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Tag: Pulse

  • Pulse races past Rs 750 crore in sales, proving India still has a sweet (and tangy) tooth

    Pulse races past Rs 750 crore in sales, proving India still has a sweet (and tangy) tooth

    MUMBAI: DS Group’s chart-topping confectionery star, Pulse, has smashed yet another milestone, clocking over Rs 750 crore in consumer sales in FY 2024–25 — that’s one candy for every Indian, and then some.

    Launched in 2015, the humble hard-boiled treat with a twist — a tangy core wrapped in raw mango nostalgia — has now dominated the category for nine years running, holding a 19 per cent market share and growing at a blistering CAGR of 15 per cent over the last three years. That’s well above the category average of 9 per cent — not bad for a candy that initially rode on word-of-mouth and a punchy tagline, ‘Pran Jaaye Par Pulse Na Jaaye.’

    From bustling kiranas to highway dhabas, Pulse’s unmistakable zing has made it a fixture in both urban pockets and rural corners. Its distribution game, once a startup hustle, has evolved into a sleek, hyper-efficient network powering India’s most widely distributed hard-boiled candy.

    But Pulse isn’t just about popping sugar bombs. It’s a full-blown case study at IIM Ahmedabad — a masterclass in flavour innovation, cultural insight, and unconventional marketing. Remember the ‘Pulse of the Sky’ kite-flying campaign that entered the Limca Book of Records? That was just one of many stunts that kept the buzz alive between launches of new flavours like guava, pineapple, orange, and the latest, ‘Pulse Golmol Imli Goli’, a chewy nod to India’s timeless tamarind love affair.

    And the brand isn’t resting on its laurels. With viral UGC, organic celeb love, and award-winning campaigns from ‘Pulse Ka Pandal to Pulse Ganesh Mahotsav’, DS Group continues to stir the market with every pop.

    “DS Group’s vision for Pulse, a leading Indian ethnic confectionery brand in India, is to evolve it into a multi-format, multi-occasion offering. We plan to achieve this by strategically moving into adjacent product categories, exploring innovative new formats, and capitalising on the rich tapestry of regional flavors. Our consistent focus on brand building, enhanced consumer engagement, and achieving deeper market penetration will help us maintain our leadership position. We’re aggressively pursuing both domestic and international markets for expansion. On the domestic front, we’re leveraging our robust distribution network that has a reach of over 35 lakh outlets across India,” said DS Group vice chairman, Rajiv Kumar.

    “Pulse, with its delightful fusion of fruity and surprisingly tangy flavors, particularly the familiar raw mango with a zesty core, offered an unparalleled sensory experience to the consumer. This distinctly appealed to India’s preference for tangy tastes which was a significant departure from the Western-format candies prevalent at the time. Pulse candy stands as a testament to the evolving Indian consumer who is more value-conscious today and DS Group truly leveraged this understanding by disrupting the market with its pricing strategy. At a time when 86 per cent of the hard boiled candy market was at the 50-paise price point, Pulse boldly launched at Rs 1. This wasn’t just a higher price; it was a perceived higher value that resonated deeply with our palates and our pockets,” Kumar added.

    “Pulse revolutionised the confectionery market by challenging the notion that candies were solely for children. It strategically tapped into an overlooked demographic, the adults, thereby significantly broadening the consumer base for impulse confectionery. Why should kids have all the fun? That was the premise. We leveraged our keen understanding of local palates and unmet consumer needs, allowing Pulse to redefine the segment and establish itself as a trendsetting brand with remarkable consumer loyalty. Even our packaging and design for Pulse was clutter breaking,” he said.

    Call it a candy. Call it a case study. Either way, Pulse is still the flavour of the nation.

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  • Pulse launches a celebratory digital campaign on the Candy Day

    Pulse launches a celebratory digital campaign on the Candy Day

    Mumbai: DS Group’s Pass Pass Pulse has launched a stimulating digital campaign, “Pulse Candy Hunt,” marking Candy Day on 4 November. Leveraging an augmented reality approach, Pulse Candy Hunt allows users to enjoy a fun candy treasure hunt on Snapchat and Instagram.

    By switching on their rear camera’s lens or filter, the users need to look and spot different flavours of Pulse candy in their own 360-degree real-time environment and then tap the candy to bag it.

