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  • Nagessh’s SilverEdge looking to stir the D2C market; eyes Rs 25 mn revenue

    Nagessh’s SilverEdge looking to stir the D2C market; eyes Rs 25 mn revenue

    Mumbai: He might have contemplated his thoughts and decisions prior to this story, but not anymore. Curry Nation Brand Conversations (CNBC) co-founder Nagessh Pannaswami (a first-generation entrepreneur, an ad veteran along with famous ad woman, Priti Nair) has now made a move to the brand side by launching SilverEdge. SilverEdge is the country’s first ever personal care and wellness brand to specifically target adults aged 40 and above (generally known as mature adults).

    After working at agencies such as Clarion (now Bates Chi & Partners), Lowe Lintas (now part of the Mullenlowe Lintas Group), McCann Erickson (now McCann World Group), and BBDO, and spending a significant portion of his career managing FMCG and telecom businesses, Nagessh founded Curry Nation, which is now a creative powerhouse, having created brands from the ground up to make them formidable in the categories in which they operate.

    Eventually, the brand entrepreneurial bug bit him, and he incorporated Really Useful Enterprise in December 2021. The brand SilverEdge was born in May 2022, with Nagessh’s innate need and desire to do something different. It was his personal experience of suitable products being unavailable that led him to give shape to an idea whose time had come. “Having built so many brands for clients, I wanted to give shape to a brand of my own. Today, D2C has opened up a lot of avenues. I wanted to utilise this opportunity and a latent need to plug the gap in the market,” quipped SilverEdge CEO & founder Nagessh.

    But why a name such as SilverEdge? The broad age group of 40 to 60 is called the “silver age,” and the silver economy is a thing of the near immediate future. The current population of people aged 40 to 60 is 310 million, and it is expected to grow by 37 per cent to 426 million by 2040 (source: Statistica). It is growing faster than the youth segment, but no brand addresses their age-specific needs. “SilverEdge as a brand gives you the edge in your silver years. That’s how the brand has been conceptualised,” stated Nagessh.

    Revenue, market size and competition

    Talking about revenue numbers, SilverEdge is eyeing approximately Rs 25 million in the first year of the brand’s operations. Considering strategy, the brand wants to be the go-to ‘destination’ for mature adults in the wellness and personal care space. Eventually, the platform will provide them with tips across a spectrum of ageing solutions. Nagessh specified, “Our ultimate vision is to lead the pro-age solution in India by providing specially curated age-specific products for mature adults.”

    SilverEdge, the mother brand, has six variants: SilverEdge Beauty Elixir (age defence), SilverEdge Joint Care, SilverEdge Immuno Enhance, SilverEdge Energy Booster, SilverEdge She Power, and SilverEdge Lung Defence.

    The Indian nutraceutical market will be an approximately Rs 18 billion market by 2025. There are a host of players in this industry, such as Wow Health, Bbetter, Prorganiq, Bionova, Bodywise—a slew of D2C brands, and also legacy brands like Himalaya.

    Also, the Indian skin care market is estimated to be worth Rs 11 billion by 2025. SilverEdge will not lag behind—very soon it will be launching its skin care range for mature adults, and also a few more nutraceutical products by the turn of 2023. Accessories are also on the horizon, confirmed Nagessh.

    The fact is, SilverEdge has embarked on a behaviour change mission. On one hand, there are no direct competitors to the brand since nobody is targeting the group that SilverEdge is talking to. But on the other hand, every brand in the wellness and personal care segment is a competition for it, said Nagessh.

    Digital, influencer marketing and advertising

    Digital has been the keyword for all brands starting in 2019. Considering that a person like my mum had a tough time handling and learning how to use a smartphone when it was launched, one tends to wonder how responsive this group of mature adults is to the digital medium. Nagessh revealed that SilverEdge’s website has been up and running for some time, and the response has been encouraging. The mature adults segment is active on social media, with Facebook being the lead medium, followed by WhatsApp and LinkedIn. Covid has advanced technology adoption across all population strata, and this segment isn’t lagging behind either.

