MUMBAI: Creativeland Asia Mumbai is the only creative agency that has got its entry shortlisted in the Creative Effectiveness category of Cannes Lions 2012.

The agency has been shortlisted for its work done for Parle Agro’s Hippo Baked Munchies, titled Plan-T.

Hippo Baked Munchies was launched by Parle Agro in the Indian Snacks Market in January 2009, and was followed by a communication launch in January 2010.

According to the brief, Hippo’s unconventional packaging and universal philosophy of ‘Fight Hunger, Fight Evil’ made it a runaway success. Hippo’s growth hit a roadblock when consumers’ demand for it far exceeded the supply of the brand as consumers were being greeted by empty shelves in 400,000 retail stores, across India. This overwhelmed the nascent sales and distribution team as they found it challenging to track and replenish stocks quickly.

The company needed an alternative inventory tracking system that was quick and cost-effective and found the answer in the platform of Twitter and invented ‘Plan-T’.

Through Hippo’s twitter account, Creativeland Asia Mumbai made him interact with his followers, urging them to tweet to him in case they found empty racks in stores. A core cell was set up to monitor, analyse and pass on information collected from the tweets to local distributors in respective areas, who then replenished the stocks in 24 hours. In a country dominated by traditional media, connecting with Hippo’s supporters through Twitter made the impact.

Plan-T drove consumers to report empty shelves on-the-go, across 400,000 stores, in about 53 cities and towns across 18 Indian states, all this within a span of six months. Plan-T, along with the existing sales and distribution team, helped Hippo post a 76 per cent increase in sales within six months.