How an ad campaign 'challenged stereotypes' and affected a 'cultural shift'

The 'Nayi Soch' campaign for Star Plus in 2016 challenged the stereotypical thinking related to women and sought to tell how women should not be looked at

MY TAKE

We achieved a purpose for the brand — which was to create a movement, and bring about a cultural shift 

Brand: Star Plus

Year of launch: 2016 

Agency: Mindshare India 

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

It is the one that won us a lot of awards and delivered a strong message — the ‘Nayi Soch’ campaign for Star Plus in 2016. Star Plus is a brand that touches nearly 80 per cent of our population. This was a campaign where we challenged the stereotypical thinking related to women and sought to tell how women should not be looked at. What we did was to ride on the popular culture and determine how we could change perceptions.

For example, there was one advertisement with Aamir Khan where the person changed the dominant trend of having “& Sons” written outside an enterprise and replaced it with “& Daughters”. Our message was that women today are as capable of running a family business as are the sons.

Another major initiative was to get top Indian cricketers don the names of their mothers on the back of their jerseys where usually the first name or family name finds a mention. We had teamed up with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for that. 

We also had an open letter by Swara Bhaskar and got leading TV news anchor Arnab Goswami to talk about the issue of women being denied entry into temples or dargahs. So it was a massive campaign and we even instituted an award called the Nayi Soch award for fresh thinking.

What did the campaign achieve for the brand? Could you also share some numbers to corroborate your claim?

We achieved a purpose for the brand —which was to create a movement, create a cultural shift. Star wanted to come across as forward thinkers, a channel that knew how to portray women on television. This campaign accentuated that as a thought. For Star, it was not a ‘from here to there’ goal but was more about how it could  be different. 
 

For example, Alia Bhatt was chosen as the Nayi Soch award winner for her portrayal of certain roles in films like Highway which resonated with the brand’s key idea. It was about coming up with ways in which we could mould people’s thinking. 

For a cricket match for instance, someone wearing his mother’s name is a completely different way of thinking. Even Mahendra Singh Dhoni said it was rare for the cricketers to talk about their mothers.

Preeti Mascarenhas vice-president & head of strategy, Mindshare India

How did it all begin?

We started by tying up with the BCCI to get the cricketers as the spokespersons of Nayi Soch. The topic chosen for the serial Namkaran was also around the same theme — that of how the mother’s name is as important for a child as that of the father. Then we had Mahesh Bhatt talking about the same issue and the Aamir Khan ad. The key idea was branched out and was narrated via different advertisements.

What was the industry response to the campaign?

We won close to 20 awards. That includes the prestigious Tangrams, considered as Asia Pacific’s foremost awards honouring clients and their agencies for marketing strategies that deliver solid results to transform businesses. The campaign was also shortlisted for the Cannes Lions, 2017. Star became the Client of the Year.

What were the execution challenges?

The execution challenges were massive, from getting the BCCI to come on board with the name change thing to getting those at the data analytics centre to understand how to track the prevailing culture with the help of numbers and understanding what was trending. We had to constantly track these changes and act accordingly to stay relevant and to find out what more we could do. The challenge was to make the rest of India join the movement, to not letting it confine itself to being a marketing gimmick and instead deliver the message we all stood for.