Catching them young

From cricket, cricket and more cricket, the spotlight in the cola campaigns is back on the youth.

If you thought that the cola companies would be riding on their cricket related campaigns, thanks to the Indian Premier League juggernaut that will roll out this April, think again.

The soft drinks companies are revitalising their youth theme and the "young" having fun idea is really central to their summer campaigns.

According to brand consultant Santosh Sood, the shift from cricket to youth is hardly a surprise. "Cricket-based campaigns will be around but they have a shelf life. They are on as long as the series is on. The core group of consumers is the youth," he says. However, with reports of young guns like Ishant Sharma and Rohit Sharma being lined up for endorsements, it won't be a surprise if we see them peddling the cola brands this season.

Armed with a combined war chest of close to Rs 300 crore for the season, both Pepsi Co India and Coca-Cola India Limited are ready with summer campaigns and sundry other marketing initiatives for most of the brands in their portfolios.

Pepsi has already declared its youth focus loud and clear with its Youngistaan campaign (featuring Shah Rukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone).

Fanta, again, talks about the Orangy blast (the new formulation ad) which looks at connecting with the young having fun.

Even Pepsi's 7Up Bheja Fry campaign is based on a simple insight "" even the young are prone to getting irritated or suffer from stress and fatigue. Events in their lives, too, could pull them down physically and mentally.

According to a spokesperson of Coca-Cola India, "The target audience is mainly youth and we have tried to integrate the brand values according to the values of today's youth." Coca-Cola's flagship brand, Coke, meanwhile, will launch a campaign with Hrithik Roshan in a few days. The focus the campaign is "Jashn Mana le" "" that is, have a blast while having Coke.

Most of the ad campaigns are supported by 360 degrees communication. Sprite, from the Coca-Cola India stable, is looking at outdoor and on-ground promotions in a big way.

To drive the message home, a range of out-of-home media is being leveraged starting from movie theatres, to university campuses and other youth hangout zones, each having clutter breaking, location specific messages. For example a Sprite hoarding in a movie theater would read "Every Movie, Looks Good In A Trailer "" Seedhi Baat, No Bakwaas Clear Hai?!"

Titus Upputuru, senior creative director, O&M, who worked on the Fanta campaign, feels that the idea is to give the youth more. "Today's youth is never satisfied and is always looking for bigger, stronger and more adventurous experiences."

To be sure, the youth plank does not mean that Pepsi is not using Bollywood stars. Its old favourite Shah Rukh Khan is shining brightly with the hot new film stars Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor. Meanwhile, Thums Up continues to have Akshay Kumar doing his daredevil act, while Sprite rides on it's no-nonsense plank.

For the summer season, the cola companies are going back to catch 'em young mantra.