It is imperative for businesses to enhance their Direct to Customer (D2C) channel, says Shailja Joshi of Lay's

While we have all appreciated the frontline workers for their contribution to fighting the pandemic, we often forget to appreciate the supply chain workers that make sure we never run out of our favourite foods. The new Lay’s #Heartwork campaign salutes the spirit of people involved in making the chips available to you.

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Shailja Joshi

Talking about the campaign, Shailja Joshi, Associate Director Potato Chips Category, Pepsico India, said it is important for brands to connect with the audience through thoughtful and relevant storytelling.

“Brands have a crucial role to play in reassuring consumers through thoughtful and relevant storytelling in sync with reality. In today’s times, it was important for us as a responsible Brand to bring to our consumers a campaign that shines light on the unseen Indian heroes - Farmers, Factory Workers, Truck Drivers, Distributors, Sales force, Retailers, and Delivery Executives, who are working relentlessly against all odds to bring joy to millions. This campaign is dedicated to applauding their efforts and #Heartwork,” she said.

The campaign has been creatively conceptualized by Wunderman Thompson.

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Joshi said with this campaign they are thanking the entire value chain rather than a community. “We as a brand believe in this and for us, it is our heartfelt ode towards these unseen heroes. We are also taking the initiative forward by partnering with Smile Foundation, through which we are aiming to provide hygiene kits which include masks and sanitizers to over 40,000 families of these #Heartworkers. The initial response and feedback from the campaign has been very positive and consumers have called it out as creatively unique,” she added.

Talking about the challenges that the brands have seen in communicating with the consumers due to the pandemic, Joshi said consumers are engaging with a brand that will leave an impact on them. “It is crucial to maintain a connect with consumers through appealing formats and engaging platforms across social media, television and employee engagement that appeal to them,” she said.

During these tough times, brands must look for innovative ways to operate to ensure products reach to the consumers. “We are maintaining a close lookout on consumer behaviour to be better prepared in a world post-Covid. We recently also tied up with Swiggy and Dunzo for exclusive Lay’s and Kurkure E-stores. With social distancing becoming the new normal, consumers are increasingly preferring to stay indoors. Thereby, it is almost imperative for businesses to enhance their Direct to Customer (D2C) channel,” Joshi said.

To ensure the brand continues to do well in the post-COVID world, they are closely observing the consumer behaviour and following all Government regulations pertaining to social distancing and sanitisation. “We have robust yet responsible plans to operate in this new normal,” she added.

Known as a brand that engages with the consumer through creative and funky campaigns, Joshi said their last campaign, ‘Smile Deke Dekho’ was one of the most successful campaigns. “We followed a detailed and planned approach, in terms of communication and social media strategy, as we reached out to more than 750 influencers for the ‘Smile’ campaign. Furthermore, the Lay’s Smile packs took the social media by storm and we saw an outpour of anecdotes and stories of how a smile transformed various moments. Lot of Fans of Lay’s showered their love for the brand during the Smile campaign. The best part was that over 90% of that was organic. Going forward, we plan to share this wonderful piece of video content with our Fans and encourage them to spread the word and thank their heroes for #Heartwork,” Joshi added.

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