My best campaign is re-launch of Close Up brand: Percept's Ajay Chandwani

A fresh approach

MY TAKE

We had to take on the market leader without naming it. So, it was a tongue-in-cheek message — we were taunting the market leader in an entertaining way to remind people that you can change your habit. 

Brand: Close Up

Year of launch: Not available

Agency: Lintas

Which is your best campaign and why have you chosen it? When was it launched?

Being part of the industry for many years, I have worked on several memorable campaigns for clients such as Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, Britannia, Tata group, Hyundai and so on. But the one that I remember the most was the re-launch of the toothpaste brand Close Up in the early nineties when Colgate was the undisputed market leader and to challenge its impregnable fortress in the toothpaste market was truly special. Back then, I used to work at Lintas where I headed the personal products business of Unilever for a decade. Incidentally, I had also worked for Colgate-Palmolive earlier, for five years before that.
 
What did the campaign achieve for the brand? Could you also share some numbers to corroborate your claim?

Close Up was historically a niche product that was the English-speaking youth’s choice, a brand that was mainly cosmetic and thus was not considered as an alternative to Colgate for mush of middle-class India. I do not remember the numbers but we certainly managed to position the brand the way we wanted it to and made it immensely popular.
 
What was the key idea behind the campaign?

Close Up was differentiated being a coloured gel where mouthwash was an ingredient and we had to tell the consumer that it would give a “brighter” start to their day. We roped in Nitish Bhardwaj, who was immensely popular in Indian households thanks to his popularity as the onscreen Hindu deity Krishna that he played in the TV serial Mahabharata, and hence he was the ideal choice to take across the message to people from all age groups. In the ad film, he is shown getting up in the morning and saying, “White toothpaste doesn’t get me up but Close Up Red and Close Up Blue do.” We designed the message to make the brand more mainstream and serious in order to strengthen its product story and rise above cosmetic claims. Vijay Vij, who is a filmmaker now, was the creative director of the television commercial. Since mouthwash was important to  the whole message, I remember for the still advertisements, we showed mouthwash being squeezed out of the bottles and entering the coloured tubes of the toothpaste.

Ajay Chandwani, Director, Percept and independent strategic engagement Consultant

What was the industry response to the campaign?

The brand found new middle-class consumers and went on to dramatically improve market share, especially in south India where it was test marketed. Close Up also won the Outstanding Brand of the Year Gold Abby at the Ad Club awards that year. This was well before Effies were introduced in India and effectiveness was the criteria for which the award was won.
 
What were the execution challenges?

The biggest challenge was to shake off the legacy of a highly westernised brand and transform it into a brand of substance for the more mass-market middle India. Also, we had to take on the market leader without naming it. So, it was a tongue-in-cheek message — we were taunting the market leader in an entertaining way to remind people that you can change your habit. We also had to replace the old brand ambassadors, Salman Khan being one of them, to execute the new strategy for Close Up.
 
Given a chance, what would you do differently?

I don’t think I would like to change anything about the campaign not only because it was successful but also because it was done in a rush or in a haphazard manner. From the conceptualisation to execution, we had nine months so we could do our research about consumer preferences as well as the competitors. Also, since we ran it through the test markets called sensors, the feedback on how it could potentially do in those markets was useful in designing the message and tweak it after proper discussions.