Shweta Shrivastava is the Marketing Head of London Dairy, premium branded ice cream segment in India. She has close to 15 years of experience in the FMCG sector across marketing, insights, marketing strategy, brand management and communication development.Prior to joining London Dairy, Shrivastava has worked with Cadbury India and Marico Industries Limited in various strategic roles.We present to you the ‘BTL Baatein’ of the week which is powered by VISCOMM with Anuka Roy speaking to her on Below The Line (BTL) advertising, the focus of the company and the balance between ATL (Above The Line) and BTL
How important is BTL to your overall marketing plan?
In today’s media and communication scenario, the line between ATL and BTL communications has blurred. Traditionally, communication media meant TV, print and everything else. The new age marketing is about integrated marketing encompassing all media to garner effective reach and salience on one hand while driving engagement on another, which requires a good mix of ATL and BTL.
Being a premium brand, for London Dairy BTL is essentially led by experiential marketing that gives the consumer a “London Dairy experience†which works best for the brand.
Our Ice cream month campaign with the London Dairy Squad is proof of the same as it engaged young working professionals at their place of work and gave them the Ice cream experience around the theme of Ice Cream Day.
London Dairy had also organised Ice cream festivals across key modern trade chains like Godrej Nature’s Basket and Hypercity to create a theme at point of buying and get consumers excited and gratified.
Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?
London Dairy follows a mix of presence in high profile events to drive brand connect, and trial generation and buzz creation activities at point of buying.
London Dairy was the indulgence partner at Sulafest 2016 wherein we set up an indulgence zone where our chefs doled out special ice cream creations to consumers giving them a unique product and brand experience. The activities at zone of Indulgence had visitors performing off-beat activities in front of a cheering audience. To top it all, the London Dairy Throne of Indulgence at the zone had consumers queuing up to pose in their own regal fashion atop the throne.
This experience was replicated at the Times Holi Fest this year where London Dairy was the presenting partner. This platform was also leveraged to launch the London Dairy summer digital film #SummerOfIndulgence. The activity not only engaged consumers on ground with scrumptious ice cream but drove significant chatter around the summer film launch.
Our #SummerOfIndulgence campaign was also activated at the point of buying with Ice Cream Festivals across key retail channels like Godrej Nature’s Basket and Hypercity. Be it a sundae challenge for kids or ice cream eating competitions or exciting consumer offers for ice cream enthusiasts, the festivals drove trial and brand buzz amongst the catchments.
The most recent of the brand’s activities was the London Dairy squad which broke into offices across Mumbai and Delhi surprising young working professionals on a regular working day and indulging them in the ice cream month.
Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?
As mentioned earlier, ATL helps drive reach and salience on one hand while consumer engagement efforts require a good mix of ATL and BTL. Hence, the ATL investments for London Dairy are significantly higher, but BTL is deemed equally important.
Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?
The execution of BTL activities is led by a mix of both existing agencies as well as specialised BTL agencies, depending upon the nature of the activity. Given the thrust on experiential marketing for London Dairy, the execution quality and attention to detail has to be impeccable.
In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2C, do you find BTL a more sureshot avenue than ATL?
If you are talking about only trial generation activities in BTL, then the gains are immediate but short lived. Brand-building is key to long-term viability of any business. Thus, a correct mix of ATL and BTL is of paramount importance.
While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?
The key attributes that denote the success of a BTL activity are:
First, the quality of experience the consumers get during the activity since this is the foundation upon which everything else stands. Secondly, the quality of chatter and word of mouth generated around theactivity on various media, since this is what gives a positive brand buzz. Finally, the quantum of buzz generated by the activity and an essence of virality in it is what makes the activity truly successful as this is what gives the geographically constrained activity an unmitigated reach.
There are many organizations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?
The best way to make a campaign successful is to integrate it across platforms. While BTL has its merits, it would be unrealistic to expect brands to be built purely on BTL. For creating buzz around an activity or campaign, BTL must be augmented by sufficient ATL. The good news is depending upon the brand target group; marketers today have the choice of advertising in new age media, some of which are really cost effective and measurable.
With new age media giving considerable reach and engagement, it is important for brands to study the media ethnography of its target consumers and accordingly devise an effective media plan to reach them across multiple media.