Anushree Bhattacharyya, Devina Joshi and Ashwini Gangal
Advertising

Frooti - Candid camerawork, but that's about all

In 2010, Creativeland Asia crafted a unique outdoor innovation for Parle Agro's mango drink, Frooti that provided a much-needed diversion from the earlier ads that ended with the singsong 'Mango Frooti Fresh and Juicy' slogan.

In 2010, Creativeland Asia crafted a unique outdoor innovation for Parle Agro's mango drink, Frooti that provided a much-needed diversion from the earlier ads that ended with the singsong 'Mango Frooti Fresh and Juicy' slogan. The integrated campaign rode on a live stunt - a playful prank - that recorded candid, spontaneous moments of the unsuspecting person on the street. These tapes later formed the content of the brand's TVC and virals. The campaign carried the tagline, 'Why Grow Up?'

Frooti - Candid camerawork, but that's about all
Called the 'Juicy mango surprise project', the brand created nine-feet-tall mangoes made of thermocol, silicon, curd and mango pulp and covered in thin vinyl. These were dropped from trees or rolled down sloping streets and the reactions of stunned passers-by were recorded with the help of eight cameras hidden in strategic locations. Care was taken not to drop the mangoes near elderly people. These mangoes were dropped around 250 times over. Needless to say, no script or special cast was used. Later, an anchor revealed the prank to the 'participants', who were asked to sample the drink thus bringing in a great direct marketing element to the whole affair.

This experiment succeeded in generating the desired buzz around the brand. In order to convert this activity into a film campaign, the agency roped in filmmaker Prakash Varma of Nirvana Films. The team recorded multiple videos and then looked at the rushes, to take a call on which ones they would use on TV and online. The campaign was aired on TV on April 27, 2010 and was released on the digital space soon after. The campaign was taken across 12 cities including areas such as schools, colleges and malls.

Some, however, are of the opinion that though the brand managed to generate a lot of buzz, it failed to adequately capitalise on it and that the glory may have been all too short-lived. Sharda Agarwal, director, MarketGate Consulting says, "It was clutter-breaking and different from anything the Indian market had seen before, but I haven't heard much about Frooti after that. The category is galloping ahead. Maaza and Slice are much more visible than Frooti and seem to be capitalising on the growth of the category much more."

While Agarwal speaks about the lack of a follow-up after an amazingly disruptive campaign such as this one, Dhingra addresses the issue of relevance. "Frooti is losing its relevance as a nectar-based drink as pressure is building from real fruit juice brands such as Tropicana and Real. The market has become highly commoditised and though this is a category where purchase decisions are driven by availability at the POS (point of sale) and in which brand interchangeability is high, the informed, health-conscious buyer prefers 'pure' fruit juices over nectar-based drinks such as Frooti."

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