<FONT COLOR="#FF0033"><B>Emvies 2006:</B></FONT> The ‘zero creative’ approach to Saffola Gold

At the Emvies 2006, the Saffola Gold case study was the nominee in the Best Media Strategy (Consumer Products) category. The study was on how Madison, the media agency behind Saffola Gold, adopted an ‘uncommon sense’ approach to give out good health and heart care messages to the consumers.

Saffola Gold is a premium edible oil from Marico, priced 25 per cent higher than its closest competitor. It is positioned as a brand that is healthy and safe for the heart. The problem that Saffola Gold was encountering was that a number of ‘me-too’ brands (even from other categories like health institutes) started using similar positioning to own the heart care platform.

So, the objective was to regain the heart care positioning for Saffola Gold and reinforce the ‘healthy and good for the heart’ imagery with the brand. Madison targeted the edible oil users (women and couples) in SEC A and B in the metros in the age group of 25-45 years. Given their target audience, the agency saw the need to employ a multimedia route to reach them, rather than the mere conventional routes.

Madison formulated four strategic pillars as its media solution, namely, engaging the consumer rather than merely exposing themselves to the media, owning World Heart Day, creating a physical pledge for consumers to sign that they will take care of their hearts, and multimedia communication.

A ‘zero creative’ approach was designed to get these points across to the consumers. There was no 30-second commercial or exclusive print ad to communicate the message; instead, there was intelligent use of media. There was an editorial on Page 3 of the ‘Bombay Times’ on World Heart Day, where celebrities such as Preity Zinta, Bipasha Basu and Akshay Kumar pledged they would take care of their hearts. The idea was to make it look like an editorial and not a ‘paid ad’.

Similar steps were taken on television with celebrities such as Shaan and Nikki Aneja (who played a doctor in a serial called ‘Astitva’ on Zee TV) and even director Farhan Akhtar taking the pledge.

Another innovative media vehicle used was the theatres. The pledge was featured immediately after the national anthem in theatres to take it to a serious level and for people to make a note of it. Even ‘dabbawalas’ were used to promote the good cause, supported by Saffola Gold, passing on the message of heart care to about 2,00,000 corporates through messages on T-shirts and pledges to sign.

As a result of this extensive campaign through various media, Saffola Gold achieved almost 34 per cent brand association with heart care. Some 68 per cent respondents associated Saffola with World Heart Day. Even while the pricing was maintained, the sales of Saffola Gold increased by 50 per cent in that quarter. Most important of all, over 25,000 people signed the pledge and that merited a mention in the ‘Limca Book of World Records’.

Thus, by using a very powerful media mix, Madison attained the set target of retaining and reinforcing Saffola’s image of being the only really heart friendly product in the market.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!