Licious talks about bonding over cooking in new ad

Licious, a consumer food brand, has released a new ad campaign 'Ghar Baithe, Baat Badal Do'. Conceptualised by Ogilvy, it's a feel-good ad that shows how cooking during lockdown can become a fun family activity.

There's a feeling of dullness and negativity now that we're all stuck at home, so, why not turn the tables and make the best of the current situation.

In the ad, a person is seen cutting vegetables while attending a video meeting. Then there's someone who's frying a fish for the first time, and a kid is making rotis for the first time, all while watching a cooking video on YouTube.

Speaking about the idea behind the ad, Meghna Apparao, chief business officer of Licious, says, "... one of the most beautiful aspects of consumer marketing is that if a thing is spoken about or visualised, consumers do not think about it. The moment someone does, we think it's happening to us."

"We've got an internal creative and brand marketing team who brainstormed together and came up with this insight a few days into the lockdown and then Ogilvy, the agency we work with, brought it to life," she added.

"Most of us who work at Licious, or others, don't cook at home regularly. It's always the maid or someone else who cooks the food. But the lockdown, in many ways, has become a great leveller. All of us had to do the cooking, the household chores, and everything, while keeping kids or other family members occupied," said Apparao.

"And that's where we realised that of all the housework, cooking became the fun activity for us. From figuring our recipes to watching cooking videos on YouTube, it became a fun competition. People moved from making a simple fish to making Goan fish curry with lemon..."

"All these stories came to us internally and it was the same everywhere else, and that's what we, at Licious, wanted to bring to the audience with this ad," she said.

"We were mindful of the tonality during this period. The virus has brought about an air of negativity and has left a lot of people deeply disturbed. So, with this ad campaign, we wanted to bring positivity and cheerfulness," says Apparao.

She admits that the lockdown caught them off guard, like everybody else.

However, "... we were able to bounce back early because of our integrated backend and long-term relationship with suppliers. And seeing that demand in most of our delivery areas is higher than supplies, we're ensuring to delivering nothing but the best quality meat." Apparao also revealed that Licious had housed all the workers at its processing plants in resorts to ensure their safety.

And, quality is Licious's equity. "Branding is a long-term investment. Licious, as a brand, is built on quality, taste and deliciousness. Quality as a parameter helps us stay longer in people's mind...," Apparao signs off.