Hamdard SAFI gets under the skin of adolescents

Hamdard Laboratories (India), a 100-year-old brand in the health and wellness segment, has launched a 360-degree campaign for SAFI, its natural blood purifier product. Part of the campaign was a teaser launched on September 22. A detailed print creative has also been launched.

In the TVC, conceptualised and executed by Rediffusion-Y&R (the newly appointed agency of Hamdard), and shot by Film Farm Productions, girls are seen expressing ‘hatred’ for their mothers. The ‘I Hate You Mom’ ad is subliminally layered with the thought of love, and is based on a daughter’s desire to inherit her mother’s flawless skin. What makes her anxious is her patchy skin, acne and pimple, and hence, her plummeting confidence. The TVC explores ‘what makes a girl hate her mom’.

The campaign has already garnered 50,000 views on YouTube, besides its reach on Facebook and Twitter. The ad has been launched on matrimonial sites and also across outdoor platforms in the metros as well as non-metros. In Delhi and NCR, the brand took to train wraps across all metro lines, besides targetting colleges in North and South campuses of Delhi University, such as Kamala Nehru College for Women and Sri Venkateswara College, among others. In Mumbai, the brand resorted to large-format hoardings and bus shelters. Mall branding activations were carried out in Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

Nilotpal, brand manager, Hamdard Laboratories, states that the transformational journey of SAFI began in 2013 when it was facing a few brand problems related to poor imagery, poor brand recall and being perceived as a dated product. It was two years ago that the brand decided to turn over a new leaf by tapping in the male segment of the population as well and roped in Bollywood actors Kunal Kapoor and Sonal Chauhan.

Nilotpal claims that the brand’s shrinking consumer base got a boost due to the entry of Bollywood actors. Prior to 2013, the brand was only popular among females with dull, lifeless skin or those troubled by acne, pimples and rashes problems. The brand, after a consumer research, also took to changing the packaging harping on ' natural' and 'herbal' as the keywords. Furthermore, now it also promises 'fortifying benefit' of making pimples vanish in a matter of 21 days.

Its competitors in the skincare segment which promise only temporary relief to intermittent skin disorders like acne, pigmentation and pimples; SAFI claims to go to the root cause of the skin disorder and treats it completely from within.

Mansoor Ali, chief sales and marketing officer, Hamdard Laboratories, says, “SAFI has always been positioned as a natural blood purifier that acts from within. The product is based on the herb based Unani system of medicine and works from within the body, addressing the root cause of skin problems. The deep-rooted action of SAFI, as opposed to topical applications, is the key differentiator.”

The concept of ‘Ragon Mein Khoobsurati’, playing on a deep consumer insight of young girls envying their mothers’ flawless skin, is the idea behind the TVC. The girls then realise that the solution lies within, and SAFI is what gives them that inner beauty. “This new campaign will help us get new users, while retaining the huge loyal base of existing ones,” Ali adds. There is a ‘boy’ version of the ad too.

Suman Verma, head of operations, Rediffusion-Y&R, adds, “Adolescence is a very difficult time for children and their parents, and it tends to happen in girls earlier than in boys. This is the time – thanks to puberty and hormonal changes – that most youngsters go through a breakout phase. The acne /pimple stage of life takes its toll on both the genders. While boys manage it better, it is the young women who go through a phase of low self-esteem and diffidence, and blame moms for not having given them flawless skin.”