Rohit Nautiyal
OOH

Limca takes a plunge outdoors

Leveraging OOH, the beverage giant has come up with an innovation spread across malls and bus shelters in Delhi

Launched this Diwali, Limca's latest communication, 'Doobo Taazgi Mein' (plunge into freshness), encourages people to bring back the joy of spontaneity in their lives. Using underwater as a powerful device this time, Coca-Cola has taken the idea of emotional rejuvenation further, which was initiated in the last campaign featuring Sushma Reddy.

Srinivas Murthy, director, marketing, Coca-Cola says, "Limca's last campaign provided emotional freshness in a romantic setup. Carrying the idea forward, the new communication, with its underwater element, works as a complete disconnect between the couple and the world outside."

Leveraging OOH, the beverage giant has come up with an innovation spread across malls and bus shelters in Delhi. The creative has been conceptualized, considering the need to communicate freshness and emotional rejuvenation even in a static medium.

Limca takes a plunge outdoors
At shopping malls across the Capital, a large, rectangular aquarium box has been created and filled with water. A Limca logo floats freely in the waves, created by a mechanism employing a motor. A similar innovation will be executed on bus shelters as well, using water filled inside acrylic sheets.

While the creative duties of the brand are handled by Ogilvy India, MOMS, an independent unit of Madison World, has conceptualised and executed the innovation. The Limca aquarium can be spotted for a month in malls across Delhi NCR, including MGF in Gurgaon, Great India Place in NOIDA, City Square in Rajouri Garden and Metro Walk in Rohini.

The new communication coincided with the arrival of winter in northern India; so, one wonders how the message -- with underwater as its key element -- will be taken by the audience, who have just got their woollens out.

Limca takes a plunge outdoors
Limca takes a plunge outdoors
Ajay Gahlaut, group creative director, Ogilvy India feels that for Limca, the idea of freshness is both physical and emotional. "The freshness we talk about in our communication is not season specific. Rather, it is an experience that can be enjoyed round the year."

Refusing to disclose any sales figures, Murthy shares that north India is a crucial market for Limca; and the brand is especially strong in Delhi. He adds that currently, besides Coke and Thums Up, most of the company's brands in the flavour category, including Maaza, Fanta, Sprite and Minute Maid Pulpy Orange are growing steadily.

Interestingly, Coca-Cola India, over the past few years, has creatively utilised OOH for its brands to connect with consumers. In 2008, the company launched an OOH-led campaign for Sprite Xpress -- a new pack variant of its clear drink, Sprite -- with a view to create an on-the-go beverage culture.

Next year, a transit innovation was executed at Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), where advertising displays in tunnels worked in a series of static images that appeared to move as the train rolled by. Passengers looking out of the windows got to see what seemed like a silent movie clip of the brand.

Also, this year in May, MOMS transformed a hoarding near Alipore Zeerut Bridge in Kolkata into a Maaza tree, made out of fiber and thermocol. Just a year ago, when Maaza became available in tetra packs as Pocket Maaza, MOMS had executed an innovation, where a huge canvas pocket was fabricated on a billboard.

According to beverage industry experts, Coca-Cola has spent 20 per cent of the brand's ad budget on this campaign.

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