Mumbai: HP India has launched ‘Power To Do It All’ campaign, featuring its latest range of innovative HP Pavilion laptops. The campaign aims to appeal to the GenZs, who are digital natives and use technology in everything they do. Conceptualized by Lowe Lintas, the campaign focuses on real-world problems faced by students and how the HP Pavilion notebooks solve those problems.
The multi-film campaign features celebrities Yashaswini Dayama and Ahsaas Channa, reprising their roles from the ‘Alisha Garima Diaries’ campaign by HP last year. Each film showcases relatable college situations, highlighting the reasons of preferring HP Pavilion range for students buying their first laptops.
Links to the short films :
The all-new HP Pavilion with Multi-touch:
The all-new HP Pavilion with Multiports:
The latest 13th-Gen HP Pavilion range of laptops are built with cool, innovative features for the GenZs. The short films highlight the multi-touch convertible feature of the Pavilion laptops, that allows Ahsaas to do multiple tasks easily, even while in the classroom. Being equipped with multiple ports helps her connect her laptop to her tech ecosystem conveniently, without carrying a bag full of adapters. These features are showcased to make the college lives of students easier and hassle-free.
Commenting on the launch of the campaign, HP India CMO Prashant Jain said, “GenZ needs from computing are beyond the ordinary. Our endeavour at HP is to make their interaction with technology intuitive and effortless. The Pavilion range, with its mobility, design and features like touch, eye safe display, solves for GenZs’ every day challenges and new needs, as they step into the world of high school and college.”
“This campaign has been conceptualised as a multiple part content series. It takes off where we left last year, educating customers about features which meet their needs, ” he added.
Students are constantly juggling between school, tuition, extracurricular activities, and maintaining an active social life. There is always a lot to do and not enough time to do it in. HP believes that as lifestyles evolve, there is a need to provide innovative solutions to make the interplay between work and play seamless.
The ‘Power To Do It All’ campaign is live across TV, digital, and social media platforms. HP India hopes to cater to the needs of college students and establish the newest Pavilion range as the obvious choice for students buying their first laptops.
Mumbai: With cricket mania in India reaching fever pitch and with more games coming up in the next couple of months, India’s favourite chocolate brand, Cadbury Dairy Milk has launched its latest campaign, #CheerForAllSports. Guided by the brand’s purpose to inspire generosity in people, the multichannel campaign aims to bring India together to cheer for the Indian athletes across other sports who will be playing during the same time as IPL. With this, the brand is taking another step forward to encourage India to share and participate in the happiness of others. This time, the brand is nudging that— ‘Har Indian team ki Khushi Mein Shaamil Hokar Dekho’, by supporting Indian athletes as they compete in wrestling, boxing, hockey, table tennis and other tournaments across the globe.
The idea #CheerForAllSports is also being manifested at the back of a tech-enabled engagement wherein the special Rs 100 pack of Cadbury Dairy Milk— with a unique font at the front with each letter representing a different sport, comes with a QR code. This code, when scanned, will lead to a microsite with a calendar of other sporting events during the same period as the upcoming IPL season. This dedicated microsite allows users to sign up for reminders and includes links to watch and support India in other sports. Taking this a step further, the brand has made arrangements for screens to be put up at stadiums where Indian athletes will be playing, to showcase the people who join the stream to cheer for the Indian athletes. When a viewer joins the link shared via the microsite, they will join thousands more as they all come together to cheer for India— no matter where they are!
Speaking on the idea behind the campaign, Mondelez India VP marketing Nitin Saini said, “Over the years, Cadbury Dairy Milk has been successfully fostering the spirit of generosity through its heartfelt campaigns. We have been consistently shining a spotlight on the unacknowledged, such as the ground staff and women in sports. Therefore, this year, we are taking the idea of generosity a step forward to other sports with Cadbury Dairy Milk #CheerForAllSports campaign. In a cricket loving nation like India, laurels won by athletes of other sports can often go unnoticed. Through this campaign, we aim to change this narrative and get India to cheer for athletes across other sports. We hope that our campaign inspires consumers to participate in the happiness of talented Indian athletes, evoking a sense of acchai and mithaas around all of us.”
