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Nitin Saini, Vice President - Marketing at Mondelez India Foods tells us why he believes the chocolate major has one of the best valentine's day campaigns across brands, driving home consumption, why a healthy mix of television and digital works and betting big on innovation, premiumisation, strong insight, idea, focus on execution and technology.
You released two Valentine's Day campaigns – one for Cadbury 5 Star that takes forward your positioning, “Eat 5 Star, Do Nothing.” Last year, you devised a time-travel hack to help people skip the entire day in minutes, this time you have an unexpected secret weapon: Uncles. The other is a limited-edition packaging for the campaign, 'Say it With Silk' for Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk; this uses penguins as an aid to express love. The films are quirky, humourous, so what were the insights you looked at to stand out in the cluttered period of Valentine's Day?
Both the campaigns work from a strong insight of their own. The Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk is about saying it with silk. The insight here is when somebody wants to express their feelings to their loved one, Valentine's Day is a great occasion and Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk can be a great vehicle to do that. This is what encapsulates our proposition of 'Say it With Silk' and it comes through this campaign. This is a limited-edition pack–Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk Heart Blush Valentine's Gift Pack–where there’s a heart-shaped chocolate which you can pop out from the bar. The pack design is nice and relevant and says that ‘you are special’. We used penguins because we wanted to do something clutter-breaking and the response is amazing.
While Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk is about celebrating couples, Cadbury 5 Star is all about celebrating singles. As a brand, Cadbury 5 Star’s proposition is “Eat 5 Star, Do Nothing”; it means it's OK to not participate in everything and you don't have to fear missing out. Valentine's Day is a great occasion to bring that proposition alive and the brand has been at it the last few years. Last year was about erasing Valentine's Day with the time travel vessel, and this year, the insight for Destroy Valentine's Day, is that young people disengage faster when they see older people adopt that trend, whether it is fashion, music, or social media. That is what's really appealing and cutting through with people. The fun and quirky take on uncles has brought the proposition to life and the campaign has become viral.
Each brand is doing what it needs to do, which is linked to their proposition and insight. Overall, we feel we have one of the best Valentine's Day campaigns across brands.
You operate in an impulse purchasing category. Over time, the company took the step to position chocolates as an alternative to Mithais and also gifting. What are the efforts you're doing as a brand and company to go beyond gifting and impulse purchase and how are you looking beyond these two categories?
Our focus is to continue to build relevance for chocolates. The company has been really successful over the past many years to drive per capita consumption of chocolates in India. There's a big opportunity and relevance to unlock and the 'Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye' proposition is a way to get there. You need a very strong and powerful portfolio and we have Cadbury Dairy Milk, Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk, Cadbury 5 Star, Cadbury Perk, Cadbury Dairy Milk Crispello, Cadbury Fuse, Cadbury Celebrations. We feel we have covered a lot of consumer demand needs through the portfolio we have. We also have chocolate home bags, what we call as treat size, to drive home stocking for home consumption. We continue to look at what more we can do and build relevance.
What are the insights you’re picking up from the GenZ generation?
Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk and Cadbury 5 Star operate from a GenZ world. Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk is about the apprehension you may have when you want to express your feelings for someone. It's a very strong insight even today and that is where we have been doing activations over the last few years. This year is about going one step ahead to 'Say it With Silk'.
GenZ look for personalisation to express their feeling that someone is special. The youth want to do something exclusive to them and the moment grown-ups start participating, some of them fall off. That's a really sharp GenZ insight, which is why people are responding to it on social media.
Mondelez is known for its innovation. Looking ahead, what can we expect in terms of innovations across flavour, product and marketing?
We recently introduced new products and our objective will be to scale them up. Last year, we introduced a dessert range under Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk with two new flavors, Brownie and Plum Cake. We recently introduced a new brand Studio Creations by Cadbury – a praline premium chocolate for high-end gifting. We introduced a new mocha almond flavor under Cadbury Dairy Milk and it has been received well. We continue to look at the consumer trends and are always looking at things that we can bring to the market and how they address different consumer needs.
Looking at Mondelez, your media choice is a balance of traditional and digital. Can you help us understand that balance and where are your spends going? Is it tilted towards digital or is it a healthy mix of both?
It's definitely a healthy mix of both, because both mediums have a role to play. TV still remains important because it gets us good reach. People are spending a lot of time on digital platforms. Ours is an objective decision on how we decide our media mix.
We work with our media agency, Wavemaker, to decide what's appropriate for different brands because for some brands, you need to do more digital; for some brands, maybe you need to do more TV, depending upon who the target audience is. At an overall macro level, for Mondelez, I would say it's a healthy mix.
What are the key IPs that make sense for Mondelez’s marketing?
Over the years, we have strongly associated ourselves with cricket, whether it is IPL or World Cup. We have also associated with properties such as Kaun Banega Crorepati. Every year is different and we'll continue to look at what makes sense for us and then continue to do it.
Premiumisation is a trend seen across categories. What's the growth seen in the premium segment?
Looking at a longer-term period, over the last decade the premium category has done quite well. Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk is the number two chocolate brand in the category and Cadbury Bournville has done really well in the last three years. We are introducing new innovations under Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk. Overall, the premium category has done well for us and it has been driving the category.
How do you segment your audience when it comes in your marketing strategy and define and target the different cohorts?
It depends upon each brand as each brand has its own consumer segment, that they target. Some brands target the youth from an age profile standpoint, premium has more urban buyers. We look at who is the key consumer group that we need to grow that brand and everything comes from there.
Over the years, Cadbury has been known for multiple iconic campaigns and advertising. What’s the secret to cracking the code for a memorable campaign?
The consistency of great work is something we cherish a lot. We always look at understanding the consumer insight as that is at the heart of everything when it comes to a particular campaign. We work a lot to get to a great idea along with our creative partner. We invest a lot of effort in making sure that the idea gets executed that the craft is strong. We work with some of the best directors in the industry. We don't just look at storytelling, which is a one-way advertising communication, but we invest a lot in what we can do from a story-doing standpoint, which is a two-way engagement. We use technology in a way where it doesn't become the focus, but it's a way to bring the idea to life in an interesting and compelling way. We used technology and AI to enable people to create a personalised birthday song or a personalised video for Valentine's Day or a personalised ad with Shah Rukh Khan to help small retailers come back post Covid-19. The technology is an enabler in creating that consumer experience. Overall, our experience of using technology in this way has been good. So strong insight, great idea, focus on execution and using technology to bring the idea to life in an exciting way for the consumer.
You've had a long relationship with your agency partners, Ogilvy and Wavemaker. What's the secret behind this relationship which continues to make campaigns that touch consumers' hearts?
An important ingredient is our creative partners. We have worked with Ogilvy for a long time and the secret really is that we look at them as equal partners. I've said this previously, if you come to a room which has people from Mondelez and our agency partners, you won't be able to say who is who and everybody in the room takes the call together. That's the secret behind creating great work.
What can we expect looking ahead?
We will continue to delight the consumers with products, and continue to look at what more we can do to provide people with moments of joy and happiness through our communication. We were adjudged as the Effie Client of the Year three times in a row, which is unprecedented. We are happy how our marketing work has been recognised externally.
Everybody thinks you have the Charlie in the Chocolate Factory job. So, what is your favorite brand from Mondelez?
My favorite is Cadbury Dairy Milk Fruit and Nut.
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