| The bedroom curtains flutter, revealing a young boy, probably under 10 years old, sleeping soundly. |
| As the camera moves closer through the windows, it zooms in on a shape moving stealthily under the sheet. The next instant, a loud, maniacal laughter shatters the silence and the boy screams as he sees the "thing" on his chest "" his history textbook. The camera pans to another house, another room, where two children are switching off their study table lamp. |
| As they turn towards their bedrooms, the lamp switches back on, straightens up and starts projecting graphs, tables and text on the walls. The terror continues in a third house where books move on shelves, even as the studying children watch open-mouthed. Just as you wonder about this new horror flick, a smiling, saree-clad woman "" clearly the mother "" enters with cups of steaming Horlicks. |
| As the voiceover intones "Exams ke bhoot bhagao. Horlicks badhaye concentration power. Bacchon ko banaye stronger (Drives away the exam monster. Horlicks increases concentration power. Makes children stronger)", everything settles back in place, as if by magic. |
| For the past couple of years, Horlicks has been urging parents to buy the milk additive by communicating on the "taller, stronger, sharper" platform. |
| Now for the first time it is focusing on just one attribute: sharper. The new, 30-second television commercial that went on air last month zeroes in on the fear that strikes most parents and their school-going children around this time of the year; exams. |
| There's a good reason for that. Research by GlaxoSmithKline showed that there is a 15-20 per cent surge in sales of health food drinks (of which its brand Horlicks is a part) during the first quarter of the year, compared to the other three quarters. |
| Further digging "" GSK has retained research agency Quantum help it understand children's behaviour through the year "" revealed that falling temperatures weren't the only cause of the increased sales. The exam season was equally responsible as between January and March, most children spend long hours studying while parents "" the mothers, for the most part "" fortify them with nourishing meals. |
| "Our research showed that both mothers and children are very stressed during this time because of exam pressure. So we decided to launch a campaign addressing this need," says Shubhajit Sen, vice president, marketing, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Health Care. |
| Combined with the insight that more than 60 per cent of Horlicks households have one or more children between 4 and 14 years, the new campaign theme virtually wrote itself. |
| Creative agency JWT, which has been associated with Horlicks since the brand was launched back in 1929, took just a few days to come up with the idea. |
| "We decided to represent the fear children experience "" sweaty palms, mind going blank and so on "" as the exam ka bhoot," explains |
| Dipanker Sharma, creative supervisor, JWT, who wrote the creative along with his colleague Anunay Rai. Mintoo Singh of Classics Films made the film in Mumbai. |
| Horlicks got some early positive feedback for the TVC from the children who acted in the film. Still, it decided to hold focus group sessions to ensure the campaign was sending out the right message. Once it has cleared that successfully, the company kicked off the ad in January, almost a year after GSK's last Horlicks campaign. |
| Since the aim is to reach both children and mothers, the company has bought advertising spots on kiddie channels such as Pogo and Cartoon Network, as well as general entertainment channels such as Star Plus, Sahara and Doordarshan. Over 4,200 spots of the 30-second film as well as three 15-second edits are planned for the next two months. |
| The TV association goes beyond just the ad. In Tamil Nadu, GSK has tied up with a children's serial My dear bhoodam, where the title character Moosa imparts advice on tackling exams. |
| Similar associations are planned with other regional channels in West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, while a tie up with Disney will take care of North and West India. |
| Television is just one plank of the communication strategy. Centrespread exam planner pull-outs for children and advertorials for moms to help children prepare better will form the print focus, while radio communication will concentrate on FM spots as well as contests and "all the best" messages from celebrities. |
| On the Internet, GSK has tied up with an online tutorial website, classteacher.com, to provide branded content on exam preparation as well as a downloadable exam planner. |
| There's more. Apart from distributing booklets and pamphlets on beating exam stress to school children in 23 cities, in the top 14 cities, GSK will conduct interactive, in-school workshops for parents, in association with The Activity, a Bangalore-based organisation that focuses on leadership and personality development initiatives. It is also planning extensive point of sale displays and will be targeting the medical community with specially designed flyers, posters and other visual aids. |
| "The medical community is very helpful in building awareness about health drinks, their nutrients and advantages," says Sen, explaining the company's move. |
| More than the scale of activity surrounding the campaign, though, JWT believes it is the theme itself that will attract attention. |
| "The simplicity of the execution and the timing of the campaign will make it appealing," declares Swati Bhattacharya, creative director, JWT. The communication highlights only one of the three core promises made by the brand. Since 2003, when it clinically proved that Horlicks makes children sharper, taller and stronger, GSK has made these its core brand promises. |
| All communication since, including the last campaign in 2005, have focused on these attributes. This is the first time, however, that it has singled out one feature. If the results in April are good, this strategy is likely to be extended to the other two as well. |
| WHO DID WHAT |
| Client: GlaxoSmithKline Agency: JWT Creative: Dipanker Sharma & Anunay Rai Client servicing: Prashant Pandey |
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