    The final score of bagged candies in 20 seconds can be discovered by switching to their front camera. As a bonus, a prompt urges the users to open the mouth and a Pulse candy drops in, triggering a Chatkara Pop sound effect and a visual experience of the tangy burst of Pulse candy, triggering a change in the player’s facial expression on the screen, like the widening of eyes and arching of eyebrows, followed by a celebratory bursting animation sequence behind and the final score showing at the bottom centre of the screen.

    Speaking on the launch, Dharampal Satyapal Foods general manager of marketing Arvind Kumar said, “We are thankful to our consumers for making Pulse a leader in the hard boiled candy segment for the last five years, and therefore, Candy Day is very special to us. We celebrate it with Pulse lovers by playing innovative fun games in a digital world full of Pulse candy, amusement, and rewards. AR reality with vibrant graphics, sounds, and personal surroundings stimulates consumer interaction. This is a unique integrated digital campaign on the popular social media platforms that resonate with our target group (TG).”

    To further increase traction and engagement on Instagram, a contest will be organised around this campaign, inviting people to share their entries in the form of Instagram reels for a chance to win amazing prizes. Nano, micro, and macro influencers like Ashi Singh, Ashnoor Kaur, and other digital content creators have been looped in for further amplification of the campaign.

  • DS Group launches ‘Pulse Ka Pandal’ campaign on Dussehra

    DS Group launches ‘Pulse Ka Pandal’ campaign on Dussehra

    Mumbai: DS Group’s popular candy brand Pass Pass Pulse has launched an exciting campaign “Pulse Ka Pandal” to bring festivities from across the country on the digital platform this Navratri.

    The festive revellers can enjoy the Ram Leela in the North, the famous Dandiya in the West, and Durga Pujo in the East through virtual pandals set up on the online map to thoroughly enjoy the nine nights of festivities in a one-of-a-kind empirical bonanza.

    Using innovation to fuel their digital marketing campaigns, “Pulse Ka Pandal” is a content-tech integrated campaign that will stream live the virtual pandals of the Ram Leela from the Lav Kush Mela in Red Fort, New Delhi; Garba Raas from the Karnavati Club in Ahmedabad, Gujarat; and Durga Puja from the Samajh Sevi, Rasbihari, Kolkata. People from all over the country would be able to see the live feed of these locations on the online maps.

    The brand will amplify the online campaign by bringing in local influencers to promote and boost the campaign at a regional level. In order to involve the audience further, various fun engagement activities like contests, puzzles, quizzes, etc. will be active at each of these locations on the online maps. Audiences can participate in these contests and win amazing online gift vouchers.

    Speaking on the occasion, Dharampal Satyapal Foods general manager Arvind Kumar said, “India is a treasure trove of festivals and Sharad Navratri brings alive the festive spirits in the believers. The entire country celebrates Navratri and Dussehra in diverse traditions. “Pulse Ka Pandal” will converge the traditions from various states on a single platform, whilst creating an innovative social media campaign that is exciting, resonates with our audience and leaves a lasting impression. This campaign’s interesting and engaging content will surely add to the festive revelry.”

  • Pulse recreates its outdoor campaign on TV to extend communication reach through in-content ads

    Pulse recreates its outdoor campaign on TV to extend communication reach through in-content ads

    Mumbai: DS Group’s popular candy brand Pass Pass Pulse has announced its partnership with Whisper Media to extend its communication reach by recreating its unique outdoor campaign on TV. The campaign showcases the brand’s three variants of the candy, which were integrated into the traffic signal posts in an innovative format.

    The campaign aims to deliver the idea through in-content advertising (ICA) on popular general entertainment channels.

    Pulse’s three most popular flavours, litchi, pineapple, and kachcha aam, are packaged in red, yellow, and green, respectively. Using the significance of these colours in the context of traffic signals, the brand created a seamless, never-before-seen outdoor campaign under the messaging “Pran Jaaye Par Pulse Na Jaaye.” 

    The brand wanted to bring the same magic to the TV audience in Hindi-speaking markets to expand its reach.

    Whisper ICAs are enabled to deliver brand communications in multiple formats, which brings the cross-media experience to the audience through the largest medium in the country—TV. Whisper Media has partnered with leading TV broadcasters Disney Star and Zee Network, across all their GEC platforms for HSM and regional, to bring forth this proposition.

