Talented lets nature take the lead in Britannia’s new OOH campaign

Indian FMCG giant Britannia has launched a CSR campaign that turns traditional billboard placement strategy on its head. Rather than avoiding trees that obstruct billboard visibility—a common practice in outdoor advertising—the company's latest campaign deliberately embraces these natural 'obstacles', allowing them to shape both the message and the medium.

The campaign, titled Nature Shapes Britannia, has been conceptualised and created by Talented, a creative agency based out of Bengaluru, to communicate Britannia’s corporate sustainability initiatives. And to drive the message home, they’ve allowed nature (trees) to dictate their creative strategy. 

Placed across four cities–Hyderabad, Kolkata, Meerut and Pune–these aren't your everyday billboards. Instead of chainsawing their way to visibility, Britannia's letting the trees call the shots. The billboards and the typography bend, twist, and play limbo around the trees. In fact, the agency stepped out of its way to find these locations that an advertiser would conventionally avoid.

And because one good green deed deserves another, each billboard spills the tea on Britannia's eco-report card: plastic neutrality, waste management, water stewardship and energy management. 

Speaking to afaqs!, PG Aditiya, Talented’s co-founder and chief creative officer, says that the campaign was initially conceptualised in September, and scheduled to go live on Swachh Bharat Day in October. 

 “It was on track to be a topical campaign in October until one of our members came up with the idea of cutting out billboards in the shape of the trees next to them. What followed was a conversation around taking our time to do the campaign right,” he says. 

Campaign execution and logistical details

The execution bit of the campaign was a task, requiring a lot of on-ground location hunting, shortlisting trees, and the logistical nuances of creating the billboard cutouts before the trees got pruned, or worse–cut down. 

“Executing the campaign required a complete reversal of traditional billboard site selection. We employed broadly three filters to pick the spots: distance, coverage and diversity," explains Aabhaas Shreshtha, creative and founding member of Talented. 

 The team established strict criteria: billboards needed to be within 10-12 feet of trees, have significant coverage by branches and foliage, and represent diverse species of urban trees. The shortlisted tree species included Nag Kesar, Aam, Neem & Peepal. 

The production process prioritised environmental responsibility beyond local requirements.

"Bangalore is the only city which has a mandate that your billboard material has to be biodegradable. But we went all out on that anyway."

PG Aditiya, co-founder & CCO, Talented 

All of the billboards across all cities were made from 100% cotton, biodegradable material, he adds.

Behind the scenes and challenges

The unconventional approach presented unique obstacles, particularly in site selection. "No media partner actively keeps a list of these billboards. This had to be one boots-on-the-ground, plus a Google Street View-based shortlisting process," Aditya explains. 

The team created detailed 3D renders of each location to visualise the final output, but nature often proved unpredictable. "We were working with a pool of very small options, and getting those sites and matching them with all the parameters we set out with was a huge challenge. Sometimes we would choose a location, and the next day the tree would be pruned," Shreshtha says.

The extended timeline—four months instead of the initially planned few weeks—allowed the team to account for natural changes, while also predictively compensating for unexpected complications. "Even in the design, there was some buffer given for tree growth," says Shreshtha, adding that the team had already “planned for a little buffer in case things didn’t work out".

Meanwhile, Britannia okayed the delay and allowed the agency to do its thing, Shreshtha points out. 

Collaboration with other agencies

The campaign's execution required coordination across multiple agencies, each bringing specific expertise to the project. Talented took the charge and led the creative development, working with Coral Media and Madison as outdoor partners. Youngun is handling the social media amplification, while Schbang developed a microsite detailing Britannia's ESG initiatives.

The agency also collaborated with an ad film production house Rooted Film, to create the promo video for the campaign.

The collaboration extended to on-ground teams as well. "To the vendors and the fabricators and the mounters, it was so lovely seeing them understand what was going on and therefore do it with a sense of excitement," Aditya shares. 

"Putting up billboards is something that they do week on week, but because it is such a visual idea, it's like music—it kind of appealed to everyone who saw it," Shreshtha adds.

"We instinctively know outdoor as a medium is great, and we know it works for everyone who has seen it irrespective of whether or not they tweet about it." 

PG Aditiya, co-founder & CCO, Talented

While the campaign has just started its journey on social media, Aditya emphasises the success of an OOH campaign is not determined by its virality on social media. "We instinctively know outdoor as a medium is great, and we know it works for everyone who has seen it irrespective of whether or not they tweet about it. Just like a front page print ad, there is an inherent trust associated with these mediums," he says.

Beyond the OOH ads, there could be some other ancillary marketing activities from the brand to supplement the main campaign. The campaign is scheduled to run for the entirety of this month, and the agency is already brainstorming ideas to expand the campaign, Aaditya concludes.