    Like most brands adopting the influencer marketing route in a robust manner, SilverEdge is likely to follow suit. All the levers of digital marketing will be pushed at various points in time. Influencer marketing is an essential part of the brand’s marketing mix for specific targeting of the audience. SilverEdge is looking at influencers, but of a different sort. Aged 45 years and above, this is a whole new segment of influencers who are gaining traction in the social media space—they have a lower number of followers, but their bond with and traction from their followers is strong.

    SilverEdge is obviously targeting the followers of these influencers, so that there is less wastage of advertising money and more traction for the brand.

    The spectrum of marketplaces is another opportunity that the brand has leveraged. SilverEdge is listed on many and will soon be available at various touch points where its customers exist in the digital purchase journey.

    Nagessh stated that they would go brand first when describing SilverEdge’s advertising and marketing strategy. They would focus solely on brand building and behaviour change communication. These are the two pillars of the brand’s communication strategy. “We understand the need to create a lighthouse brand and be the beacon of change in this category,” he said.

    Targeting mature adults – a decision

    India has the world’s largest youth population, with nearly 66 per cent of the total (more than 808 million) under the age of 35, and nearly 40 per cent between the ages of 13 and 35. Despite the fact that targeting this age group would have been more profitable, Nagesh stuck to his decision to target mature adults. He emphasised, “There isn’t a single brand that speaks to the desires and aspirations of mature adults. Can you beat that? It’s almost as if this age cohort doesn’t exist for the marketeers! The mature adult segment in India is a neglected and underrepresented market from a product and services perspective.”

    Mature adults, by the time they turn 40, are well settled in life. A large chunk of their worldly responsibilities are almost taken care of (EMI’s, children’s basic education, stability in their jobs). They have all the time in the world to pursue their passion and do things that they would have probably sacrificed in their youth to pursue career stability.

    “With the cultural changes happening around us, men and women are now responding to ageing with a drive to improve aspects of their lives that they’ve been unhappy about over the years. Some are even willing to uproot their lives for betterment. They are also looking for specific curated products and services that cater to their aspirations. All this led us to walk on a path where no one had ventured in the past and guided the launch of SilverEdge,” pointed out Nagessh.

    Backed by research

    A lot of research, data collection, testing, checking responses, etc., was involved in bringing out the final product. The team at SilverEdge did a lot of consumer listening and ethnographic studies. It was how, on their probing, most of the consumers comprehended that there were no brands targeting them. The latter also realised that they had been using the same legacy products for a long time and that they may no longer be serving their purpose.

    One of SilverEdge’s most essential and obvious findings was that India is undergoing a cultural change. Mature adults are no longer resigned to living a life of seclusion or minimalism. More and more mature adults are picking up passion projects, whether it’s singing, travelling, adventure sports, etc. The retirement corpus, which was stashed away for some unforeseen event and as an inheritance for the younger generation, is now being used for self-fulfilment and self-gratification.

    Additionally, children are egging their parents to live a fuller life. Now, as people are ageing, they realise that they don’t want to turn back the body clock or hinder the natural progression of ageing. However, they want to ensure that they remain healthy for the long run. Today, more and more mature adults are taking their health into their own hands. Nagessh calls them the ‘proactive healthy agers.’ And that is the audience SilverEdge is singling out and catering to through the range of its products.

    “Doesn’t this audience of mature adults have aspirations? desires? need to be fulfilled? Why should they be using the same set of products that they have been using for years? It’s a proven fact that as people age, their nutrition and skin care needs change. They need age-specific solutions, and that’s where SilverEdge steps in,” explained Nagessh.

    Trends and innovations

    Noting the recent trends, increasingly in nutraceuticals, consumers are taking health into their own hands. They want to prolong their good health and keep illnesses and niggles away. They are willing to pick these products off the shelf. These are the proactive health-seekers. They believe in the power of preventive health management.

