With a legacy of over 100 years, Eveready Industries India Ltd., a household name in batteries, has now launched India’s first portable Liquid Vaporiser, ULTIMA, with an aim to widen its product portfolio and enter a much wider household consumer market.
“Eveready has always been in the business of bringing power and convenience to consumers, and our portfolio has only evolved with the needs of our consumers. Our entry into mosquito protection is a natural extension of this approach, allowing us to bring our expertise in portable and rechargeable power into a new category”, said, Anirban Banerjee, CEO, Eveready Industries India Limited, speaking to IMPACT magazine.
Over the past few years, the company has launched quite a few innovative products in categories like Alkaline batteries, power banks, mosquito rackets.
The Eveready ULTIMA Liquid Vaporiser has been built in a way, that it can be carried and used across any enclosed space, from corners of house, balcony, to cars and even trains. Designed to deliver uninterrupted protection, it is designed to operate without being plugged into a power source, enabling continued functionality even during power cuts. Infused with advanced Japanese formula, its rechargeable format provides up to three hours of battery backup. The product has mosquito repellents attached to it that can be changed using the Eveready refills, that are easily available in the market, with no immediate plans to collab with existing repellent brands. The product was launched with a campaign ‘Unplug and Use Anywhere’ to highlight this innovation.
Distribution is something, Eveready has always worked thoroughly on. As a part of their marketing approach, they have decided to take a unique step of distributing this product within the country. Eveready plans to start trading only in their key markets which are in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi, before taking over the rest of the country. The product will be available on Amazon, Blinkit, Flipkart, BigBasket, Zepto and Instamart.
With the launch of Eveready ULTIMA Liquid Vaporiser, the brand has also taken a break from their celebrity-led marketing approach that has been a part of their strategy for a very long time. This time, Banerjee believes that their product is the hero who can be the centre of communication.
“When you have a significant innovation which is very different than anything else that you have seen around you for the last few decades, we believe that we may not need a celebrity because our product itself is quite the hero to enjoy the status of a celebrity”, claims Banerjee.
On whether AI could eventually replace advertising agencies, Banerjee is clear that the technology is not yet changing Eveready’s agency relationships. “Adoption of AI by many of my partners is an ongoing process. I don’t see the immediate basis to partner with AI,” he said.
Gaming could be another space where Eveready’s product-led approach finds a natural fit. While the brand has not historically taken a strong position in gaming, Banerjee says it has already begun experimenting with gaming-led activations, including an RC car challenge in partnership with INOX during children’s film releases, where participants raced remote-controlled cars powered by Eveready’s ULTIMA batteries.
The next step, however, could be to take that association from the physical world to digital gaming. “We have various grades of batteries and we have some very serious batteries which could be of interest to active gamers,” said Banerjee. The brand is now considering digital-focused advocacy through gaming influencers and other relevant cohorts, particularly for its portfolio of batteries suited to gaming devices.
For Eveready, then, the move into gaming is less about forcing the brand into a new advertising environment and more about finding spaces where its products can genuinely play a role. As the century-old battery brand looks beyond its traditional categories, the game may be shifting from borrowing star power to letting the product power the story.
