Amulverse and Women's IPL? What's in store after Amul's utterly eventful FIFA journey

Jayen Mehta, the CEO of Amul India and Nitin Karkare, Vice Chairperson at FCB Ulka let us in on the dairy co-op's brand strategy for its FIFA association

by Team PITCH
Published - December 21, 2022
3 minutes To Read
Amulverse and Women's IPL? What's in store after Amul's utterly eventful FIFA journey

The much-anticipated FIFA World Cup finale saw the victory of Argentina and Lionel Messi over France. It was the perfect culmination of the tournament with many nail-biting moments, twists and turns. It's also a winning moment for Amul who marked its FIFA journey by being one of the regional sponsors of team Argentina.

"It’s a moment of immense pride for Amul to be the official regional sponsor of the world champions Argentina," tweeted Amul's official Twitter handle on the victory.
While Amul has always been supporting sports in India, the FIFA World Cup is still unfamiliar territory for an Indian brand. However, while consumers are more inclined towards cricket, there is a strong football viewership in India, says Jayen Mehta, the CEO of Amul India.

Mehta says that the objective behind such a landmark association is to position the brand's milk beverages as the original energy drink. He said, "We have been sponsoring many sporting events because it is a way to catch the youth. Sports has a positive connotation and milk is a form of nutrition, this is why we have been very active in sports-related marketing activity."

For Amul, the FIFA association was full of potential. "Though India is not a strong football-playing nation, it is very strong in football viewership. We wanted to connect with both the great players - Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. So we went ahead with becoming a regional sponsor with Argentina and Portugal both the teams."

Mehta also told us that the association with both teams is a year-long association not only limited to the World Cup. The brand will be supporting the team throughout the year.

Amul India was one of the most engaging handles during the FIFA world cup. According to a python algorithm run by journalist Sergio Charlab from Brazil, Amul is the only non-sporting brand on Twitter in the world, which had the most engaging content during the FIFA World Cup on Twitter.

They created 278 individual creatives for both teams across multiple languages. 

FCB Ulka, who has been the creative agency of the brand for more than 30 years, has also churned out an anthem campaign which played during the tournament on TV as well as all the digital platforms.

Speaking about how the agency contributed to this association, Nitin Karkare, Vice Chairperson at FCB Ulka said, “We have been anchoring every communication around milk being the original energy drink. Whatever we did was around that messaging.”

When asked about how Amul has been there as one of the legacy brands in India and has been at it with changing times and mediums, Karkare said that consistency and innovation are the key qualities that the brand has, and this has helped the brand to stay relevant through different eras. He said, “Identifying trends and capitalising on those trends is what has helped Amul to stay relevant in every phase of the time.”

Speaking on the vision of the coming year, Mehta said that they are looking out to expand their business and produce more milk products, and export them around the world.

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