    In personal care, consumers are looking for targeted solutions. Consumers today are content with their appearance and their skin. In fact, most don’t want to cycle through the natural process of ageing. They know that the biological clock is ticking. And they won’t get the same youthful look back ever again. But what they really want to do is to extend their good skin health a few more years to retain their natural radiance. Any product willing to do this is welcome in their kitty.

    Speaking about the innovations that one can look forward to in the beauty, wellness, and personal care market, which caters to mature adults, Nagessh signed off, “There will be ingredient-led and claim-led innovations.”

  • Kyoorius announces second edition of Kyoorius Design Awards

    Kyoorius announces second edition of Kyoorius Design Awards

    MUMBAI: In its second year, Kyoorius in association with D&AD, will recognise work through Kyoorius Design Awards.

     

    The awards night promises to be a celebration of Indian design across a breadth of disciplines such as branding & identity, communication design, book design, editorial design, design for space, packaging and writing for design. In addition to these there are individual categories for design crafts such as illustration and typography, while the design for good category awards work that promotes social awareness.

     

    Jury sessions comprised some of the best creative minds from across the world, who were flown down to Pune to judge the entries. The diverse six-member jury comprised Johnson banks creative director Foreman Michael Johnson, Anonymous creative director Felix Ng– creative director, FITCH creative director Brandon McCormick , Alok Nanda & Company founder & CEO Alok Nanda, Lopez Design CEO & principal designer Anthony Lopez and Trapeze co-founder Ram Sinam .

     

    Out of the 680 entries submitted, a total of 72 in-book winners have been announced who will go on to be nominated for Blue or Black Elephants. In-book winners include work by leading design studios and consultancies, including Alok Nanda & Company, Umbrella Design, Redlion, Curry Nation, Chlorophyll Brand and Communications Consultancy, Kulture Shop, Bombay Duck Designs, Locopopo, Trapeze, Lotus as well as agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather, Publicis India and Grey Worldwide.

     

    Kyoorius founder CEO Rajesh Kejriwal commented, “We are trying to fuel a design movement in India through our continued efforts to expand the platform. The response for the Kyoorius Design Awards has doubled since last year and continues to grow thanks to the support and participation of the entire design fraternity. Jury members responded to work that had an added cultural nuance that made them distinctly Indian. They were especially impressed with the quality of writing in the work, which is one of our hidden strengths.”

     

    The winners will be announced at an awards party on 13 September at Grand Hyatt in Goa.

  • #TouchThePickle shouts out loud P&G’s Whisper

    #TouchThePickle shouts out loud P&G’s Whisper

    MUMBAI: Like the two sides of a coin, India too is divided into two mindsets. While a certain part is moving towards modernisation, there are still a few things that are holding us back to be culturally liberal.

    P&G Whisper’s new advertising campaign brings out the painful truth of our society.

    According to market experts, the Rs 2,100 crore sanitary napkin market in India is growing at the rate of 19 per cent year on year. Whisper is one of the dominating brands in the category that has worked smartly on its pricing strategy over the years.

    The brand, in the past, has taken up various corporate social responsibilities (CSR) as part of its marketing initiatives.

    It can be recalled that P&G’s ‘Parivartan’ program has been protecting millions of adolescent girls in India from getting trapped in traditional practices of using unhygienic cloth for sanitary protection by providing menstrual education.

    The program has been improving the lives of over two million girls annually across 15,000 schools in India. The objective of the program is to help adolescent girls embrace womanhood positively and enable them to adopt the right feminine hygiene practices to stay healthy and stay in school. ‘Parivartan’ ensures that adolescent girls do not miss school on account of periods and initiates a series of cascading effects leading to a more equal gender status in the state.

    P&G’s ‘Shiksha’ that was launched in 2005 was aimed at enabling consumers to contribute towards the cause of education of under-privileged children through simple brand choices. It is considered to be one of the most successful CSR campaigns initiated by a multinational corporation in India.

