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If there's one category that seems to have run out of ideas to engage its consumers through some hard-hitting communication, it is certainly beverages. Don't agree? Think of one television commercial or a print campaign in this category in the last five years that does not talk about 'more fizz', 'real mango/lemon', 'adventure' and 'fun'. For a category dominated by big spenders such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, you will struggle to find work that has pushed the envelope with its creativity or out-of-the-box thinking. If launch advertising in the category continues to follow the tried and tested path, every product upgrade and change in packaging is hard sold in the name of innovation.
That is why the first advertising campaign for traditional beverage brand, Paper Boat, launched by Gurgaon-based start-up Hector Beverages in 2012, appears fresh and largely off the beaten path.
The brand, which made its first appearance as one of the beverage options served on low-cost carriers like Indigo and SpiceJet, launched its maiden campaign based on the theme of 'memories' in mid-March. Conceptualised by Karishma Lintas, the flagship film for the campaign takes a slice-of-life route and tries to relate the taste of the beverage to one's experiences during one's childhood and youth. It has voiceover by poet and lyricist Gulzar and a background score adapted from Doordarshan's popular television series, Malgudi Days. The three-and-a-half minute film was first released on social media and has touched close to 10 lakh views on Facebook so far.
The other set of four 30-second cuts are aired on prime-time television across a host of English lifestyle, news and Hindi and English general entertainment channels, with a focus on top cities.
The story-telling format is certainly new in the category. Anindya Banerjee, executive creative director, Scarecrow Communications, says, "With the right idea, and the correct execution, a long-format film keeps you engrossed. The Paper Boat film is a case study of how one can appropriate an emotion and not play in the cliched zones of 'fizz', 'taste', 'adventure' or 'real mango', something that established players have mastered unecessarily. The theme is nostalgia and the name Paper Boat evokes memories successfully."
Interestingly, the company launched its advertising campaign more than three years after the brand was put on the shop shelves. Neeraj Kakkar, chief executive officer, Hector Beverages, says he was not concerned about advertising at the time of the launch. Instead, he was involved in getting the product right.
He says, "We spent the first year in getting the flavours right by changing recipes time and again. Consumer feedback helped us improve our product immensely." For instance, it took several months for the company to zero in on the final recipe for one of its variant, golgappe ka pani. As Indian consumers will know, golgappa recipes vary across regions. Apparently, a lot of people who tasted the drink initially asked its maker to cut down on ingredients like 'mint' to enhance the tanginess.
Now, with over 1.5 million packs flying off the shelves every month, the company feels the time is right for the brand to announce its presence in a category dominated by colas and mango drinks.
The company, established by former Coca-Cola India manager Neeraj Kakkar and his friends, started its innings in 2010 with energy drink Tzinga. The idea of selling traditional drinks like aam panna (a cool mango drink), jal jeera (cumin water), other zero-calorie drinks like sattu, tulsi tea, ginger tea and kaanji, a black carrot drink, came after about two years and the first such product was rolled out in August 2013. While Paper Boat is already present in 15,000 outlets, it has set a target to reach close to 50,000 stores by the end of this year. The company has two manufacturing plants - one is located at Manesar, near Delhi, and the other in Mysuru (formerly Mysore). With this, the company has the capacity to produce 10 million single-serving packs a day.
As the two-month media blitzkrieg draws to a close, it is time for the brand to assess returns. Says Kakkar, "In the last two months, the sales of Paper Boat and its recall have gone up significantly in Delhi and Mumbai. Similar to our feedback mechanism for the product, we went back to some of our consumers to understand how they connect with the brand message." He claims that many consumers have said that they noticed the ad because it shunned 'shrill music' and 'melodrama', the two elements that are de rigueur in beverage advertising.
Currently, Hector Beverages is working on the next campaign for Paper Boat. In the next round, the company will take the brand beyond the top six metros and push it in the markets of Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Kolkata. The new campaign is slated for launch in the third quarter of 2015.