Ogilvy India chief creative officer Sukesh Nayak commented, “#CheerForAllSports is our labor of love that’s been 8 months in the making. In India, cricket is nothing short of a religion. It enjoys fandom that is unfathomable. But there are countless sports and countless sportspersons that remain unacknowledged, no matter the glory they bring our nation. This IPL season, Cadbury Dairy Milk is proud to create a platform to help celebrate these unsung sports and their heroes. The biggest challenge was to conceptualize an entire ecosystem that would revolutionize how every Indian could easily cheer for and lend their support to all sports. This phygital ecosystem was painstakingly engineered through association with sporting federations to integrate live digital and on-ground fan experiences. #CheerForAllSports will help curate the season’s sporting calendar on an immersive and experiential microsite where you can watch live games along with Yuvi and Bhaji, and most importantly, brings all of these fans right into the stadium to create a thundering cheer for our unsung heroes.”
Wavemaker India chief client officer & office head – west Shekhar Banerjee further highlighted, “We are trying to achieve something ingenious. We will be leveraging the scale of IPL to get the cricket cheering audiences to #CheerForAllSports. For this we have partnered with Star Sports, Jio Cinema and some of the popular sports celebrities in India. We are excited about how our online platform will enable participation and support cricket audiences to virtually cheer for the Indian team participating in other sports”.
Along with the shorties with Yuvraj and Harbhajan who are seen celebrating the win for other sports, the brand through their main film also captured key Indian table tennis, hockey, wrestling and boxing athletes including Sharath Kamal, Diya Chitale, Hardik Singh, Varun Kumar and Deepak Puniya. In the film, these accomplished athletes talk about their experience of winning glory for the country in an empty stadium, and how this affects every sportsman’s morale. The film also shows Yuvraj and Harbhajan talking about their experiences through their career, playing for a stadium of fans cheering them on, and how they would want the same for all athletes representing India. The film goes on to show what having fans by their side, supporting them would mean for athletes.
“As we all know, in India the popularity of other sports is not as much as cricket is. Through its #CheerForAllSports campaign, Cadbury Dairy Milk is encouraging people to cheer for Indian athletes from other sports, which is a positive change. Amongst the many sportspeople, the campaign features some stars like Sharath Kamal (TT), Varun Kumar, and Hardik Singh (Hockey). #CheerForAllSports will get these stars in the spotlight and generate more support for non-cricket sports!” added Sporjo COO Jigar Rambhia.
This unique campaign will be supported by a 360-degree approach, including on-ground and in-store activations, along with OOH activations outside the cricket stadiums. Cadbury Dairy Milk will also bring this alive through partnerships on social media and platforms such as The Bharat Army and CricBuzz, along with influencer engagement, and strategic engagement on social media channels.
Mumbai: Pilgrim, D2C personal care brand, introduced its first-ever hair care range ambassador – the stunning Yami Gautam. The brand announced the captivating partnership through a powerful TVC and a compelling digital campaign #PilgrimNeDhoondNikaale. As a brand that is committed to being toxin-free, Pilgrim’s campaign featuring Yami Gautam strives to emphasise on its unwavering promise of providing the most efficacious solutions for consumers’ personal care concerns. With this partnership, the brand further aims to amplify the power of concern-oriented personal care.
Pilgrim’s hair care range includes a variety of popular products, such as the best-selling hair growth serum, argan oil hair mask, and sulfate-free shampoo. One of the brand’s most successful offerings is the Korean range, which was launched in May 2020.
The quirky #PilgrimNeDhoondNikale campaign video features Yami being interrogated by curious Korean natives about the secrets behind her luscious locks. With a clever twist, Yami divulges that it’s not her but Pilgrim who has discovered these secrets, and she can be seen sharing the secret i.e. the Korean hair growth serum with the fascinated natives. The personal care brand sources these hair care secrets from Jeju Island in South Korea.
Excited about her association with Pilgrim, Yami Gautam said, “Pilgrim haircare products are the reason behind my good hair days and we all know how important that is. The reason Pilgrim hair care products absolutely work is because they have been thoughtfully formulated with the best natural and science-backed ingredients from around the world. That’s why I was so thrilled to reveal these hair care secrets to everyone, and I am glad to be associated with Pilgrim.”
