Emvies 2009: Boost is the secret of Mindshare's energy

Energy to excel in sports has been health drink Boost's mantra for years, so much so that four generations of cricketers have endorsed the brand on the same platform. At the Emvies 2009 case study judging round, Mindshare presented its case for Boost in the Best Media Innovation - TV and Best Integrated Campaign categories.

The problem for Boost last year was that 'energy' was becoming a generic category benefit, with direct competitors as well as indirect categories such as biscuits singing the same tune. However, the bigger problem for Boost was that children today have less play time, and even that is hijacked by TV: about 90 per cent of a child's leisure time is spent on TV, while the remaining 10 per cent is what he spends outdoors.

The benefits of physical activities had to be highlighted and Boost chose its own enemy – the television set – to do precisely that. The brand tied up with kids' channel Nick to launch an initiative on TV, called Let's Just Play. The channel, on September 27, 2008, went blank for 30 minutes during the evening at peak play time.

Prior promos across Viacom 18 channels, coverage by 182 publications and 17 websites, and on-ground activities ensured that children were curious about what was going to happen on Nick that day. 18 celebrities including Priya Dutt and Smriti Irani energised this activity.

As a result of this, the energy quotient awareness went up by 30 per cent in kids, while mothers, too, were influenced to get their kids to move out: their awareness quotient went up by 45 per cent. About 25,000 children engaged in active sports on that day. Further, Boost obtained a 20 per cent higher sales growth as against the same period in the previous year.