    Taking a step further and breaking the stereotypical communication thoughts, Whisper has rolled out a movement titled #TouchThePickle to try and put an end to period taboos that still haunt many Indian girls and women. The movement is initiated under the brand campaign called ‘Kadam Badhaye Ja’.

    Click here to watch the TVC

    The TVC already has got over 22,600 views in five days. The video which was shared on the brand’s You Go Girl page has received over 17, 908 likes and 494 shares.

    On the communication strategy by the brand, the Elephant Strategy+Design founder director and principal designer Ashwini Deshpande wished the TVC was done 25 years ago, but feels it is never too late.

    “A global brand with real alignment to Indian culture is a rare sight yet delightful,” adds Desphande.

    On the other hand Curry Nation co-founder Priti Nair has a different observation. “When I first heard about the movement I really thought that is a fantastic concept, very radical and memorable. I was genuinely happy and proud that a brand like Whisper has taken this stance. I thought we are finally getting rid of the stereotypical commercials from this category and someone is busting the conservative regressive cultural myths attached to a natural cycle of a woman and wished I could have done something similar. My perception changed after I saw the ad,” says Nair.  

    She believes that the brand diluted the huge idea to tick all the points of research work.  According to her, the brand should have taken on the regressive thoughts on menstrual cycle and break them first and then taken on more myths that exist in our society.

    “A brand like Whisper which worldwide is doing large mind set alteration would have succeeded doing that in India as well,” concludes Nair.

  • #LikeAGirl, is not an abuse

    #LikeAGirl, is not an abuse

    MUMBAI: ‘Like A Girl.’ When did those three words become an insult?  

    This thought provoking question has been floating on various social media platforms for a couple of weeks now. Thanks to Procter & Gamble’s (P&G) new campaign, this thought is being heard loud and clear across the globe.

    The campaign which has different phases on digital is supported with a power packed video filmed by P&G’s ‘Always’, a leader in feminine hygiene products with a market valuation of $3.4 billion.

    Though the film might appear to look just like many other feminist-themed videos, there is a lot that it brings across the table. As part of the campaign, ‘Always’ has partnered with award-winning documentary filmmaker Lauren Greenfield to conduct a social experiment to illustrate how people of all ages interpret the phrase ‘Like A Girl.’

    Wondering why this campaign?

    On the official YouTube channel of P&G Lauren Greenfield, filmmaker and director of the #LikeAGirl video explained, “In my work as a documentarian, I have witnessed the confidence crisis among girls and the negative impact of stereotypes first-hand. When the words ‘Like A Girl’ are used to mean something bad, it is profoundly disempowering. I am proud to partner with ‘Always’ to shed light on how this simple phrase can have a significant and long-lasting impact on girls and women. I am excited to be a part of the movement to redefine ‘Like A Girl’ into a positive affirmation.”

    The video has already been viewed over 29 million times on YouTube, shared approximately 300,000 times on Facebook and tweeted around 40,000 times on Twitter. According to various media reports, P&G spends about $10 billion annually on marketing in the US. Of this, 25-35 per cent is spent on digital.

    This percentage of digital spends will soon get somewhere near in an emerging market like India. Last year P&G’s Pantene released a digital video which was also championed by Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg who showed how the same behaviour by men and women is viewed differently by the society.

    With this campaign from ‘Always’, the company is taking a step further to strike social conversations and impressions for a good change.

    Click here to watch the campaign

    We at Indiantelevision.com, asked Indian creative fraternity of the challenges of creating campaigns on the digital platform and how much did the ‘Always’ campaign touch their hearts. 

    “It is a brilliant effort“

    According to Bang in the Middle managing partner and chief creative officer Prathap Suthan this particular campaign from P&G, shows how major advertisers in the world look at the criticality and importance of the digital space. And as usual, focus is in on universal insight.

    “The fact that physical weakness is often attributed to ‘being a girl quality.’ It pries open a lot of areas. It opens up a conversation into giving girls more liberty, comfort, reality, and empowerment. It is a brilliant effort. It squashes down on the global habit of seeing a girl’s natural and general lack of brawn as deficiency. Instead, the campaign applauds the differences, caliber, mettle and a whole lot superior attributes that only women possess.”