Pilgrim co-founder and CEO Anurag Kedia said, “Pilgrim is on an upward curve, continuously gaining consumer trust with our highly efficacious products made with world ingredients. Yami’s belief in the power of concern-oriented personal care products just made her the perfect fit for us and it aligns with what we stand for. Our association with Yami marks an exciting chapter for us as we continue our growth journey in 2023 and beyond.”
Pilgrim chief marketing and commercial officer Konark Gaur said, “Our core brand philosophy at Pilgrim is about being deeply consumer-centric and we are passionate about discovering the best ingredients from around the world to offer the best to the Indian consumer. That’s what differentiates us from the other brands. We are excited to amplify our message on multiple digital and traditional mediums, which we are confident will make us the first choice for hair care for millennials and Gen-Z across India.”
The beauty and personal care brand witnessed massive growth in the last 12 months. It crossed ARR 150 cr mark with 6 times growth in sales and revenue. In the year 2023, the brand is focused on strengthening its research and development ability while building new, innovative product offerings for consumers across the country.
Mumbai: American Tourister, an international luggage brand, has stood tall for the past 90 years. With the design ethos of American Tourister bags reflecting vibrant, joyful and trendy backpacks as well as luggages, the brand beckons resilient, efficient, and trendy products. Moreover, it emphasizes on making traveling fun and adventurous.
The partnership with cricketer Virat Kohli, as the brand ambassador of American Tourister has been going strong for the past seven years and the duo have delivered striking and off beat campaigns seamlessly. Like the earlier widely appreciated campaigns, the new campaign encourages travellers to unleash their adventurous side and surpass their inhibitions.
“Born To Cross Boundaries” – the latest campaign challenges people to embrace the unexplored side of themselves. The campaign aims the audience on a journey that goes beyond their comfort zones and pushes past their personal boundaries, spurring that American Tourister luggage is built to celebrate the spirit of true traveller who is willing to explore and have fun when travelling across the world. It doesn’t just recognize the need for luggage which enables people to travel, it goes beyond, which has been beautifully captured in the TVC.
The brand’s recent TVC displays colossal mountains, oceans & new cultures bringing a whiff of adventure. It embarks with Virat Kohli plunging into freezing water to bungee jumping from bridges, skilfully playing the Alpine Horn, and donning a skirt, a cultural Scottish outfit. As he dives into these myriad experiences, his fearless and exuberant spirit is witnessed vividly. This new campaign showcases an individual pushing themselves out of their comfort zones & personal boundaries to celebrate their wilderness. It wants them to break their barriers, make discoveries, and indulge in new experiences. In sum, it wants them to cross their boundaries.
Speaking about the campaign, Samsonite India CEO Jai Krishnan stated, “American Tourister is truly a global, international and inspirational brand. It goes beyond only recognising the necessity for luggage that can facilitate travel. It inspires individuals to seek out experiences rather than the conventional tourist activity of sight-seeing. This campaign really brings to life this facet of American Tourister. It is a brand designed to honour the spirit of pushing our boundaries and crossing our fear.”
Adding to this, executive director – marketing Anushree Tainwala shared, “American Tourister wants to push people to overcome their own limitations. This film along with Virat Kohli showcases an exploratory and fun attitude, convincing people to push their limits and cross their boundaries wherever they are travelling in the world.”
Famous Innovations CCO Raj Kamble said, “Born to Cross the Boundaries’ campaign is all about celebrating the emerging culture of going beyond tried and tested things by pushing the limits and experiencing new things. It’s a call to action to step out of your comfort zone. We’re thrilled to have worked with Virat Kohli and American Tourister to create such an impactful campaign.”
The TVCs will be further amplified through an integrated campaign spanning digital, electronic, outdoor, and social media. Truly, fashionable, cutting edge, swag-worthy luggage bags, American Tourister is a brand for young and adventurous world travellers.
Mumbai: Rapido launches its 360 degree ‘Bike Wali Taxi, Sabse Saxi’ campaign aiming to drive consideration for the category in the e-mobility space.
