Emvies 2013: Case study briefs - Day 1

Round two of judging for the Emvies 2013 competition is currently underway at the Wellingkar Institute of Management in Mumbai.

Here's a lowdown on each of the case studies presented on 21 August.

MEDIA STRATEGY - CONSUMER PRODUCTS

Nescafe - Nescafe Moodies – Maxus

The challenge Nescafe faced was to get India to wake up to coffee instead of tea. Even though India produces 3 per cent of the coffee in the world, the consumption of it is much lower. Eighty per cent of the production is exported out of India. For every one cup of coffee, 70 cups of tea are consumed and coffee is perceived as a drink for special occasions. Nescafe decided to own mornings and take applications on social networking sites – Facebook and Rocketock. Building on the insight that 92 per cent of the youth check their smartphones the first thing in morning and over nine million users log on to Facebook between 6 am and 10 am, the brand decided to use its Nescafe Mug and ‘Pa-pa-ra-pa’ song on social media. The campaign resulted in a 19 per cent growth for the brand and also provided an intangible benefit by setting the right mood for users for the entire day.

Clear - Clear Marries Cinema – Mindshare

Clear anti dandruff shampoo saw market share drop from 12 per cent in 2008 to 3 per cent in 2012. Mindshare was tasked with increasing brand awareness and getting trials through sampling in order to win back market share. South India is the biggest market for shampoos in India and contributed 51 per cent of the brand’s sales. The agency decided to defend that market first. Insights the brand worked on were: men in the region had more dandruff issues than women; people in South India prefer watching TV and cinema over other media; and cinema reinforces people’s personal identity. The brand moved from regular brand communication to cinema-led communication. Clear married cinema in the South and partnered with six films across three States. That got the brand access to co-branded TVCs, co-branded hoardings, 22,500 square centimeters of print, 5,000-plus spots on radio and tie ups with 3,500 cinemas. This resulted in a 75 per cent increment in spontaneous brand recall and 53 per cent of the people believed that Clear can help reduce dandruff.

Maaza - Celebrating festivals the Maaza way - Lodestar UM

Maaza looked to build on its number one position in the Mango beverage category in India by finding new occasions on which Maaza could be consumed. The insight was that Mango indulgence defines mango lovers, who crave mangoes when the season is over. Maaza was ‘Har mausam aam’ and festivals were used as best occasions to consume Maaza. Lodestar UM was tasked with using the annual budget that’s usually spread across five months in the year, across ten months instead. The national brand tapped up local markets with the festivals. It launched its campaign before other beverages could to break clutter. It used specific regions and worked on the fact that gifting is important and created personalised gifts for family and friends. Preference scores increased by 51 per cent and it faced a 26 per cent growth in volumes – double the growth of any other player in the category.

Johnson’s Baby - Share the language of love – OMD India

Johnson’s Baby’s campaign ‘Share the language of love’ was created to celebrate 100 years of the brand and to take on new entrants in the market who were looking to attract mothers. The brand worked on the fact that 80 percent of children were underprivileged, while the remaining 20 per cent’s parents spend close to Rs 2.5 lakh per year on them on clothes and toys. It asked moms to donate her kids’ old toys and clothes to the underprivileged. Goonj partnered Johnson’s Baby in distributing underutilised essentials to improve lives in rural areas. The campaign helped raise awareness, simplify the donation process and ensure distribution of materials. A TV ad, newspaper inserts and a viral video - showing a flash mob dance routine with kids at a mall - raised awareness and invited participation. The campaign reached out to 18 million mothers and 40,000 underprivileged children were reached through the campaign. The brand rose 16 per cent on the ‘caring brand’ parameter and 8 per cent in the knowledge index respectively.