    In-content advertising digitally embeds a brand message into the content at the post-production phase and elevates the brand from the usual advertising clutter. This enables a brand to deliver a campaign without the hassle of logistics and programming in an impactful manner. The ICA campaign was delivered on the leading GEC channel—Star Plus.

    Speaking on this recreation, DS Foods general manager-marketing Arvind Kumar said, “There’s nothing better than being able to replicate a campaign across different mediums which elevates recall among the target audience. We are glad to partner with Whisper Media to be able to seamlessly execute this unique campaign through in-content advertising.”

    Sharing the idea behind the campaign, Whisper Media head of ad sales-North & East Vikrant Dhawan said, “We are seeing some exciting times in the advertising world where tech is enabling brands to get the attention of the viewers. In this latest campaign, we managed to organically resonate with the offerings that the product has to offer. This showcases the media multiplier effect, enabling higher message recall for the campaign.”

  • No Pulse, no life: Candymaker resumes conversation with consumers

    No Pulse, no life: Candymaker resumes conversation with consumers

    NEW DELHI: DS Group-owned Pulse Candy was introduced in 2015 and it immediately became a rage – people couldn’t get enough of the super sour, piquant taste. On most occasions, consumers preferred to buy loose candies, but in this case they were keen on purchasing the entire box. The brand grew like an addiction, so much so that it ended up achieving Rs 100 crore sales in a matter of eight months. Since then, the launch of Pulse Candy has been known as one of the biggest success stories in the hard-boiled candy category, which is currently growing at a rate of 12-16 per cent. For the record, India’s overall candy category is around Rs 6,000 crore growing at a CAGR of six to nine per cent. The brand clocked sales of nearly Rs 300 crore in the first two years.

    The core idea behind the launch Pulse candy was that the makers identified a gap in the category. They found that kaccha aam was a preferred flavour among the audiences but traditionally it was consumed with spices to make it tangy. However, no other candy brand was offering this combination to the audiences and hence the brand decided to go for an innovation.

    The kaccha aam-flavoured candy initially grew on the back of word-of-the mouth campaign, and after a massive increase in demand, the brand launched its first major advertising campaign. The core positioning of the brand is ‘Praan Jaaye par Pulse Na Jaaye’ that aims to poke fun and make people laugh. Over the last three years, it has released several campaigns that show slapstick situations and brings a smile to consumers’ faces in less than 30 seconds.

    The initial campaign was aimed at reflecting the ‘irresistibility’ or the obsessive love people have for Pulse candy. The tag line kind of reflected that love and positioned the candy accordingly in the minds of the people.

    The candymaker’s last big splash was in early 2019 when it released two films Classroom and Dangal.

    After a gap of over a year, Pulse Candy has released a TV campaign. This time, the brand has done away with actors and is using stick figure characters in the spots. The campaign has been launched with two films, titled The Husband-Wife and Recycle Bin. The stick figures are named Wifey, Hubby, Sticky and Micky.

    Designed and conceptualised by Wunderman Thompson, the film aims to capture the extent to which the stick figures or the Pulse fans will go for the enticing taste of Pulse candy.

    The first one captures the banter between a husband and wife; the second one is altogether a different take between two stick figure friends pulling a fast one on each other inside a computer screen. The set-up of the second film also makes you slightly nostalgic as it takes you back to the early days of Microsoft Windows with a similar screen, Recycle Bin and VLC player icons (name changed to WLC in the film).

    DS Confectionary Products joint general manager- marketing Arvind Kumar said, “The brand must keep re-inventing execution themes to retain the excitement around the proposition of Pran Jaaye Par Pulse Na Jaaye. We have done some captivating campaigns in the past and the current campaign brings in a new and exciting style of content with stick figures, to fortify the alluring magnetism of Pulse in an amusing and entertaining way.”

    Wunderman Thompson executive creative director Sundeep Sehgal said, “Pulse stands for joy and uniqueness, the irresistibility of Pulse lends itself to this unique proposition. We wanted to make simple, short, and share-worthy stories and stick figures give an exciting take to our narrative.”

    The campaign is amplified on the social page of the brand that commands a million-member-strong community. The brand continues to engage with its audiences via social media platforms using moment marketing, contests, videos and content formats.

    Pulse Candy was initially launched as a test project in the states of Rajasthan and UP and after its success, the brand was expanded to pan-India. It has grown massively in the last four years on the back of a strong distribution network. DS Group has also taken Pulse beyond the Indian shores. The brand continues to sell it at a price point of Re 1. It competes with the likes of Parle and several other regional and national players. 