Bike Wali Taxi, Sabse Saxi positions Rapido Bike-Taxi as the ultimate solution for everyday commute by highlighting its key offerings – convenience, quickness, and affordability. With an upbeat jingle and an element of ‘swag’, the films add a coolness quotient to the brand persona.
The campaign created by Enormous comprises four films that showcase Rapido Bike-Taxi as a smart alternative in different scenarios. The first film has been released, where the Bike-Taxi service is pitted against the shortcomings of a crowded bus. The remaining films will be released in the weeks to come.
With a digital-first approach, for the first time, Rapido has collaborated with the OTT platform JioCinema. Capitalizing on the reach and frequency of IPL on the platform, JioCinema serves as the lead channel. This will be followed by TV for amplification, and OOH as the recall channel.
As a part of Rapido’s commitment to resolve daily commute challenges and to improve travel experiences for its customers, Rapido offers an effective solution with completing ten lakh daily rides in 100+ cities across India. The brand is already a go-to option amongst the masses for its cost-effective, fuel-efficient, and time-saving services during peak traffic hours.
Mumbai: Dermicool Talc is back this summer with another campaign about Garmi ki Pakad. With a fresh take on the iconic jingle, this ad campaign has been conceptualised by What’s Your Problem, a Wondrlab company.
The film itself has been dramatised to show the monster that summer is, in the form of a fiery hand that follows unsuspecting people. While the campaign focuses on the problems caused by summer like prickly heat, body odour and sweat, it also illustrates how Dermicool is the ultimate solution for all these issues. Plus, the iconic jingle “Aaya mausam thande thande Dermicool ka” adds a touch of nostalgia to it all.
Emami Ltd. AVP-marketing V Kaushik Vedula said, “Dermicool Talc has always been associated with summers. But this time, we wanted to do something different, something even more memorable. So we came up with the fiery hand. Its beauty lies in its simplicity. It is such a simple metaphor yet so impactful.”
WYP Wondrlab India CCO & co-founder Amit Akali, and content director Gauri Gokarn said, “In today’s world of reels, five second skippable ads and rapidly reducing attention spans, we wanted to create something that grabs and holds people’s attention. While Dermicool has always had a distinguished place in people’s minds, the fiery hand goes a step further and brings alive the heat of Indian summers. We think it beautifully checks all the boxes while also making it a memorable piece.”
With a 360-degree approach, the campaign plans to ingrain Dermicool as the go-to for summers and is sure to create an impact with all the media channels including TV, Digital, and out-of-home extensions.
Mumbai: It’s very true that what you wear has the power to help you be in an escape state of mind no matter where you are! A crisp new experimental pantsuit makes you feel like you’re on your way to a suave new lounge, rather than a monotonous Monday meeting. That unplanned reunion with your friends after a long day seems as exciting as a bonfire by the beach when you’re dressed in your newest favourite dress. And suddenly, you’re looking forward to a grocery run after putting on that breezy co-ord set that invariably makes you feel like you’re on your way to Goa’s beaches.
This campaign rightly paints the story that when one shops from The Label Life, they will always have the key to break the mundane. They will always have the key to escape reality.
The brand film, helmed by ace photographer Joseph Radhik and his stories in motion team, expresses the same sentiment, that showcases the face of the brand, style editor Malaika Arora escaping off to dreamier landscapes right in the middle of her routine appointments, courtesy The Label Life’s contemporary and chic styles.
Watch the brand film ‘Escape Reality’ here:
“I truly believe that what you wear can truly change your day and help you escape — there are days where I don’t feel like getting out of home, but once I’m ready and changed into a pair of clothes I adore, I’ve escaped off to a completely different place with a happier mood and new-found energy.” said style editor Malaika Arora on the idea behind the campaign.
On what the film hopes to establish, director Joseph Radhik said, “We wanted to bring alive the fact that fashion is transporting, transforming and an absolute game-changer – and our approach as well as the setting, the clothes and the concept, all worked towards achieving this objective beautifully.”
“We believe that The Label Life’s clothes are designed to bring about a newer, fresher perspective on the everyday dressing – from that Monday morning meeting to those post-work cocktails, our designs will elevate your style and help you escape the mundane, effortlessly,” said The Label Life CEO Garima Garg.