Saridon – National Headache Reliever – Lodestar UM

Saridon looked to combat new launches and existing competitors with a ‘National Headache Reliever’ campaign. The brand had found that stress was the universal reason for headaches. It also worked on the fact that most people think of headache solutions only when they have one. Just brand spots are not effective, reasoned Lodestar; so Saridon used only 30 per cent of its budget for this. The brand claimed that news and movies had high associations with headaches and so it created ‘National Headache Reliever’. It sponsored small segments on news channels to review movies and also created a segment called ‘Top 10 Headache movies of the year’. Saridon also looked to replace the usual stars given to movies as a rating, by indicating the number of Saridons people would need after watching the movie (5 being the maximum). An increase of 33 per cent in sales was reported. The brand’s top of mind recall increased by 125 per cent.

MEDIA STRATEGY - CONSUMER DURABLES

Vespa – Un-scooter the scooter – Mediacom

For Vespa’s re-launch in India in 2012, Mediacom worked on a campaign, ‘Un-scooter the scooter’. When the brand re-launched, 11 scooter brands were present in the 80 to 125 cc category in India. People viewed scooters as rationale purchases only, and Mediacom’s task was to establish the label in India, show why it should be commanding a premium and to drive business volumes. Mediacom looked to tap the ‘trend points’ and not the ‘touch points’. With youth being the target audience, it looked on working on a campaign to attract the segment. It unveiled it with a fashion show, launched a contest called ‘Once upon a Vespa’ and formed a mod club with MTV. Following these initiatives, Vespa reached its sales targets for the year in seven months. The brand wanted the youth to purchase it – 80 per cent of the sales came through youth.

Godrej – One Watt – Mindshare

Through the ‘One Watt’ campaign, Godrej looked to address 1.2 billion people. According to the company, people waste electricity because of ignorance. The campaign broke last year at a time when the country was battling power shortage. So, it launched a movement for ‘energy conservation’. Through the campaign, Godrej encouraged everyone to save one watt of power a day, which would be enough to run the entire country. For the campaign, Godrej looked to target the IPL and did so through Kings XI Punjab. It got the team to shift from its red coloured helmets to green. Through this, the brand’s equity went up by 22 per cent.

Fiat – The Advantage of Disadvantage – Maxus

Last year, every quarter witnessed the launch of at least two to three new models in the automobile market, but Fiat wasn’t launching anything. The Italian car manufacturer worked out that digital was playing an important role in the path to purchase. Maxus came up three facts before creating its campaign for Fiat.

1: Google’s algorithm gives high importance to videos.

2: Online users are more tempted to click on a video link. Websites with text grab the attention of a user for 48 seconds, while a page with a video keeps attention span for 5 minutes 58 seconds.

3: People compare cars to choose better.

Using these facts, Fiat made 11 videos which featured the Punto and Linea being compared to competitors. The video on YouTube had a link which would redirect users to the ‘Book a test drive’ page for its Linea and Punto cars. Around 3,10,000 people saw the videos. Test drive enquiries went up by 16 per cent and the brand’s consideration increased by nine per cent.

Volkswagen – Post It To Win It – Mediacom

People ‘test’ drive five to six cars before buying one. Increasing awareness and enquiries for the ‘refresh’ models of Polo and Vento was the task. And it had to be done in a market that had seen a slowdown for six successive months, with more brands to boot. The consumer too had no time to test drive vehicles. The strategy adopted was to follow the ‘portable consumer’ with a portable medium: ‘Post it’. Catchment areas identified were bus stops, malls (tie ups with 51 Shopper’s Stop outlets), cinema halls (during Diwali), ATM machines, airports and corporate complexes. Blimps were also put up, in case the TG missed the rest of the blitz including print ads. The ‘Post it’ announced that those taking a test drive would stand to win a car. Test drive enquiries increased 131 per cent, and 28 per cent of sales targets were achieved during the campaign period.

MEDIA STRATEGY - SERVICES

Tata Docomo – Hyper Personalisation: World’s first CRM-powered digital media campaign - IBS

Working on the insights that prepaid users only look at prepaid communication when their balance is low, and looking at value added services when their balance is high, Tata Docomo wanted to use Facebook as a medium to manage its customer life cycle. With 1,00,000 users recharging their phones through third party sellers, Docomo created a CRM-powered digital campaign. The brand used the ‘sponsored’ section on Facebook to deliver personalised greetings for users based on their account details and usage. This won back 3,50,000 lapsed users. Data pack consumption by 46 per cent. During the month of the campaign, the brand’s revenue increased by 2 million dollars.

