‘mark’ the areas on the screen and present it to the viewers. When players dirtied their clothes on the field, the Surf Excel branding would appear alongside to highlight the stained area. The message was to convey clearly that Surf Excel can remove stains from the most difficult parts of clothing, be it underarms, cuffs or collars.

The execution of the campaign was engaging enough to leave consumers with a sense of security and dependability about the brand. The campaign saw an 11 per cent increase in sales, 17 per cent increase in the ‘removing tough stains’ recall quotient for the brand, and a 100 per cent increase in brand recall.