It’s that time of the year again when lovestruck couples paint the town pink and singles scoff at the mush in the air.
Mondelez India has smartly strategised to cater to both kinds of customers this Valentine’s Day. The chocolate maker has executed two contrasting campaigns for its two brands Cadbury Silk and 5 Star, catering to couples and singles, respectively, while pitting the two brands against each other.
Conceptualised by creative agency Ogilvy India, the Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk campaign #HowFarWillYouGotToMakeThemBlush leverages digital to create special curated messages for its customers. The ads let consumers know that they can create special messages for their loved one. While the 5 Star Valentine’s Day Alibi ad shows a young man giving excuses to leave the city to avoid the V-Day mess and mush. He has the perfect answer to all those intrusive questions about plans for Valentine’s Day.
The alibi is an island called ‘My Cousin’s Wedding’. An idyllic escape with no mobile signal. Mondelez even built a faux embassy where they process the visas to visit My Cousin’s Wedding.
The company has created special scannable 5 Star packs, giving consumers a chance to win a holiday. So far, there have been a total of 66,689 pack scans. The campaign has delivered 179 million reach on social media (Facebook and Instagram) with 471 million impressions. On Google, it has garnered 100 million reach, 116 million impressions and 22 million views till date.
Blush and Mush
For its Silk campaign, Mondelez, which targets Gen Z (born after 2005) consumers, has leveraged real-time personalisation of augmented reality to create an experience.
The brand also added a crimson blush to the season of love by moulding the same proposition and further aiding young ones to express their deepest feelings with a new era of Heart Pop — a strawberry-flavoured heart pop.
Zenobia Pithawalla, senior executive creative director and Mihir Chanchani, executive creative director from Ogilvy India, said "We knew that most romances in our target audiences of teenagers are secret romances. So, this Valentine's Day we decided to help young lovers in India shout out their love for their loved ones and yet keep it a secret from prying eyes.”
For Cadbury Silk Secret Messages, the brand partnered with tech firm 8th Wall which used personalised AR to turn every Silk hoarding, bus shelter, poster, press ad and POS material into a personalised secret message between lovers, which only they can see.
So far, 11.61 lakh secret messages video cards have been created on the Silk website and other partner platforms like Jio, Paytm, etc. The campaign has delivered 156 million reach on Instagram and 222 million impressions. On Google, it has garnered 110 million reach, 156 million impressions and over 30 million views.
Never go against the family
Anil Viswanathan, vice president — marketing, Mondelez India tells Storyboard18 that after Diwali, Valentine’s Day is the biggest consumption occasion for the company.
“The consumer insight is there are singles who don’t want to go out and chill and Netflix. That cohort exists and it will not be swayed by anything that Silk is doing, the objective is that they look at 5 Star and say ‘wow, what a great 5 Star ad”. In that sense, it is a complimentary audience that we are seeing. Singles will relate to the 5 Star ad and find it cool,” he explains.
ALSO READ | Why India is a ‘frustrating’ market for Netflix
Vishwanathan clarifies that the 5 Star ad does not neutralise what Silk is doing because it is speaking to different cohorts all together by providing a counter view. “….therefore, 5 Star is reaching out to an incremental audience. The conflict could have happened if one of the brands claims that it is better than the other. Since both the brands have reasonable awareness when you tag to each other one gets incremental reach,” he adds.
Controlling the war-on-love narrative
During Valentine’s Day promotions, multiple brands from cola’s to snack brands tend to tap into the occasion often targeting their communication towards singles who often feel left out.
“The reality is any other brand can take this space and speak to consumers who are single. It could be a chips, beverage brand. In the past, we have also seen some of the competitor brands also take pot shots at us. It is always good to build those points of view internally rather than let competition take away that space,” Vishwanathan notes.
Nitin Sharma, vice president, Infectious Advertising believes that what Cadbury’s has done for Valentine's Day this year, works at multiple levels. According to him different brands in the Cadbury portfolio cater to different consumer segments and the campaign acknowledges that.
“…there are different kinds of people in the world – those in a relationship and those who’re not and cleverly furthers the brand propositions of respective brands "Silk - How far would you go for love" and "5 star - Do nothing", against the backdrop of the festival of love. Placing these contrasting messages on adjacent outdoor sites, is a quirky innovation that brings to life the contradictions of our times, while bringing a smile to our faces,” he notes.
(Edited by : Ajay Vaishnav)
Check out our in-depth Market Coverage, Business News & get real-time Stock Market Updates on CNBC-TV18. Also, Watch our channels CNBC-TV18, CNBC Awaaz and CNBC Bajar Live on-the-go!
Stampede-like situation disrupts Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav's joint rally in Uttar Pradesh
May 19, 2024 4:26 PM
Ladakh Lok Sabha election: With Independent candidate's entry, it's now a 3-way contest for BJP and Congress
May 19, 2024 4:01 PM