American Express - Breaking The Clutter, Breaking The Terminal Pattern - Mindshare

The challenge American Express was faced with was to launch an American Express Jet Airways card. With two other players already in the market (partners with Jet Airways), Mindshare got the brand to only target a section of Jet Airways’ consumers. Out of the 22 lakh frequent flyers, Amex targeted only 1.1 lakh elite flyers. The brand looked to break the terminal pattern and made sure American Express would be present right from the time person reached the airport until he landed at the destination airport. This helped American Express collect Rs 5 crore through membership fees alone. The brand received 9,200 leads in two months and sales increased by 100 per cent.

Reliance Mobile - Want it all (Dual Search) - MEC

After studying online behaviour, MEC India figured that Google search volumes increased when Reliance Mobile advertised in print. The company received eight million searches in a month for the keyword  ‘Reliance’ and a majority of the searches came from tier two and three towns. So, Reliance Mobile used Google as an advertising platform. It ran dual SEO and SEM campaigns. While SEO ran in English, SEM ran in local languages. The link from here would go to a landing page which would also be in the local language. Through this campaign, Reliance Mobile received 10,000-plus leads for new numbers and portability.

Vodafone - 35 mn consumers now spend 3 times more on Vodafone - Maxus

In 2012, Vodafone saw growth of the telecom industry slowing down, and the brand wanted to standout among peers. According to Maxus, media investments were being scrutinised like financial investments. That’s when Vodafone launched its 121, ‘Made for you’ offers. The brand used its ‘Made for you’ offers as title sponsor of Bigg Boss. At the same time, the telecom player bagged associate sponsorship for the India-Pakistan ODI series and made its presence felt during the Diwali releases in Bollywood. The campaign saw 35 million (22 per cent of its total base of customers) using the 121 service.

MEDIA STRATEGY - MEDIA / Media Property

ABP Ananda - Cholchhe Na Aar Cholbe Na (Can't Happen, Won't Happen Anymore ) - Mindshare

ABP Ananda looked to take on Kolkata’s negative attitude with their ‘Can’t happen, Won’t happen anymore’ campaign. The channel looked to make residents of Kolkata the agents of change. It created a website www.cholbena.in and created a Facebook page for the same. The channel received 34,210 registrations on the website and 2,16,000 views on YouTube. The page helped in getting a transport strike called off. On 15 August, the channel took this into its programming. This led the Kolkata police creating a Facebook page.

Coke Studio - Match me if you can - Lodestar UM

For Coke Studio@MTV’s second season, Lodestar UM looked to increase footprint for the show. It was able to increase it through broadcasts on Doordarshan (the first time DD broadcasted branded content) and Colors. It looked to also establish two-way communication, by being present on social media. Its twitter handle received 4,600-plus followers, 1.8 million Facebook fans and 10.8 million YouTube hits. In addition, Coke Studio sampled at places like the Kumbh Mela. It also used its bottles (1 million of them) by adding QR codes to download music from. Demand was created through concerts and events. It received the maximum sales a non-film album received. As a result, brand score increased by 12 per cent, and sales volumes increased by 33 per cent.

MEDIA INNOVATION - RADIO

Closeup toothpaste - India's favourite non-sporting game - Mindshare               

32 year-old Closeup toothpaste looked to the second largest toothpaste market in India (Uttar Pradesh) to re-launch Closeup Antakshari. Research showed that the show which last aired 12 years before the activity was still recalled by 63 per cent of the people. The show was re-launched in Uttar Pradesh on radio. Actor Manoj Tiwary was roped in for the 16-week show. Radio City, Big FM, All India Radio and Radio Mantra hosted the show across 109 cities. Further, a ‘songtakshri’ was also created, where songs were played on the radio station using the ‘Antakshari’ format. A result of this campaign was a 24 per cent increase in sales, the highest in the country. According to an Ormax research, the brand also gained 90 per cent recall.