    According Suthan the campaign hits the right chord. “It’s a truth. Every girl, woman, daughter, mother, sister, aunt etc. will relate to it and so will all the men, especially fathers. I think it radiates a lot of optimism, positivity and reinforces confidence.  #LikeAGirl is one of the most common insults and demeaning expressions that have been going around until now. It has been used to not just debase and abuse women, but also used as an expression that’s widely used to lash out at boys and men when they don’t physically and even mentally push the bar,” says Suthan.

    With #LikeAGirl now trending across the world, and with every woman synching with the thought, hopefully this will initiate and propel a movement to help women across the world gain even more confidence, stature, self-esteem and happiness mentions Suthan.  “We need that for a better, healthier and more peaceful world,” he says.  

    Origin Beanstalk co-Founder Upendra Singh Thakur thinks in India, discrimination against girls starts at birth. It is way beyond than just making fun of ‘being like a girl’. “However, keeping the affluent consumer in mind that the brand caters to and the notion of silly being associated with girls, to me the brand has definitely hit the right chord and really made us think that in many ways, jokingly, we do tend to discriminate even though we don’t realise it,” says Thakur.

    “If you are not creative on digital then it is criminal”

    Curry Nation founder Priti Nair believes in the above statement. She says, “It is not being creative that is a challenge on digital, but it is how much more creative can you be. That is the real challenge. It is not your typical 30 seconder shot on location or set. It is an audition and the audition is the advertisement.”

    “In the #LikeAGirl campaign everything lies in the music and the casting. It takes you through an emotional graph. I think it is really insightful and I love the way it is connected to the product. Most of the times you have lofty philosophical stuff floating for causes that does not really have any connection to the brand. But to connect confidence ebb and fall with puberty is excellent and also true. It is good to know that someone is thinking harder,” opines Nair.

    Infectious director Nisha Singhania has similar thoughts about the campaign. She believes, “#LikeAGirl taps into a fantastic insight on how without realising it, we create norms on how girls and boys are supposed to behave. Often I’ve heard boys being told to stop behaving ‘like a girl’ as if it was an insult.” Since most clients want the campaign to go ‘viral’ Singhania thinks they buy braver work for the digital medium. 

    “How I wish, this gets translated into different languages. Or it needs a global version with multi-cultural and multi-ethnic representation. There’s so much truth going waste otherwise,” concludes Suthan.

  • TLC launches new series ‘Madhur Jaffery’s Curry Nation’

    TLC launches new series ‘Madhur Jaffery’s Curry Nation’

    MUMBAI: TLC celebrates Indian curries with the culinary maestro Madhur Jaffery in Madhur Jaffery’s Curry Nation. The 10-part series follows Madhur as she travels across Britain, visiting local Indian and South Asian communities and reveals how it’s possible to sample the whole of Indian cuisine without leaving the British Isles.

    Madhur Jaffery’s Curry Nation will premiere on 2 June and will air every Monday to Friday at 8PM only on TLC.

    From London to Birmingham and Glasgow to Leicester, Madhur Jaffery’s Curry Nation sees Madhur creating her very own food map, witnessing first-hand how Indian food has been integrated into the national way of life and discovering why it’s constantly voted as one of the nation’s favourite foods.

    In Madhur Jaffery’s Curry Nation, Madhur showcases her favourite recipes with influences from all over the subcontinent: Punjabi, Goan, Parsi and Bengali amongst others. Madhur’s recipes reflect the vitality of the vibrant Indian culture, but stays true to her mantra that Indian food doesn’t need to be complicated.

    Rahul Johri, Executive Vice President and General Manager-South Asia and Head of Revenue, Pan- Regional Ad Sales & Southeast Asia, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific said, “TLC continues to present the best and premium range of cuisine programmes from across the globe. This June, we have culinary legend Madhur Jaffrey in her new series Madhur Jaffery’s Curry Nation celebrating the British love affair with Indian cuisine.”

