Click Asia Summit 2016: 'The future is being the aggregator'

Babita Baruah, SVP and Head, Team PepsiCo, JWT, Maneesha Khanna, Associate Director, Head Media and Digital Marketing, PepsiCo, and Lucy McCabe, President, Ogilvy Red Consulting discuss brand stories

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | April 22, 2016

Day one of Click Asia Summit 2016 began with opening speeches from noted speakers. But what was more interesting was the discussion on how brands are trying to transform themselves to adapt to global needs.

In a session moderated by Charles Assisi, founder at Founding Fuel, Babita Baruah, SVP and Head, Team PepsiCo, JWT, Maneesha Khanna, Associate Director, Head Media and Digital Marketing, PepsiCo, and Lucy McCabe, President, Ogilvy Red Consulting discussed brand transformation stories from their own experiences.

McCabe began by sharing an example of how Nestlé's 'Milo' successfully entered the Australian market in April 2016. They launched a 'Milo fitness band' to attract parents to track their children while they are playing outside. They began pilot testing in three markets – The Philippines, Thailand and Australia – from April to October 2015. They did a version 1.5 launch in the Philippines and Thailand and a complete launch in Australia in April 2016.

Their main target was mothers and they ensured that using proper tools they engaged 'moms' for this sporting chocolate malt drink. They also tied up with 'Blippar' which is an augmented reality company based in London to engage kids through the pack of 'Milo.' That's how Milo became successful in Australia in about two weeks of its launch. McCabe's learnings for brand transformation was to understand the culture, collaborate with like minds, create effective content and be committed.

PepsiCo's Khanna shared the brand story of Mountain Dew. The brand has moved a long way from 'Do the Dew' to 'Darr ke aage jeet he' to the last one 'Naam bante hai risk se.' She tells the audience that PepsiCo wanted to listen to real stories of real heroes. That's when the brand asked masses the send in their entries and four of them were chosen to tell their stories on the digital platform.

Mountain Dew, which never went digital, decided to share the stories of Arunima Sinha, Col. Satyendra Verma, Ghost Ryderz and Shital Mahajan. From spending less than 5 per cent to more than 20 per cent on digital, Mountain Dew today gives its content to leading over-the-top and digital players like Hotstar, Vuclip, YouTube and Saavn.

Baruah spoke about how the end of war will happen. She began by giving the example of how one should never underestimate the power of competition. Having worked closely with PepsiCo, she shared the example of how Pepsi launched a mini film for the launch of their mini can in India.

The film had a lesson and that was something that was important for the brand. She also spoke about how Lux discovered the power of fragrances when they got a blind photographer to shoot Katrina Kaif. The whole making of the shoot in itself made the blind photographer famous. That is something that Lux as a brand thought of, 'to see from the eyes of someone who can't.'

Babita Baruah

Baruah stressed on the need to be inventive rather than just creative in order to bring transformation. Stating an example of how Pepsi asked audiences to make an 'IPL' ad, it nearly gave JWT a shock that in case they made a better ad, JWT will lose the business! But that was not the case. “We collaborated with them to polish their ad and put together the campaign for the big screen. At the end, the future is being the aggregator,” Baruah said.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com