Colors: Bigg Boss 6 - Audio Transformed To Visual - Maxus

Colors wanted Maxus to help the channel gain maximum viewers for the opening show of the sixth season of Bigg Boss. On 5 October at 7 pm, the show converted Radio City’s office into a Bigg Boss house. A live radio broadcast was provided on the channel in Mumbai along with a video shown live on Radio City’s website and Colors’ homepage. This activity was viewed and heard by 5 million people. Around 23.5 million people viewed the season opener.

Saridon - National Headache Reliever – Lodestar UM

Saridon had gone into the ‘graveyard brand’ category. Lodestar was tasked with re-establishing the brand. The agency used the fact that on an average 14 movies release in India every week. About 89 per cent of the movies released in the country in 2012 were flops – and that was the opportunity Saridon used. A Saridon meter (How many Saridons will you need after watching the film?) was created as 45 RJs in 45 markets (10 languages) reviewed movies week after week for 60 weeks. That made the brand a currency. Through which, 8.1 million people were reached through 480 minutes of branded content. This helped Saridon increase sales by 33 per cent.

Sur Kshetra On Colors - Mile Sur Mera Tumhara - Maxus

Colors looked to music to bind the fragile India-Pakistan relations. The channel created a show, Sur Kshetra, which pitted Indian musicians against their Pakistani counterparts. To promote the show, it brought radio channels from India and Pakistan together to co-host shows. Radio City co-hosted a show with Apna Karachi, Big FM with Apna Lahore, and Radio Mirchi co-hosted a show with City FM. This made local media global and got the countries closer through creativity.

MEDIA INNOVATION - DIRECT MARKETING

Lifebuoy - Roti Reminder - Ogilvy India

Poor hygiene kills 1.1 million children people in developing countries. Lifebuoy looked to address this problem at the Kumbh Mela, where over a 100 million Hindus sit together to eat. Through an investment of 36,000 dollars, 2.5 million rotis were stamped with the message, ‘Lifebuoy se haath dhoye kya’ (Have you washed your hands with Lifebuoy?), prompting people to wash their hands before eating. The brand received sales of 40 dollars for every one dollar spent in the campaign.

Municipal Corporation Of Greater Mumbai – Sweet Of Life – GroupM Dialogue Factory

Working on the research finding that one in every five Indians is diabetic and by 2025, India will be the diabetes capital of the world, GroupM’s Dialogue Factory created a campaign for the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai to address the problem. The association went to 100 offices around the city and placed bowls of chocolates. The wrappers of the chocolate had a message, which asked the people to get their diabetes checked. 1,00,000 toffees were created, through which over 1,00,000 people were made aware about diabetes.

Vodafone - Musical Earmuff – Ogilvy India

Vodafone made its presence felt at the Kumbh Mela with branded earmuffs. With temperatures dipping to as low as 4 degrees in the area (February), an earmuff was a real need at the mela. The earmuff supplied by Vodafone had speakers which played devotional music on the press of a button. Through this, the brand hoped to popularise its music offerings in a cost effective way, keeping with the devotional mood of the festival, and adding some warmth to pilgrims.

Birla Sun Life Insurance - Agent on Track - DDB Mudra Max

Addressing the belief that ‘Nothing will happen to me’ among Indians was the challenge – and the opportunity presented itself in the form of daredevils crossing the railway tracks to board trains. Of the over 15,000 people dying on the tracks every year, Mumbai’s famed train network accounted for 7 per cent. Across 10 stations in the city, the agency rode on the opportunity for Birla Sun Life as the consumers crossed the track. A Birla Sun Life ‘Agent on Track’ greeted them with a visiting card on the other side, with the message that since they’re crossing the track, they might find use for a life insurance advisor. Around 80,000 shocked commuters were reminded of the value of their lives, meeting the objective of discouraging people from crossing tracks, while earning goodwill.

