Surina Sayal
Advertising

Effies 2010: Knorr and Quaker Oats open up their respective markets, while 7Up dances to glory

Soups and oats are not traditionally popular in India, but Knorr Soups and Quaker Oats took multiple challenges head-on to create a place for themselves in the consumer's life.

At the annual Effies presentations held by Ad Club Bombay, day one saw case studies presented from the category, 'Consumer products -- beverages/drink, confectionery and food'. Lowe India spoke about its work on Knorr Soups' campaign, 'Tummy bhi khush, Mummy bhi khush'.

The challenge for the brand was that though Indians love their food, they don't consume soups regularly; only 0.12 per cent of the population was known to consume soups on an occasional basis. The questions posed by consumers were: "Why should I have you?" and "When should I have you?"

Effies 2010: Knorr and Quaker Oats open up their respective markets, while 7Up dances to glory
The agency found decided to target the 7 PM snack-time before dinner and speak to mothers about healthy eating at this time. Thus, the concept of "saat baje ki bhookh" was born.

PR plugs before the campaign saw articles on unhealthy snacking. After this, the campaign was launched with Kajol as brand ambassador and the idea of 'Tummy bhi khush, Mummy bhi khush'.

As a next step, e-mailers were sent out to young mothers to inform them about how their kids can snack on healthy food such as soups; while TV commercials promoted a variety of flavours in Knorr soups. Additionally, at 7 pm, five-second TV ads ran with Kajol saying, "Toh aaj saat baje ho jaye Knorr Thick Tomato Soup?"

Creative outdoors displayed the soup bowl from a top view, making it look like a clock with its hands at 7 o'clock. At the Delhi Airport, an installation of a larger-than-life, steaming soup bowl also created a buzz.

Effies 2010: Knorr and Quaker Oats open up their respective markets, while 7Up dances to glory
IVRS was used, where people could hear Kajol's voice on the other end of the phone call, telling them about healthy snacking and Knorr soups. People were also sent text messages at 7 pm, reminding them about Knorr. The result was that after the campaign, the brand saw a 9 per cent increase in sales in the otherwise slow category.

BBDO India presented a case study on its 'Healthy Heart' campaign for Quaker Oats. For a category like oats, which is an alien taste in the Indian market and had low relevance, the challenge was to influence trials and get consumers to buy into the new product. At the same time, news of India being the CVD (cardiovascular disease) capital of the world had done the rounds and statistics showed that the number of heart patients would double between 2005 and 2015. Thus, the agency came up with a special initiative titled 'Mission to Make India Heart Healthy'.

Effies 2010: Knorr and Quaker Oats open up their respective markets, while 7Up dances to glory
A portal, www.goodmorningheart.com was developed, which helped assess risks associated with the heart and provided a range of solutions and information on how to stay Heart Healthy. The agency branded the month of October as 'Oatober' and various activities followed. The result was a 54 per cent increase in sales, while over 170,000 people signed up for the mission on the website.

BBDO India also presented its case study on the 7Up Allu Arjun campaign, which created a big buzz down South. The challenge was to be heard amongst the existing noise from other soft drinks and challenge Sprite's 'clear drink' leadership. Andhra Pradesh, which is known to be the largest soft drinks market in the country -- and is also a state that loves its song and dance -- was the target market for 7Up.

In a bid to reach out to this market innovatively, the agency took on-board popular South star, Allu Arjun. The campaign was rolled out with a teaser, which had Allu Arjun and a troupe of dancers arrive at unexpected places -- such as gyms, malls or loos -- dance for a few minutes and leave. These flash mobs generated a lot of buzz. Via radio, outdoor, online and posters, people were asked to guess what was making Allu Arjun dance.

Besides this, a number of mall activations were also done. In the reveal phase, augmented reality (AR) advertising was utilised, where a small black-and-white image, called the QR code, was developed, which the company printed on 600ml 7Up PET bottles distributed in Andhra Pradesh.

All communication drove people to the website, www.7Up.in where they could use these coded images as a virtual key to access videos of Allu Arjun performing seven different dance styles. Online users could thus wave this code in front of their webcams and have Allu Arjun dance to their tune. Using outdoor, the QR code was displayed at locations from where people could snap the image on their phone cameras and use it on the website later.

As claimed by the agency, the campaign managed to generate 16,000 responses and the brand saw a doubling in consumption figures - from 16 per cent before the campaign, going up to 31 per cent post campaign.

For the record, the Effie Awards are organised by the Ad Club Bombay every year, to honour campaigns on the basis of merit and their effectiveness for the brand, and not just mere creativity.

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