Lay's brings on the 'pranksters' for Chile Limon flavour launch

PepsiCo has rolled out a new Chile Limon flavour of its flagship snacks brand Lay's. A launch campaign created by JWT India goes on air today featuring brand ambassador Saif Ali Khan.

In the film, a college student is shown walking into his library. He's surprised to see a stack of Chile Limon flavoured Lay's there. He picks up one and opens it. He's left further surprised by the turn of events after that, with things falling all over. It is then revealed that Khan has teamed up with some of the boy's friends to play a prank on him. The film reveals the tagline ‘Chile Limon khaya toh panga dimag main aya’, and signs off with Lay’s ‘Pal banaye magical’ message.

Gaurav Mehta, category director, Western Snacks, PepsiCo India, explains the thought behind the campaign, besides media and marketing plans for the new flavour.

Said Mehta: "The idea behind the campaign was similar to what we have done with other the launch of other flavours in the past. As in the case of most Lay's flavour ads, the ad comes from the product itself. The first thing we did was to try and figure out what kind of a product this is. If you have Chile Limon, it gives you a very sharp and simulating taste. So that's the bedrock of the idea. Given the brand identity and what it stands for, playfulness and mischief was a very interesting place for us to be in. We are very youth-centric and it's very youth-centric idea."

Besides the TVC, PepsiCo has forged a tie up with MTV to create programming around the 'pranking' space featuring the product, with VJ Jose. That leg of the campaign is expected to break three to four days after the ad film goes on air. The new flavour will also be introduced on digital, for which a separate film has been created and will break in a week.

“For now, we really want to keep it focussed on TV before the IPL noise starts. We'll also use radio in the campaign. The idea is very audio/visual so OOH will be kept out. We're trying to keep it very engaging," Mehta added.

The TVC will run in the lead up to the IPL and for a bit during the tournament too, according to the spokesperson. “But as an idea it doesn't sit on the IPL, so we don't need to unnecessarily run the campaign during that time. IPL has its own life and clutter and while this may be very different from the rest, it won't be too appropriate for it," he surmised.
Credits
Client: PepsiCo
Creative agency: JWT
Executive creative director: Surjo Dutt
Creative director: Chandni Kapur, Abhishek Misra
Executive business director: Joy Chauhan
VP and client servicesdirector: Manish Kapoor
Account management team: Anubha Mathur, Aanchal Bhargava
Production house: Handloom Films
TVC director: Ram Subramanian
Producer: Ramya Ran
Media agency: Mindshare