Saatchi creates a ‘pillar of strength’ for Calcium Sandoz

At the busy Sion-Chembur intersection in Mumbai (the Priyadarshini junction), a passer-by will notice that one of the pillars holding up an overhead flyover is actually a giant bone. On the bone is inscribed, “Calcium Sandoz. Strong Bones.”

This ambient idea was conceptualised and executed by Saatchi & Saatchi, Calcium Sandoz’s creative agency.

Calcium Sandoz, as one probably knows, is a product meant chiefly for 8-14 year olds, intended to make bones stronger in the growing years. The client brief was simple: The brand needed to step out of the breakfast tray and get into people’s conversations. Therefore, Novartis (the makers of Calcium Sandoz) wanted an ambient idea to create a buzz. Saatchi & Saatchi settled on a big idea – quite literally, a 29 feet tall one.

As overloaded BEST buses and other traffic pass over the bridge, the benefit of Calcium Sandoz – strong bones – is literally made larger than life. Anand Siva, vice-president, Saatchi & Saatchi Solutions, says, “It is common knowledge that bones support your body framework by holding the weight of your body. By having our giant bone ‘support’ the flyover, we’re trying to make an obvious point!”

The creative team at Saatchi, including Sandeep Poyekar and Amit Achrekar, creative directors Juju Basu and Hanoz Mogrelia, and national creative director Ramesh Ramanathan, first went location hunting. The Priyadarshini junction in Mumbai proved to be perfect – the flyover had only one pillar supporting it for a long stretch – the other pillars were far apart.

Thus far, Calcium Sandoz had advertised itself on television, and even leveraged on-ground initiatives such as school contact programmes, but this is a first of its kind initiative for the brand in the ambient space, reveals Siva.

Judging by the size of the bone, one shouldn’t be too surprised if a pack of dogs are found salivating below it.