    In each episode, Madhur demonstrates how to cook incredible curry step-by-step and takes viewers through an array of amazing recipes. Madhur’s style of cooking is always innovative and contemporary – she gives some traditional recipes a twist like pairing Aloo Gobi with a British roast lamb.

    She also visits restaurants that create exciting new dishes, places of worship where traditional curries are served daily, and the homes of British South Asians, where she uncovers their different and varied culinary cultures.   Madhur discovers that although traditional recipes are to be found everywhere, new British versions of classic dishes are emerging too. Whether it’s the spicy, lentil-based specialties of Rajasthan, kebabs and kormas from Delhi, or coconut-infused curries from Kerala, viewers will get a chance to accompany Madhur on her very personal tour of the modern-day Curry Nation.

  • Life in the digital era: food, shelter, clothing and Internet

    Life in the digital era: food, shelter, clothing and Internet

    MUMBAI: As the lines blur between the real and virtual, many brands are making an effort to create a virtually real world to reach out to the audiences/consumers. Especially, when technology allows them a two-way communication with their target audience unlike before when they were left doing only the talking.

     

    Not only do consumers respond in real time on the digital platform, it is a faster, more measurable and result-driven medium that helps brands understand their user base, increase revenue and reward loyalty.

     

    Says Priti Nair of Curry Nation: “A good digital campaign can reach out far and wide as compared to any other medium and that too at a throwaway price. Also, the longevity of a good campaign is far more on the digital platform than any other medium. All these make digital a medium worth checking out.”

     

    Recently, the agency created a digital campaign for Nirlep – Khaate peete desh ka rakhwala – which revolves round Indians’ love for food, sending out a tongue-in-cheek message that healthy eating is still possible with Nirlep non-stick cookware.

     

     “The best part about a viral video is it gives you a lot of space to play around. Interesting characters, situations can be explored. Using the slogan of ‘Yes We can’ with food was both, entertaining enough as well as informative,” says Nair about the campaign.

     

    Says NeoNiche Integrated Solutions MD and CEO Prateek N Kumar: “With digital and technology, the sky’s the limit. If you can dream it, you can build around platforms to really make those elements come to life in real time. A well thought of digital plan also has the capacity of creating WOM and going viral, the ROI is literally exponential compared to traditional media.”

     

    While digital and social media is constantly evolving and is still uncharted territory for most marketers, the basic principles of communication remain the same: Who are you trying to reach, where are they and what excites them?

     

    Not so long ago, FoxyMoron launched a digital campaign – No Pimples, No Marks – for Garnier Pure Active. A fun take on popular movies, posters were released titled Rowdy Pimple, The Dirty Pimple, Pimple Tum Kab Jaaogey and I Hate Pimple Storys which conveyed how pimples haven’t spared Bollywood either.

     

    FoxyMoron co-founder and online strategist Harshil Karia believes one should use a medium which requires you to ‘only’ spend to achieve success. “This is a slightly touchy topic as social media increasingly spawns ideas from scaling organically. For instance, on YouTube, the organic percentage of video views or on Facebook, the organic percentage of fans has considerably reduced. Since both these are dominant mediums, it’s a challenge but try to find holes within the mediums where organic percentages are high and capitalize on them. For example, on Facebook, there was a time when video organic views were extremely high because Facebook was pushing a video agenda. Similarly, as Google pushes a social agenda, its propensity to help brands scale organically will be higher,” he explains.

     

    The brand must know its audience even better than itself. Otherwise, whatever be the strategy, it will never be seen or heard by the right people who matter.

     

    Karia gives the example of HUL’s Lifebuoy campaign, ‘Help a child reach 5’, which tells the story of how a father celebrates his son completing five years of age and has a heart-warming and thought-provoking concept at its core. The YouTube video went viral and garnered over 10 million views.

