Anil Thomas, ECD, McCann Ericksson
Name of the Campaign/Ad:Â TVS Scooty Pep + – Go Babelicious
The Brief: Shift the battle beyond machine superiority in the minds of young women.
Research insights:
Since it was a collection of bikes with bright, bold colours, we tried to answer what makes girls go crazy about these bright but almost child-like colours and we stumbled upon the insight that as much as girls want to grow up into young women of substance there are also moments when they instead revel in their adolescence.
Often this leads to a behaviour that is seen as immature by others but enjoyed by girls. Take for instance the popularity of characters like Hello Kitty and Hanna Montana, Baby-G watches, the use of shocking nail paint colours such as yellow or using bright coloured handbags.
So to make this collection a fun and fashionable one, we decided we should legitimize this immature behaviour amongst girls and let them celebrate being that way. That’s how the creative brief “Lovably immature” was born.
The thought process behind the creative:
We saw an opportunity, with this collection, of going beyond the mobility factor, a look at the bold colours on offer and we wondered if we could position this collection as a fashion accessory. Yes, the bike helps you get there, but getting there looking absolutely babelicious doesn’t hurt either! So what others might find as shocking, the babelicious girl finds perfectly innocent and natural – be it a behaviour or the choice of bold striking colours for a scooter.
Hence, the importance of spontaneity and effervescence in the characters who think it’s okay to create a ruckus so that she could get past a barricade or the simple act of wearing lipstick in the middle of the road.
Media vehicles chosen:
To truly make the Go Babelicious attitude into a rallying cry, a movement and a sub-culture of sorts, we had to explain what Go Babelicious meant, and then amplify it in the most vivid manner, which we did on TV, Print, YouTube, college campuses and so on.
Our TG was an influencer/trendsetter among her peer group, and not a follower.
Therefore, like any good fashion brand, we also targeted the places and the media our influencer TG would go for; fashion magazines like Cosmopolitan, English movie channels like HBO.
| [youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKVxd6cOBN0[/youtube] |
| [youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qvTdkx20AY[/youtube] |
Key issues kept in mind while executing the ad:
It was a tight rope walk. The most important point kept in mind during execution was to keep the communication in the lovable zone and to ensure it doesn’t cross the lines.
Does the treatment do justice to the brief?
The idea was to get Scooty Pep+ to own the lovably immature behaviour, just like how successful fashion brands own a philosophy or an attitude, by manifesting it through an attitude statement.
The TVCs were about girls doing crazy, fun things and getting away with it scot-free because of the manner in which it was done, be it exasperating the traffic cop into letting her go through despite the oncoming VIP convoy or just wanting to do her make-up using the window of a car beside her at the traffic signal as a mirror, without worrying about its effect on the driver.
In this case, we manifested “lovably immature” through the attitude statement of “Go Babelicious” which was a rallying cry to all the girls to let out their adolescent, crazy side without inhibition.
What according to you is the differentiating factor about the ad?
We knew that other marketers were selling scooterettes on the basis of power and performance. In effect, they were speaking to the entire market as if it comprised of
100% male consumers. CC, BHP and mileage were the main conversations happening in a market in which 40% of the users were young girls/women in the age group 18-24 years.
Clearly this TG did not understand the technology aspects of a scooterette and beyond a point didn’t care about it either. The first decision we took was to ensure that we would communicate with women like they were women, and not pretend that they were men!
Market and client feedback:
The campaign arrested a steep decline in sales of -27% and went on to achieve a 25% growth in the same year. Despite a competitive functional benefit, the brand parameters improved. Single woman’s perceptions and intender’s consideration scores of brand Scooty registered an upswing.
In short we succeeded in shifting the battle to fulfilling emotional need states. Making consumers not just buy us but fall in love with us.