Chella Pandyan,
Associate Director, Biscuits India and Kids Fuel AP, Mondel?z International
It was a dark moment during a Superbowl match in the US a couple of years ago, that got Oreo the limelight on social media platform Twitter thanks to a brilliant ‘you can dunk in the dark’ tweet. The biscuit brand has recently launched its new ‘Play with Oreo’ campaign and Chella Pandyan, Associate Vice President, Biscuits, at Mondelez India Foods Limited, talks about universalizing the brand to appeal to children and adults alike.
Cookie brand Oreo’s earlier campaign ‘Twist, Lick and Dunk’ was all about acknowledging the child within each one of us. The next step is to encourage this child within you to come out. ‘Play with Oreo’ is the more explicit version of that thought.
According to Chella Pandyan, one of the challenges for the brand in India was that it had come to be regarded as a kids-only brand. Globally, it’s seen as a brand for kids and adults alike. And that’s the perception the company wanted to address, hence the strategy to have two brand amassadors for Oreo in India. Ranbir Kapoor in the North and Karthi in the South effectively helped Oreo universalize the brand image over the last couple of years. Today, Oreo is no longer a brand only for kids.
“The new campaign ‘Play with Oreo’ is a creatively rich platform that is great for the brand. TV is a large part of the media plan, but there is also a very strong and exciting digital plan,” says Pandya. Oreo has always had a very strong on-ground campaign. Especially for ‘Play with Oreo’, Mondelez India will be doing a Doodle Contest, roping in graffiti artists across the big cities in India and getting them to express themselves through the Oreo lens. It’s a 360-degree campaign that is designed to inspire and unleash the spirit of play as it unfolds over the next 3-6 months.
Oreo has invested a lot to ensure that digital is one of the most important parts of the media plan. Apart from social media, it is looking at user generated content for ‘Play with Oreo’. Globally, when there’s an idea that helps people express their thoughts, it gets very popular and Mondelez India is hoping for the same here. Although Oreo holds a premium positioning in popular perception, the pricing does not really match that theory. Oreo is being positioned as an aspirational brand that is premium but affordable for a lot of consumers. That’s the magic balance Mondelez India is seeking.
Pandyan says India has always had ‘chai and biscuits’, but cookies and milk is a Western concept. And to sell that as a proposition to adults is that much more difficult. Yet, surprisingly, the cookies and milk strategy has worked well for Mondelez India. Firstly, it was a very different look at biscuits in India. Secondly, mums absolutely love the fact that it encourages the consumption of milk along with the cookie, so it’s a win-win. It was slow at first, but Oreo has been making some great progress here. It has also built brand footprint not just in terms of distribution, but also product footprint. Tying up with Quick Service Restaurants has been a fundamental plank in how the brand became large and additive. However, the company is ensuring that the quality that people come to expect from an Oreo is something that is guaranteed by that QSR environment as well.
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