Akanksha Foundation - Joy of Teaching - Ogilvy India

The NGO Akanksha Foundation which runs 40 centres in Mumbai and Pune with a mission to give underprivileged children education met with a typical set of challenges – need for motivated teachers. And the ones who did come in, were typically doing it for the interim, as was evident from an attrition rate as high as 45 per cent. The agency zeroed in on the task on hand – to find people who taught for the joy of teaching. And also to find people who stayed close by, a key reason for sticking to the job. On the occasion of Teacher’s Day (5 September), hundreds of children hit the malls, promenades and even the airport in Mumbai looking for teachers. Those passing by were invited to teach. Live updates on Facebook, invitations from Big FM to take classes on air and the like followed, attracting 300 teacher and 450 volunteer applications. More importantly, the quality of applications improved. Attrition came down to less than 10 per cent, paving the way for more Indian kids to get an education.

MEDIA INNOVATION – CINEMA

Fevicol - Bollywood bonding: Fevicol Se in-song placement - Ogilvy India

How do you promote a brand as famous as Fevicol? For the brand that already had spontaneous recall as India’s largest adhesive and is almost synonymous with the category, the set of challenges were understandably different. So it decided to cement its bond with Bollywood. A song was born. On a platform as large as Salman Khan-starrer Dabang 2. Downloads on YouTube preceded and followed the release.

Lifebuoy Handwash - (The real hero) Chintoo ala re - Mindshare

The focus market was Maharashtra for this campaign by the 118 year-old Lifebuoy. Post deciding that the brand must engage kids, who don’t like being preached to, the agency built on the fact that use of popular cartoon characters work. An iconic character that is quintessentially Maharashtrian, and one every Sakal reader wakes up to, was chosen. The 8 year-old Chintoo had not been leveraged by any brand since he was created in 1991. Lifebuoy decided to own Chintoo, and gave him the onus of brand messaging to encourage people to wash hands with soap, with Lifebuoy. For the first time, the character was brought to life through cinema.

Tata Nano - From reel to real: Nano Student of the Year Stars - Lodestar UM

The film about youth was being scripted by Karan Johar. It identified youth passions Tata Nano wanted to connect with, giving the agency good reason to take a closer look at it and recreate it off celluloid. Nano Student of the Year touched 1693 college in 532 cities in real time, in conjunction with the film. While Karan Johar announced the offline property, online voting across platforms (1.5 lakh votes) and a finale judged by the stars led to a two-part televised show on Channel V. Youth consideration scores for the Nano jumped from 23 to 29 for the car, even as it earned 3.8 million ‘cool buddies’ on Facebook, the highest for a car brand. On the business end, Nano also generated a database of thousands of youngsters across the country.

MEDIA INNOVATION – OOH

Cadbury Celebrations – Sisters Street - Madison Media Pinnacle

Brothers in India are quite affectionate towards their sisters, but they’re not very good at expressing their affection. On the one day dedicated to expressing one’s commitment towards the sibling, Raksha Bandhan, Cadbury decided to celebrate with a platform to help men express their love for their sisters. Streets in Mumbai, Delhi and Lucknow were branded ‘Sister’s Street’ and OOH mediums were used (100) and created (250) to display personalised messages. Six lakh views online were complemented by a million likes and a lakh shares on Facebook, with four lakh people talking about it. Over 35 siblings were featured in the OOH creatives, while the campaign saw radio, print, TV and cinema being used. Brand awareness grew 30 per cent, sales grew 34 per cent and sales of Rich Dry Fruit grew at over 50 per cent.

Horlicks - Ahar Abhiyan – Mindshare

Mindshare set its sights on the Kolkata metro for this campaign for health food drink Horlicks that sought to address the issue of malnutrition. Around 28,000 paintings from 154 schools found their way to 12 metro train stations in Kolkata, becoming a live museum of 16,00 square feet for the theme ‘Art for nutrition’. Lakhs of people using the metro stations added to the online and other audience the campaign touched. Volume share of sales went up by 4 per cent, while brand consideration increased 10 per cent.

