Topical occasions like Father’s Day are great opportunities for brands to reach out to their consumers. Multiple brands engage with their consumers through social media, digital channels and even TVCs to inculcate and strengthen their messaging in the mind of consumers. In a conversation with exchange4media, Priti Raghunandan, Category Head - 2W/3W/LMC, CEAT Tyres, talks about a similar digital campaign launched by CEAT on the occasion of Mother’s Day '#SheGoesAnExtraMile'. Raghunandan also shares the brand's marketing strategy, gender inclusivity efforts, product launches, and more.

Edited Excerpts 

Any specific metrics or targets that you had set for this campaign? What was the response to this campaign? 

The campaign was purely intended to be a homage and we did not want to come across a brand that is capitalising on the sentiments. The idea was to give mothers our due thanks and, also through the process, seamlessly integrate the CEAT values which is making mobility safer. Like how moms go the extra mile, CEAT goes an extra mile in safety by creating products with great grip that prevents accidents. That was a brand salience driving metric that we had in mind coupled with general awareness about safety.  

For this campaign, we went robust on digital as for Mother’s Day most content is shared on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. A topical campaign like this doesn't sustain for long but we realised that relatable micro-content gets easily shared. The ‘She goes an extra mile’ campaign is so relatable that we were able to reach a fairly high audience organically in the first week itself.

Driving has always been considered a male-dominated activity, so how do you see that evolving?

The profile of the riders and people on road has been changing drastically over the last seven to eight years. Very interestingly, women have become decision-makers. Once you're on the road, you're on your own, so they're more than happy to shop for shoes or gear and they're just starting to get very comfortable making these decisions. This is why this campaign was extremely directed toward women. From what we have seen in the last few years, we will be extending the conversation about tyres from a male-dominated segment to women as well as they are now making these decisions for themselves. We’ll look at making them more aware of tyres in general and making the journey more seamless for them once they are out on the road.

As mobility is evolving every day with newer tech and innovations like Electric Vehicles, how has CEAT’s brand proposition evolved?

We are always on the cusp of doing something different and exciting, and we have a lot of products coming up. We have a product 'dual-compound tyre', which comes with a self-healing sealant technology that prevents air loss even if there is a puncture in the tyre so that the vehicle isn’t stuck. At the next level of technology, something that we are looking at is a proposition for electric vehicles and electric scooters with more sustainable tyres that ensure better battery life and low noise.