Mumbai: National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in partnership with the Indian Premier League (IPL) kicks-off the 2023 season with ‘RuPay Credit Card on UPI’ campaign that has been conceptualised by DDB Mudra Group. The campaign focuses on creating greater customer awareness of the game-changing product offering from NPCI which allows users to access their RuPay credit cards through the UPI platform.
The opening day of the season features Dinesh Karthik in a humorous advertisement highlighting the benefits of RuPay credit card linkage on UPI, encouraging the viewers to ask their bank for the same. Additionally, as part of the campaign, three other films developed by DDB Mudra Group will also be released throughout the league season.
This seminal development will provide customers with the best of both worlds, integrating the reliability and convenience of UPI with the unmatched incentives that the feature has to offer, thereby creating an unrivaled consumer experience. The films playfully describe how customers will be able to use UPI, while also enjoying rewards and the loyalty points program of their favorite credit card.
The use of this card is live on cards issued by HDFC Bank, BoB Financial Services, Canara Bank, Indian Bank, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, and Axis Bank. Other banks like Kotak Mahindra Bank shall soon be live with their UPI functionality on RuPay credit cards in a few days. Currently, the UPI apps offering this service are BHIM, MobiKwik, Paytm, Slice and PhonePe.
Commenting on the campaign, NPCI COO Praveena Rai said, “We, at NPCI, are proud to share this path-defining offering of RuPay Credit Cards on UPI and believe it would play a significant role in India’s credit journey. We have always looked to create innovative products facilitating convenience for better payments systems for the nation. Our partnership with IPL, just like the partnership between RuPay and UPI, will amplify our efforts in consumer awareness on the benefits of having access to credit on UPI. The RuPay campaign is witty and breaks clutter. We hope consumers enjoy the ads, as they do IPL.”
DDB Mudra Group CCO & executive director Rahul Mathew said, “RuPay is the first credit card that allows you to pay through UPI. It’s such a breakthrough and disruption in the category. We felt a product that’s so differentiated and is a standout, needs work that is the same.”
Mumbai: Mechanics are the most important person for anyone who owns a vehicle, Valvoline Cummins honours mechanics in numerous countries and they celebrate the importance of the mechanics as knowledgeable professionals critical to keep the engines running – and people moving forward.
Mechanics play a very important role for any vehicle owner and all of us can relate to stories as to how a mechanic has helped them out in instances where a car battery has given up but he has come and helped even if it was in the middle of nowhere or in the middle of the night
Valvoline Cummins Private Limited (“Valvoline Cummins”), the Original Engine Oil maker and a leading global lubricant manufacturer powering the future of mobility through innovative services and products, initiated the 3rd edition of the mechanic month campaign globally and in India. The campaign revolves around the theme; ‘‘Keeping the World Turning” and aims to celebrate the effort of mechanics and thank them for their dedicated endeavours to keep the world turning.
Indiantelevision.com spoke to Valvoline Cummins India JV CMO Ipshita Chowdhury on the importance of this campaign and the other initiatives.
On the idea behind celebrating the mechanic month campaign by Valvoline every year in March?
Valvoline Cummins has been celebrating Mechanic Month for three years in a row in India. The first campaign came out in March 2021 during the pandemic and was focused on thanking mechanics for ensuring all medical and other essential service personnel reached their destinations on time.
March is a month that is dedicated to mechanics; globally Valvoline celebrates March as International Mechanics Month. We believe the community of mechanics has played a significant role in the brand’s success and growth throughout the world; they are our biggest ambassadors in the market. Hence, this is a time when we express our gratitude to them through various initiatives that go beyond transactions and strengthen relationships.
As we are towards the end of this mechanic month, through this campaign, we have honoured the mechanics in numerous countries and will celebrate their importance as knowledgeable professionals critical to keeping engines running – and the world turning.
On how the brand has come forward for the mechanics? What are initiatives the brand’s been doing for the Mechanics Community?
Since we as a brand believe, our success is closely linked with the success of mechanics; all our initiatives reflect and are rooted in this principle. We have been imparting engine technology training to mechanics for the last several years and have meaningfully impacted the livelihoods of more than 15000 mechanics so far. Engine technology has been rapidly evolving, hence training and upskilling are critical for them.