Adventure18 – Window Washer - DDB Mudra Max

Indians are not known for their penchant for outdoor adventure. So how could a brand that dealt with adventure gear get them thinking of getting out and heading for a trek in the hills?It did so by following them to the most ‘boring’ of places possible – their offices – and displaying a little daredevilry.  Working professionals in a high rise looked at their windows to see window washers dangling from a rope outside, holding the sign, ‘Wish you were outdoors?’ and the company’s website URL. Visits to the site almost doubled.

Volkswagen - Post it to win it - Mediacom

Increasing awareness and enquiries for the ‘refresh’ models of Polo and Vento was the task. And it had to be done in a market that had seen a slowdown for six successive months, with more brands to boot. The consumer too had no time to test drive vehicles. The strategy adopted was to follow the ‘portable consumer’ with a portable medium: ‘Post it’. Catchment areas identified were bus stops, malls, cinema halls (during Diwali), ATM machines, airports and corporate complexes. Blimps were also put up, in case the TG missed the rest of the blitz including print ads. The ‘Post it’ announced that those taking a test drive would stand to win a car. Test drive enquiries increased 131 per cent, and 28 per cent of sales targets were achieved during the campaign period.

Country Inn & Suites – Earth Hour Happy Hour - DDB Mudra Max

Country Inn & Suites wanted to make the hotel the talk of town – in this case, NCR. The property located adjacent to the Delhi-Gurgaon Toll Plaza had location on its side. There are 1,75,000 vehicles that ply past the toll plaza each day. But large format hoardings are not allowed in the city. The agency went about creating a giant display out of the hotel property itself. It enlisted volunteers to donate rooms for Earth Hour, on 23 March – 380 guests agreed, and were rewarded with candle light dinners. The room lights were used to create a countdown that was visible to the outside world. And at the stroke of ‘Earth Hour’, the lights went out.

MEDIA INNOVATION – TV – Consumer Products

Cadbury Celebrations - ‘Gift a Diwali’ - Madison Media Pinnacle

Shared celebrations of Diwali has become an individual respite, discovered the brand through a consumer connect survey. It was just another holiday. And that was the opportunity. Cadbury urged people to celebrate Diwali with their loved ones. It sparked off debate on the state of relationships in the country on a news television network (IBN) 25days prior. And on the weekend preceding Diwali, it went on to an entertainment network (MSM) with a ‘Gift a Diwali’ message featuring popular TV stars. Six channels aired a spot from Cadbury in every break in for three days. Choice of Cadbury Celebration as preferred Diwali gift went up by 45 per cent.

Colgate - Chota Reporter – MEC

The doctor and dentist are people we visit only when there is a problem. That needed to change. Thus was born Chota Reporter, engaging kids aged 6 to 14 years with messages on dental health, encouraging people to get a free cavity check up done.

Tata Docomo - The big story – Lodestar UM

Tata Docomo wanted to increase ARPUs with its unlimited plans. The creative route was to complete every incomplete story. Armed with the insight that different media vehicles offer different avenues to convey the agony of incomplete stories, the agency sought out ‘natural disruptions’. Storylines became a part of the planning process.  The genres used included news, GECs and movie channels. The brand completed 8930 stories on 63 channels, covering 204 minutes. A 35 per cent increase in brand consideration followed.

Vodafone – Alag log alag zarooratein (Big Boss) - Maxus

Creating awareness and driving adoption of its 121 service was the task on hand for Vodafone. Big Boss offered the right context, fitting in well with 121’s ‘Different people, different needs’ philosophy. A TVC was shot inside the Big Boss house, shot candidly without the knowledge of inmates. After Salman Khan introduced the ad on TV, it went on to get over 6 lakh views on YouTube. Calls to 121 doubled; with 35 million customers subscribed to the service.

