Billion-dollar Maaza embraces life's small wins in summer campaign

It was a ripe last week for Maaza after The Coca-Cola Company declared the mango fruit-based drink as its third billion-dollar brand in India (based on annual sales in ’24) following lemon-lime drink Sprite in 2022 and fellow homegrown cola beverage Thums Up in 2021.

Around the same time, coincidence or not, Maaza dropped an 80-second ad bereft of ASMRish visuals of mangoes and their juices oozing out, of celebrities, of celebrities getting high on the fruit, and with little to no focus on the fruit—unwritten must-haves in ads from mango fruit-drink brands. Maaza’s rivals are PepsiCo’s Slice and Parle Agro’s Frooti.

Instead, the Open X-conceptualised ad positioned Maaza as the go-to drink for all small wins in life, regardless of their magnitude. Able to pull off a whistle? Sip some Maaza. Captured the queen in carrom? Have some Maaza. Rolled a round roti? There’s a Maaza for you. 

Last year, the brand’s ad featured Amitabh Bachchan and Pooja Hegde. A good part of the ad focused on the actress pouring the drink from a bottle into glasses.

It turns out there was a discussion between the brand managers at Maaza and Ogilvy after last year’s campaign. They collectively decided to relook the brand and go beyond what it had done if “Maaza has to pivot to become the next big brand in the portfolio,” reveals Sukesh Nayak, chief creative officer, Ogilvy, a part of WPP’s Open X.

While the central idea will always revolve around the king of fruits, the focus was on, “We can be treats, but what kind of treat do we want to be?” remarks Nayak, adding, “Treats are usually associated with big things. We are going to talk about everyday things because they’re the most important in today’s world.”

As Maaza looks to celebrate the small wins, there’s a visible lack of a famous face. Rival Slice has Kiara Advani and Nayanthara, and Frooti has Alia Bhatt and Ram Charan. 

CCO Nayak deems the decision to drop the celebrity and go with the idea first as “brave.” He, although, says the campaign will use celebrities and influencers at certain touch points in service of the idea rather than the other way round. 

A fresh jingle over a popular song? 

Another interesting aspect of this ad is the use of a fresh jingle when the agency and the brand could have gone with a popular song or even remixed an old classic as it did for Coke Zero’s maiden campaign in India. 

“We wrote a fresh song because if you don’t call out the idea, nobody will know what we are talking about,” remarks Nayak. 

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Hungry Films, the production house behind this campaign, and Open X had a long discussion about this; they knew their inspiration for the kind of music to accompany this spot was from the films in the early ‘70s and late ‘80s. 

“We went to the era of Chashme Buddoor and Angoor… These lines must make you feel something. When you want to celebrate something, we felt that this is the right direction for music.”

They did debate about buying a track and going the Coke Zero way, but ultimately went the other way. 

Time constraints influence the ad? 

Come summer, one expects ads from cold beverage brands. Also, it’s the season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), one of the two most important advertising periods in India; the other being Diwali.

While TV and CTV ad slots are typically short (5-15 seconds), did it influence Ogilvy to include five to-second wins in the 80 second-ad? This way, the brand can cut each win as a separate story and broadcast and stream them as and when needed. 

“No not really”, says Nayak. He reveals they wrote hundreds of such stories because they knew the ad was supposed to be a montage and that they could be cut and used as standalone bits is a mere coincidence.