By RENELLE SNELLEKSZ
Indiantelevision.com Team

(1 March 2007 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Two couples perched on a billboard overseeing the traffic snarl below... sounds absurd? Well, it is purely a demonstration of traditional media cutting through mundane communication, overpowering the hustle and bustle but forcing passers-by to turn around and take notice!

This is Hindustan Lever's (the name is now Hindustan Unilever subject to shareholder approval) latest campaign for its beverage brand Bru. The tagline reads - "An evening to remember awaits you, buy a pack of Bru to know more." Urging consumers to purchase a pack of Bru, the enticing message guides them to a code on the pack that could win them the luxury of a chauffer driver car to a five star hotel for quite meal with their family.

It is clear that such an activity is done to boost the coffee consumption pattern in the North-West region, which demonstrates low coffee drinking habits as compared to the South, which obviously necessitates a greater push by the brand.

Different media like OOH, radio and print has been suitably used to convey this communication across the region, but largely driven by the local effectiveness of that medium, says Mindshare Fulcum GM Himanshu Shekhar.

The campaign has been rolled out in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune and Bangalore. "The outdoor advertisements have been placed to garner high visibility and thus force people to remember the message. It is part of a strategic thrust that is being given to the coffee brand as there is a huge growth opportunity in this category," says Shekhar.

However, Hedge says that the biggest challenge in this case (which requires actual people to be a part of the hoarding) is to execute the campaign.

When queried about the selective nature of the campaign, both in terms of distribution and media usage, Shekhar opines, "We have deliberately omitted television from the mix as it would amount to wastage and cause a huge spillover because the campaign is region specific and using TV would mean a pan Indian reach. However, the absence of TV challenged us to use the other mediums to create an impact."

The specialist GroupM agency Fulcrum that services the portfolio of HLL brands had previously carried a pilot campaign of the same nature in Pune, which they claim gave them encouraging results to now carry it forward on a bigger scale.