MEDIA INNOVATION – MEDIA / Media Properties

Nokia - ‘Your wish is my app - Maxus

Nokia realised that apps are a critical parameter impacting the purchase decision. With the objective of establishing technology credentials on the back of its library of applications, Nokia created ‘Your wish is my app’, engaging the developer community and consumers. The idea was to bring together the relevance of consumers’ ideas and developers’ minds. Billed as the world’s first technology reality show on TV, the property invited ideas through social media and ground events. A total of 38,000 ideas poured in, with brand awareness going up 12 per cent being among results.

BEST MEDIA INNOVATION – SPONSORSHIP

Lay's - What's Cooking... Good Looking! - Mindshare

IPL 2012 was around the corner and it was evident that a host of brands would be vying for consumer attention. Lay’s had a healthy share and good growth, including a 60 per cent increase in frequency of purchase, but wanted to drive the opportunity to ‘bring back the love’. It found that the greatest hitters of IPL were also masters in the kitchen. The brand tapped that opportunity. MS Dhoni, Chris Gayle, Adam Gilchrist, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma and Kevin Pietersen became part of the ‘Gods of flavour’ project which went on air on the popular food show ‘Highway on my plate’. Six new flavours were launched, a million Facebook fans saw the leaked ‘making of’ promos, and the online fan base for the brand hit 1.9 million.

Tata Nano - Nano Drive-athon - Lodestar UM

The youth had apprehensions about the Nano, making it necessary for the brand to establish Nano’s performance credentials through media. Thus began the hunt for sponsorship opportunities to do that. A road trip with M TV that lasted 21 days covering 2500 km explored India from a traveller’s perspective in Tata Nanos, and went social real time while doing so. Over 100 videos, 5,000 pictures and text updates, besides two episodes on M TV comprised the content generated. Over 1,42,400 fans registered,  moving the number of fans for Nano to over 3 million from 1,8 million prior to the Drive. The brand also got 15,000 leads, besides an increase in youth consideration scores.

Airtel - Satyamev Jayate - Madison Media Plus

The pioneer brand in Indian telecom needed to reinvent and reconnect, as circa May 2012, it was in a situation of declining / stagnating brand scores. The simulcast Satyamev Jayate was seen as that opportunity to do so, but the challenge was to give it an ‘Airtel twist’. So it chose to play the enabler, and not the star. It gave viewers a voice with all audio visual calls being made using the service provider’s 3G technology. All donations were done through Airtel Money. It created an Airtel ‘Talk to me’ forum for show host Aamir Khan. All revenues from the SMS channel was routed to charity to ensure that the sponsorship was not seen as a commercial activity. While brand KPIs were met, innovation scores increased by 6 and technology score by 8 basis points (on a healthy base). Repucom estimated a 250 per cent RoI for Airtel, with earned media returning 18 per cent of the show RoI.

Amul - Making Milk Exciting: The Olympics – Lodestar UM

Given the challenge of helping Amul sell the 16 per cent surplus milk each year, Lodestar realised that the brand needed to win new consumers. Amul needed to energise milk. The choice of content was rooted in the premise that international sports were gaining popularity in India. Going against the odds, Amul became the official sponsor of the Indian Olympic team for the 2012 Games. A TVC change urged by Lodestar saw the ‘milk athelete’ coming to life. An FB app asked youth to energise Olympians with Amul Milk, gathering 54 million impressions. The 140 crore milk pouches promoted the sponsorship as did 10 crore limited edition packs. The signature hoardings featuring the Amul girl also spoke about the Games. At a time when every investment needed to be evaluated, the brand decided to go with ‘unconventional thinking’, admittedly. Sales went up 20 per cent (50 per cent for tetrapacks), youth scores rose 8 per cent.

Vodafone – Alag log alag zarooratein (Big Boss) - Maxus

Connecting with youth, creating awareness and driving adoption of its 121 service was the task on hand for Vodafone. Big Boss offered the right context, fitting in well with 121’s ‘Different people, different needs’ philosophy. A TVC was shot inside the Big Boss house, shot candidly without the knowledge of inmates. After Salman Khan introduced the ad on TV, it went on to get over 6 lakh views on YouTube. Calls to 121 doubled; with 35 million customers subscribed to the service.

(Updated at 1300 hrs on 22 August)