Muskaan scholarship is another initiative that is very close to our hearts, through this we support the education of children of the mechanic community, across classes 9-12. Through the tough times of covid, several capable students could not continue their studies and that is when we as a brand stepped in. Today, I am pleased to share that more than 1800 girls and boys are in this program, and more than half are girls.
Recently at a mechanics meet organised in Delhi. The brand felicitated the children who have performed well under the Muskan Scholarship and were handed over Laptops, Tablets and other educational aids.
On the conceptualisation of this year’s campaign ‘Keeping the World Turning’
No matter what the vehicle is – from trucks to tractors to ambulances to buses to cars, mechanics are the ones who keep our world turning. They are the silent heroes who work tirelessly in the background so that we are able to reach our destinations on time. This was the simple insight for our campaign.
Through this ongoing initiative, we want to inspire people to show appreciation to their mechanics for their relentless efforts in keeping the world turning. The campaign was carried out on various mass media platforms such as radio, digital and on-ground. The campaign aims to sensitize people about the hard work that mechanics put into caring for our vehicles and encourage them to extend heartfelt messages to their trusted mechanics.
On the media mix strategy? How does your approach differ from competitors towards audience engagement?
Our biggest differentiator is the fact each of our employees step out in the market in their own way and reach out to mechanics and provide the most personal touch. This outreach is then supplemented by radio and social media that provide us with the larger air cover.
On the brand betting on influencer marketing? As this has become one of the most commonly used marketing tools to engage with target groups?
Influencer marketing is a key pillar of our growth strategy; it is sustainable and long-term in nature. We strongly believe that short-term tactics and offers have their relevance; however for a brand to grow sustainably and consistently, relationship-building with key influencers and having them on our side is critical.
We will continue to focus on our loyalty platforms with influencers enabling and empowering them with a greater digital footprint and traffic generation. Brand-building efforts will continue to make Valvoline synonymous with Original Engine Oil.
Mumbai: PUMA India and Nielsen Sport a reputed research & analytics firm conducted one of a kind survey focusing on a huge lag in inspiration in the country to pursue physical fitness, even as India is witnessing growth in the adoption of sports culture. The exclusive study was conducted to deep dive into the nation’s perception and extent of participation in sports and fitness activities among adults and kids in the country.
The survey threw up some shocking facts, in the last 12 months, 68 per cent of adults in Urban India claimed to have participated in fitness-related activities. Out of this, only 20 per cent of adults in urban India meet the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended index of a minimum of 150-300 minutes of physical exercise per week.
On the other side, kids spend a mere 86 minutes of the WHO-recommended 420 minutes or more on an average per week. Shockingly, this is lesser than that of adults who invest 101 minutes of fitness activity per week. The survey has also done a region-wise time spent by kids. In the East region kids spent the most time playing sport & fitness (125 minutes per week), vs the West at the lowest average (68 mins). The survey also indicates that there is a correlation between sports and academic performance.
The survey talks about female participation in sports and physical activities at 42 per cent as compared to men which is at 36 per cent. The survey goes on to add that adults who are fit and participate in sports are more positive in their outlook. Both kids and adults have cited a lack of time to indulge in physical activities or sports.
The ‘Let There Be Sport’ initiative has emerged as the catalyst for the country’s leading sports brand to become the driver of change and champion the cause of prioritising sport and fitness in the country. Based on the report findings, PUMA launched the ‘Let There Be Sport’ campaign featuring Virat Kohli, MC Mary Kom and Sunil Chhetri to question the conventional mindset that sports is a digression from academics.
Indiantelevision.com caught up with Abhishek Ganguly, Managing Director, PUMA India and Southeast Asia at the launch event in Bangalore, to talk about the survey and how Puma is taking the campaign to the grassroots to talk about the importance of sports and physical activities in daily life for both adults and kids…..
On the report and what were the factors on which you went ahead with Nielsen to do this survey?
The reason we did this report is that it’s very important to understand where you are. It gives you an idea of where things are moving as a brand. As a business and as we are in sportswear, our business is a function of the market. The market is a function of consumers and their activities and their behaviour and that’s very simple logic. So we track how people act or how much people are active, playing sports or not, for us, this is very important. We had done this survey, similar to some different research questions, in 2018. From then things have improved so that time I think the number was about 54 per cent, it’s gone up to 68 per cent.
