<b><font color="#FF0033">Effie 2005</font></b>: Saffola fetches a Gold and Happydent White a Bronze for McCann-Erickson

In the 1990s, Saffola was successful in establishing a strong heart care brand, which commanded an 80 per cent premium over other edible oils available in the market. However, the scenario changed abruptly in 2001. Sales figures remained stagnant for a while, and then eventually dropped by 1.5 per cent.

The challenge for the company was to sell the brand to people who didn’t have a heart problem. This is when Saffola decided to aim at posting heart disease related awareness amongst people aged around 30 years. But it proved difficult initially to break the ice among men. McCann-Erickson then decided to take the other route of targeting the wives, and they launched the ‘Kal se’ campaign.

This campaign helped the company increase its consumer base from 6 per cent to 11 per cent. There was also an imagery shift for the brand from 14 per cent to 54 per cent.

In the case of Happydent White, when the first ad was launched in early 2001, it resembled a clinical presentation. It failed to create any impact among the consumers. Then McCann-Erickson, the agency working on the brand, thought of making it more humorous. And it came up with the ‘Tum itna jo muskura rahe ho’ campaign in 2003. This particular campaign was successful in creating an identity for the brand and it was also successful in convincing the consumers about the benefit of the product.

However, in a market where every second toothpaste brand claims to give white teeth to its consumers, it was very difficult for a chewing gum brand to position itself in the same category. This is when the ‘Smile!’ campaign was launched. The company also hoped to achieve a sales growth of 50 per cent. In addition, the brand got itself associated with the Femina Miss India Contest, where they initiated the ‘Happydent Miss Beautiful Smile’ award.

All this paid off and the company achieved a sales growth of 105 per cent.

At the Effies 2005, Ogilvy and Mather presented a case study on Air Action Center Fresh. The brand did not advertise for six years after its launch. As a result, in 2004, the company came face-to-face with a serious threat and it became important for them to create a buzz about the brand. The company planned to launch a new variant called Air Action Center Fresh. The agency launched the Air Action Center Fresh ‘Strong Breath’ campaign with the objective of capturing 50 per cent of the category leader’s volume, and 15 per cent of the industry leader’s volume. The campaign finally helped the brand get 238 per cent of the market leader’s volume. In six months, the brand also achieved 33 per cent of the industry leader’s volume. In total, both the mother brand, Center Fresh, and the variant, Air Action, together achieved a market share of 14 per cent.

And all this on a limited budget of Rs 2 crore, while the market leader is said to have spent Rs 12 crore!

© 2005 agencyfaqs!