Hippo gets cricket fans snacking with 'Indian Food League'

The campaign by Creativeland Asia adds an element of fun through social media engagement

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | May 23, 2012

The endearing and loving hunger fighter, Hippo, is back this domestic T20 season with the 'Indian Food League' (IFL). The IFL is an online activity in which Hippo asks T20 fans to support their regional teams by supporting their regional dishes. The campaign has been conceptualised and implemented by Creativeland Asia.

The campaign is a crowd-sourced activity that caters to the cricket fans' love for snacking and eating, while they watch their teams fight it out every evening. The IFL ultimately hopes to tap into every Indian's latent desire to voice their humorous opinions. Talking cricket online has become engrained in every cricket lover's match-day ritual. And by bringing food to this already heated and opinionated mix, Hippo has hit on a very successful recipe.

Commenting on the activity, Nadia Chauhan, Joint Managing Director and CMO, Parle Agro, said, “With so many people conversing on social sites, Hippo has created the Indian Food League as a medium to interact with and engage its consumers on the social media platform during the cricket season. Needless to say, cricket has a large fan following in India. Friends and families watch a match together at home or a pub and other such places. Snacking is a huge part of such occasions and Hippo IFL is targeted at this consumer pattern.”

“Today, social media is one of the most influential and emerging channels of communication. Hippo's previous campaign on Twitter to track inventory was a huge success. This further encouraged Parle Agro to engage interactively with its consumers on the same platform. What's more fascinating is that while brands spend millions of dollars on conventional media to draw consumers' attention during this season, Hippo is doing the same at a negligible cost through social media,” Chauhan added.

Commenting on the campaign, Anu Joseph, Executive Creative Director, Creativeland Asia, said, “Hippo is constantly looking for opportunities to talk about food. He, in fact, looks at the world only in terms of hunger and food. So, a 'Mumbai Vs Bangalore' match for Hippo is a match between Pav Bhaji and Masala Dosa. So, whoever wins, at the end of the day, hunger loses.”

The IFL comprises nine regional teams symbolised by the region's most popular dishes, with Chennai being represented by Idli Sambhar, Mumbai by Pav Bhaji and Delhi by Papdi Chaat. Other dishes include Kanda Poha, Aloo Paratha, Daal Baati, Masala Dosa, Roshogolla and Dum Biryani representing the regions Pune, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bangalore, Kolkata and Hyderabad, respectively.

The home of the activity is www.hippofighthunger.com/ifl, a microsite where Hippo puts up a 'Today's Special' poster daily, giving his unique and quirky take on the day's food match-up. Each 'Today's Special' also mirrors the daily IPL schedule. Fans can visit the microsite and share their fun and quirky takes on which dish will top and why. The site also gives fans the chance to make and share their own fun 'Today's Specials' through their social network accounts. Hippo gifts the day's best comment a Hippo Bean Bag daily, thus making snacking while watching cricket a lot more fun.

Over the last 40 days, the activity has received a tremendous response. Hippo has chosen a winner for every match and most winners have been already sent their Hippo Bean Bags.

This is not the first time Hippo and Creativeland are conducting a crowdsourced campaign on social media. Last year's inventory tracking campaign, Plan-T, has already set a high benchmark for the brand. In fact, the launch of the activity became a trending topic on Twitter and other social networks. Over the last month, over 100,000 comments have poured in on the microsite and on Hippo's social media channels. The activity's growth has been completely organic, with most of the participation coming from Hippo's loyal fan base on Twitter and Facebook.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com