     

    Digital gurus believe that in the era of smart devices and social handles, the basic necessities of mankind have changed from “Food, Shelter and Clothing” to “Food, Shelter, Clothing and Internet”. With brands latching onto this trend, it will only help them garner user intelligence in real time – something the traditional marketing mix can’t help them achieve.

  • Curry-Nation reaches out to underprivileged kids

    Curry-Nation reaches out to underprivileged kids

    MUMBAI: Curry-Nation founder Priti Nair has been involved with various charity organizations and NGOs for nearly two decades now; one of them being Masoom, which is run by her cousin and works for night schools for the underprivileged.

     

    For Masoom, Nair and team have created a couple of notable advertising campaigns; the most recent one involving the use of glow-in-the-dark technology.

     

    As part of the campaign, posters, direct mailers including calendars and Diwali greeting cards, and three press ads were designed using radium ink which is visible only in the dark.

     

    The posters were strategically placed at editing studios and production houses while calendars and greeting cards were sent out to potential patrons. The press ads featured historic events that happened during the day such as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, the Dandi March and the encounter between Shivaji Maharaj and Afzal Khan.

     

    The posters, direct mailers and press ads were visible only in darkness, appearing blank in daylight; thus sending out the idea of a night school brilliantly.

     

    Nair believes people in the advertising fraternity have enough to spare monetarily, both at an individual as well as collective level. “We often get a little laid back in our every day work lives. All we need is a little push. These posters act as reminders,” she says, stressing that charity needs to become a part of people’s life.

     

    Curry-Nation’s previous campaign for Masoom – Bhagwaan tera bhala kare – was also well received.

     

    Tiffin boxes painted by underprivileged children were sent out to each and every ad agency in Mumbai, urging staff to donate some amount every day. Once the dabba was full, it was up to every agency to decide the social cause the contribution would go toward. An official facebook page was launched at https://www.facebook.com/Bhagawanterabhalakarein where companies could place requests for tiffin boxes and posters for their offices.

     

    “The response we got from people when we sent out the dabbas was overwhelming but obviously, we cannot monitor how well they are implementing it. At the very least, we hope that if someone doesn’t want loose change in his/her wallet, he/she will put it in the dabba!” Nair recalls.

     

    More importantly, Nair and Co. have done most of these campaigns free-of-charge. “Most of our work is done for free, but there are a few NGOs which keep aside money for advertising. For them, we charge whatever they can afford,” says Nair.

     

    Apart from Curry-Nation, other agencies too have taken similar initiatives. Nair gives the examples of ‘Balbir Pasha ko AIDS hoga kya?’ and ‘Bell Bajao’ as campaigns that made a difference. ‘Balbir Pasha…’ was part of PSI’s Operation Lighthouse Project, conceptualised by Lowe nearly a decade ago with her as creative director. Whereas ‘Bell Bajao’, launched in 2008 and conceptualised by Ogilvy & Mather, called upon men around the world to take a stand and promise to end violence against women.

     

    Coming back to Curry-Nation, Nair is proud about the fact that the agency she launched right from scratch with just a five-member team will complete three years on the Valentine Day (14 February). To commemorate the occasion, she, along with her core team, plan to launch a book on their journey thus far. While she isn’t too happy with the rate at which they are growing, she says her happiness quotient has reached 100%.

     

    “Because of the poor rate of economic growth, business has slowed down as people have become very conscious and have been cutting down on budgets. Hopefully, the situation will change for the better,” she signs off.

  • Curry Nation executes first commercial for Netsurf Communications

    Curry Nation executes first commercial for Netsurf Communications

    MUMBAI: Curry Nation has come out with Netsurf Communication‘s first television commercial. The first commercial went air on 28 July. The creative agency had won the creative mandate for Netsurf two months back with the aim to leverage its brand proposition.

    The ad establishes an emotional connect with consumers and promotes Netsurf amongst existing distributors and consumers while building up on the new base attracting others. On the campaign, Curry Nation creative head Priti Nair said, “Through the TVC we have attempted to showcase how people connect with one another by touching each and influencing others lives. This is similar to the philosophy of Netsurf which goes out connecting with its audience while building an emotional connect with them.”