On the changing habits and was it due to the pandemic?
The pandemic was disastrous but if that has led people to realise the importance of taking care of themselves, then on this part, it has been good and it helps. Pre-pandemic to for all of us, we deprioritized physical activities among other things in life and this was about getting that priority right back. But I would also say that while 16 per cent is a good development, but if you look at what the WHO says the minimum number of minutes that one should exercise in a week is 150 minutes for adults and 424 minutes for children. But unfortunately, the numbers are very low for both adults and children in India.
There are still a lot of gaps. While people are doing it but they’re not doing it enough, or it’s not one of our priorities, we have a lot of excuses. But if you go to some of the other parts of the world, the more developed economies, people here have historically prioritised sport; it’s just a part of their lifestyle. I think we need to pick this habit and the fundamental approach to sports has to change for all of us.
In India there is a dogma, people think that it digresses from good careers, good life, and good economic development, whereas it’s the opposite. Economic development of countries is directly linked to sporting culture, sporting development, and academic performances of kids are linked as per the report. Everyone doesn’t become a sportsman but do go to other fields. Sports is super important because it teaches you all that that we spoke about. There is no way on earth we should deprioritize what we have and it has to be the main subject, sports today in school is just an extracurricular activity. I think for us this is the purpose, the campaign, is leading to certain outcomes and business.
On the line ‘Let there be Sport’, how did this come about?
I would say that it converges and encompasses all that we want to say.
On going down to the grassroots to talk about the importance of sports
We did what we needed to do and you heard Sunil Chhetri say that sports helped him and has given him an edge, but passion is required for everything. He said, when I started playing it was difficult to dribble and when you learn and master it, you enjoy it and you better yourself as you go forward. We need to shatter the dogma we have grown up with and look at how to develop sports in the country.
The problem is that we complain about no infrastructure and how can we develop sports, it’s a chicken and egg story. If there is no awareness and people don’t change their mindset, it will not happen overnight. We can’t just say, let us invest in infrastructure and next Olympics we will have champions. It’s a process and the best everyone can do is to talk about it and build awareness. People have to talk about sports being critical for overall development.
On kids spending very little time in physical activities as per the report is it an urban phenomenon?
It’s a phenomenon more in the urban area, but it is also something that is on the increase today because of screen time increasing. Smartphone penetration has huge advantages and there is a huge digression as well because it is addictive and then you fall into this zone where you keep on it. It’s true for a lot of us and not just kids even in tier two and three markets. We all fall prey to doing something because it’s convenient, it’s within our reach and it is just so convenient. What we can do is talk about this and built awareness.
Including sports in the curriculum at the grassroots level
It is a bit beyond our scope to influence the academic curriculum. What we can do is get the campaign to the grassroots and there is a message, the kids will hear what Kohli and Chetri have to say. People will see it and that’s why this research because research doesn’t lie and it is a fact. The very fact is that it is also for parents to see that academic success and sports adoption go hand in hand.
The report also says; don’t treat sports as an excuse and it can coexist between academic development, career development and personal life. The brand has affirmed to champion the cause of sport and advocate it as a life skill. The movement comes intending to disband the word ‘extra’ used typically for the subject of sport and integrate it into the main curriculum of educational institutions across the country.
On India emerging as a sporting nation in the past few years.
Today we are seeing OTT platforms and broadcasters. Also, there is more availability of live content and live sporting events. If you see from ten years back to today, how many sporting platforms are there where you can watch live content? I think that also has people investing a lot of money in and all of this to go together, one cannot follow the other. It has to happen simultaneously.
On the association for IPL and the marketing strategy for the campaign
We are associated with RCB and very excited about the association. We are trying to create content to connect with their fans. We have a very strong relationship with the team and a lot of the players use Puma products from the top level to the first timers, and we are happy with the kind of exposure we hav
On the reach and the brand available across the country
We have a multi-channel strategy we are there offline and online. We have our online platform as well. We have our own standalone stores, franchise stores and multiband stores. Our sales are coming from the tier two & three markets as well.
