Fastrack ups ad spends by 35% for Q3; repositions from 'Moves On' to 'You Do You'
Ajay Maurya, Marketing Head, Fastrack, talks about the brand's new positioning and recently launched campaign. The brand will allocate its advertising spends equally on both on-ground and online channels
One of the leading youth watch and accessories brands Fastrack has announced the new positioning ‘You Do You’ backed by a 360-degree marketing campaign. The brand will continue to focus on its new philosophy in all the upcoming marketing campaigns for at least next three years.
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Having 30% more advertising budget in hand during the current quarter, Fastrack will equally focus on both on-ground and online activities with a focus on influencer marketing.
With its earlier tagline and philosophy of ‘Move On’, Fastrack with its signature tonality spoke of the uncommitted space of attraction, which was the prevailing tension of the youth back then. ‘You Do You’ is trying to fuel the fearless expression of Gen Z’s fluid identity. The brand is trying to validate the experiences of Gen Z and be their ally in their explorations, concerns and celebrations.
Ajay Maurya
Ajay Maurya, Marketing Head, Fastrack, said that it is a golden rule in marketing to always stay close to your consumers and when ‘Move On’ as a philosophy was established, it had encapsulated the then tension in the minds of its consumers.
“The brand always focused on what the current youngsters’ tension that they are going through. ‘Move On’ took a very humorous and witty stance on what the current age tension was. Eight years later, we have realised that most of our consumers today are not so much having the similar tension. In fact, there is a challenge about them expressing their identities, not being able to try out new things and they have the challenge related to their own individuality. I think these are certain tensions that are dialling up a little bit more. And to dial up that conversation and confidence, ‘You Do You’ was the right positioning,” he shared.
One of the tensions taken up by the campaign is body shaming. Social bullying for being a certain body type causes mental health issues and hinders the overall progression of GenZs. Thus, in the first set of campaign films, it is looking through the lens of owning one’s body and choices.
Lowe Lintas, Bangalore has conceptualised the ad and the production house behind the same is LoudMouth.
The films talk about staying comfortable in your skin, being positive about your body and individual experiences of self-love. They represent the uninhibited expression of youth identity, label-less and free, and which refuses to be locked into any templates or boxes.
The brand is looking for a long term investment to build this whole new philosophy and will keep dialling this similar conversation up for at least the next two to three years.
“It's not just that we're doing one campaign and then just get over it. There is a lot of conversation that has to be built up. Our objective is to position ourselves as a thought leader on ‘You Do You’ and be the friend, be the voice of the youth via the way they want to express their fluid identity,” he added.
In terms of marketing, the brand is investing on both on-ground and online platforms. A strong on-ground presence via stores and authorised distribution networks, Maurya said, is a strong lead for the brand. Also, the brand has a strong following across not only the metro cities but also the tier two and tier three cities.
Maurya said it is quite essential for the brand to push a significant amount of investment on online platforms, with consumer preferences changing.
“We have our brand commerce website and social media platforms where Instagram and Facebook have become important not just only for awareness, but also for business. We have strong eCommerce platform partners like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Ajio and Nykaa. Our budget would absolutely be divided equally between online and on-ground. On-ground also includes outdoor and print,” he added.
In quarter two, the brand did not have anything substantial except for its collaboration with Coca-Cola and a digital campaign.
“Compared to last quarter, our increase in ad spends will be close to 30-35%,” he said.
Last month, it had joined hands with Coca-Cola to introduce a new collection and launched an integrated digital campaign “Awesome Together”.
It celebrated the inimitable spirit of the two iconic youth brands and brought together a fizzy vibe taking the cool quotient up a notch. It revealed the Gen-Z’s spirit of making undefined identities and being free from the norms.
Maurya added that this collaboration had generated a lot of conversations and content and gained a lot of traction for the brand.
It has also been very active on the influencer marketing front and its investment on this has been on a rising trend.
“Our investments on this have been a rising trend and will go even further. For most of our social media campaigns that we do, we have a very significant contribution coming from influencers too,” Maurya said.
For its ‘You Do You’ campaign too, Fastrack has partnered with several influencers to create real-time content. The brand believes that it is an important strategy to have to connect with the Instagram savvy Genz generation.
When asked about the festive season plan, Maurya said that the timing of the recent campaign is such that it will ensure to be out there in the market to be in the consideration set of the customers.
“The idea is also to get visibility among the people who are looking to consider watches as a purchase especially for the youngsters during festivities too. However, having said that, the brand campaign also has a large leg of it sitting after the festive season gets over,” he added.
To be more authentic in its approach, it is also contemplating on setting up a mental health pit stop kind of a platform. This will help youngsters actually alleviate any tension that is brewing in their minds.
In terms of the growth, Maurya said that maximum sales happen in Q3 and it generates a very strong tailwind for Q4 subsequently.
“If we continue to do well, we should be aiming to look for at least nothing less than 10 to 15% of growth compared to Q3 of FY 19-20,” he said.
He added that on the back of the festive season, the brand is looking at some very aggressive numbers, unlike last year.
“Consumer motivation is very strong at this point of time, and this time people actually want to celebrate festivities in the highest fervour. With vaccinations crossing 100 crores, the confidence level is even going up,” he said.
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