    The tagline for the campaign is Sehat, Barkat, Muskurahat. “This communication was designed to ensure that the brand stays in the mind of the consumers and distributors. We want to create a recall value for the brand. When it comes to executing a commercial for a client like Netsurf, the brand and branding becomes more important than the product as it is a company which engages in a cooperative selling concept,” added Nair.

    The total ad spent allocated to marketing Netsurf Network‘s is Rs five crore with heavy focus on the television and digital medium. BTL would be used as a support medium where the brand would promote itself via mall activations.

    Headquartered in Pune, Netsurf has consumers majorly situated in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. “We have plans to establish our office in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and West Bengal with our presence in more than 300 districts across India,” said Netsurf Network Limited chairman Sujit Jain.

    Netsurf jointly with Curry Nation plans to set up new standard concrete platforms in the field of network marketing in India. “The communication task was to establish Netsurf as a serious player in the business by leveraging the core truth of the product offering. We aim at empowering people and touching lives. The gift of health, wealth and prosperity is what the network offers to the people,” he added.

    “The challenge we faced while executing the commercial was that we had to alter the process of showcasing our product portfolio and creating an emotional connect on the product lines. I think Curry Nation has done an excellent job to communicate the same,” said Jain.

    The film has been conceptualised by Priti Nair and directed by Shimit Amin of the Chak De India fame.

  • Curry Nation picks up Indica dye creative biz

    MUMBAI: Mumbai-based advertising outfit Curry Nation has walked away with the creative duties for CavinKare‘s hair dye brand Indica. The win is the outcome of a multi agency pitch called by the brand earlier this year in January.

    This is the fourth brand from the Chennai headquartered FMCG stable that the indie agency has won the creative mandate for. Curry Nation already handles the creative duties for Fairever, Hi5 and Spinz (talcs and deos).

    The immediate mandate for the agency is to create a brand personality that appeals to a national audience.

    “The brand Indica has prominent presence in the south and our goal is to take the brand national. We have done some research and will work towards fortifying the brand identity and make it consistent to suit a national coverage,” informs Curry nation founder and director Priti Nair.

    There will be a 360 degree campaign in order to achieve this goal, including focus on digital and retail. The campaign will break sometime in early June. The media agency on record for the entire brand portfolio of CavinKare is MEC.

    Some of the other creative agencies that work on CavinKare diverse range of products/brands include Leo Burnett, Orchard and Contract Advertising.

  • Curry-Nation bags first media account with Weikfield

    Curry-Nation bags first media account with Weikfield

    MUMBAI: Debuting in the media planning and buying realm, Mumbai-based Curry-Nation has won the creative and media mandate for Pune-based dessert mix manufacturer Weikfield. This is also the first time Weikfield has appointed a specialist agency for its communication duties. The mandate has been awarded on a yearly basis and will be serviced from the agency‘s Mumbai office.

    Curry-Nation director Nagessh Pannaswami said, “Priti and I had interacted with Weikfield COO Manoj Joshi earlier in our career. So the chemistry was there. We made a strategic presentation to the people at Weikfield and once they all were convinced we were on board.”

    Weikfield has plans on launching a range of new products and Curry-Nation will be responsible for the communication during the launch.

    Though the exact figure on the ad spends was not revealed, Pannaswami confirmed that the amount is significant. The first phase of campaign by Curry-Nation for Weikfield will be rolled out in September. TV and print will be the mainstays of the communication.

    Curry-Nation was started in 2011 and in a span of one year six months roped in brands like Nirlep, Borosil, Rasna, Emami Vasocare, Natural ice-creams,Sai Dairy, Spinz Deodorants, Cholayil Krishna Tulsi, Spinz Talcs, Emami Hairlife, Himani Lalima, Himani Fast Relief and CavinKare Fairever.