Pepsi’s Nimbooz’ outdoor campaign attracts parched throats, and eyes

PepsiCo has focused on markets in North and West India for this innovative and eye-catching campaign

Summer is here and so are the soft drink launches and their campaigns. PepsiCo India has recently launched its packaged ‘nimbu paani’ or lemon water, ‘Nimbooz by 7Up’. Inspired by fresh, homemade nimbu paani, PepsiCo claims that Nimbooz contains real lemon juice with no fizz and no artificial flavours.

Nimbooz comes in three packaging formats of 200 ml returnable glass bottles (RGBs), 350 ml PET bottles and 200 ml tetra packs, priced at Rs 10, Rs 15 and Rs 10 respectively.

To introduce the beverage, as part of the teaser campaign which kicked off on March 15, an 18-foot tall wooden lemon squeezer with a four-foot lemon replica in it was placed outside various malls and junctions. The message on it read, “Asli Refresher Coming Soon”. This innovation was executed at Ambi Mall, Gurgaon; Great India Place, NOIDA; Court Chowk, Amritsar; and Fun Republic Mall, Chandigarh. For the revealer, the lemon was replaced with a 20-foot high Nimbooz bottle on March 18.

The teaser in Mumbai was spread across five days. For this, a knotted gunny bag stuffed with lemons was mounted on a canter at Mahim Causeway. The message on the sack read, “4 Din Mein Asli”. Day 2 saw an untied sack with lemons scattered around it and a similar message, with the number of the day changed. The sack got shorter for the next two days and on the fifth day, a returnable glass bottle (RGB) of Nimbooz appeared on the canter.

Portland Outdoor, which is part of Kinetic Worldwide, worked along with Symbiosis Advertising to execute the innovation at Mahim Causeway. Mangesh Borse, chief executive officer, Symbiosis Advertising, says, “Mahim Causeway is the perfect location to create buzz about Nimbooz. Though the sack innovation has been placed on a canter, the lighting has been done to ensure that only the sack is clearly visible during the night. Innovations like these will give reason to clients to advertise in the time of economic slowdown."

Another innovation was creating a motorized 2D squeezer on a hoarding to demonstrate how nimbu paani is made. A lemon replica was placed between two panels of the wooden squeezer. The upper portion of the squeezer comes down, crushing the lemon placed on the lower panel and drops of lemon juice fall from the squeezer into a Nimbooz bottle placed on the lower portion of the hoarding. This innovation can be seen at Defence Colony and Vikas Puri in Delhi, Bhandari Bridge in Amritsar, Hazratganj in Lucknow and Bhagwan Talkies in Agra.

Besides, Pepsi has used three JC Decaux shelters at Janpath, SP Marg and Patel Chowk in Delhi innovatively, by placing a four-feet high Nimbooz bottle inside the MUPI unit with lemon replicas.

Hoardings with huge cut-outs of the Nimbooz bottle can also be seen at various locations in Mohali, Dehradun and Meerut.

With this campaign, PepsiCo decided to focus on North and West India, because of the high consumption of nimbu paani in these regions during summers. The outdoor campaign that is spread across this month has been ideated and executed by creative agency, BBDO Delhi and specialist outdoor agency, Portland Outdoor.

Alpana Titus, executive vice-president - flavours, PepsiCo India tells afaqs!, “Our product will appeal to consumers across all age groups. In spite of the presence of a mushrooming carbonated soft drink industry, homemade nimbu paani is still preferred by many across the country. We are not pitching our product against the homemade nimbu pani, but offering a drink that is as healthy and hygienic. The proposition of the Indian refresher perfectly captures the mass appeal of this product and will certainly drive consumer connect. We have used outdoor as an eye-catching reminder to drive buzz around our campaign.”

Manoj Deb, executive creative director, BBDO says, “In times of tough competition, branding needs to stand out and this is where outdoor media helps, by making the communication as big as possible. Lemon is central to the idea of Indian refreshment and the same thought goes in the making of Nimbooz. We decided to keep the brand proposition simple, yet appealing, by dwelling on the authenticity of Ekdum Asli Indian Nimbu Paani.”

Madhuri Sapru, managing partner, South Asia, Kinetic feels that the beginning of the summer season is the correct time for soft drink advertisers to connect with their TG. "The idea of drinking a cool refreshing Nimbu paani will be welcome to one and all in summers. Ambient media works well in this case, because it empowers the TG by giving their mind and eye the option to pick what is powerful", she adds.

PepsiCo has drawn up an intensive consumer activation campaign to market Nimbooz. The 360 degree marketing communication plan will revolve around building awareness through multi-city launches and road shows, comprehensive 3D activation and leveraging radio and press.

Complementing the on-ground initiatives is the TV commercial, which reflects Nimbooz’s ‘Ekdum Asli Indian’ proposition. Aggressive trial generation and sampling initiatives will also be undertaken in major cities. A special ‘Nimbooz Highway Gaadi’ has been created, which will visit the four major highways connecting Delhi to Jaipur, Dehradun and Agra, to drive trials and consumer education.

The size of the largely unorganized nimbu paani market is 1 billion cases, which is double the size of the carbonated soft drink industry in India.