  • Best moment marketing trends of 2019

    Best moment marketing trends of 2019

    DELHI: Brands have always been serious about their marketing plans. They spend months strategising their campaigns, involve the best of the technicians and talents to aid the creative process, and try to come out with communications that build trust among their target consumers. But the changing times and technologies have transformed this completely. The new-age consumer has the attention span lesser than that of a gold fish, and often ends up skipping the ads that a marketer had spent a good few months of his life in curating.

    The consumer of today believes in living in the moment and brands have to catch them in that exact time span. And this has given rise to an influx of creativity on social media platforms, the second homes of the new-age customers, in the form of moment marketing. While earlier this was fixed for some particular occasions like festivals and elections, year 2019 saw brands leveraging every small and big moment that was breaking the internet. From the series finale of Game of Thrones to the expensive bananas that Rahul Bose had to eat, from Delhi smog to Indian men’s cricket team bowling the ‘pink ball’ for the first time in an international match, everything became a creative field for the brands and their creative agencies.

    On the first day of the year, here’s a look-back on the most interesting moment marketing trends and top brands’ take on it!

    Game of Thrones Finale

    Game of Thrones was probably the best television show of the decade and had became a rage in the meme-world too with its initial seasons. But this year the craze was in multitudes as the show was wrapping up its journey forever. Though the season left many fans and cast members disappointed, the brands came out with some interesting campaigns.

    Johnnie Walker

    Durex India

    Swiggy

    Mother Dairy

    Yuvraj Singh’s Retirement

    Yuvraj Singh is one of the most successful and loved Indian cricketers. The champion best remembered for his iconic six sixes in an over and his incredible performance in World Cup 2011 despite his ongoing battle with cancer announced his retirement from the international cricket in June this year and like his fans, some brands paid their tributes to the star in their own way.

    Zomato India

    Fevicol

    Indigo

    Pulse

    Rahul Bose’s rendezvous with two expensive bananas

    The most bizarre and hence most hilarious trend of the year was two expensive bananas served to actor Rahul Bose by JW Marriott in Chandigarh. As soon as Bose shared the photo of the bill amounting Rs 442.5 online, brands jumped the marketing bandwagon to cash on this momentous opportunity.

    Oyo

    Zomato India

    Amazon Prime Video India

    Arre

    Iphone 11’s triple camera feature

    The launch of every iPhone is a meme fest for the netizens. From selling kidney jokes to takes on no massive updates from older versions, the internet sees it all. But this time, the fodder of the online discussion was the triple camera, which fed the imagination of the brands in ways unimaginable.

    Durex India

    Manforce Condoms

    Shaadi.com

    Embed:

    Swiggy

    Delhi’s Pollution

    Delhi smog is one of the most trending events online for the past many years. The even-odd rule and increased sale of face masks are interesting talk points online. This time, the brands also came up with their creative best inputs to market themselves online in an unconventional manner.

    Manforce India

    Pee Safe

    Policy Bazaar

    Filter Copy

    Onion Prices

    The economic turmoil going on in the country concerned everyone this year. The repurcussions were many including the sky-high prices of one of the basic staples in Indian diet, onion. While it worried all, the brands had their own way of using the situation to their benefit.

    Orient Bell

    HDFC Bank

    Trident

  • DS Group rolls out 3 new TVCs for Pulse candy

    DS Group rolls out 3 new TVCs for Pulse candy

    MUMBAI: Taking forward its ‘Pran jaaye par Pulse na jaaye’ narrative, Pass Pass Pulse, the candy from DS Group, has rolled out another set of three commercials. The TVCs have been conceptualised by J. Walter Thompson Company and are titled, Astronaut, the Swing, and the Bedroom.

    Each commercial showcases how the protagonists upon seeing a Pulse Candy in their proximity reach out to grab it, even in unfavourable situations. In the swing film, the girl gets smacked on the face with a returning swing as she grabs the Pulse that fell out from a child’s pocket. In the film titled Astronaut, an Astronaut risks his life to not only grab the Pulse floating in space but even opens his helmet to eat it, resulting in a free fall. In the third film, a guy hiding under the bed stretches out to pick up the fallen pulse, thus exposing himself to the lady’s husband/boyfriend.

    Speaking on the brand DS Group VP – new product development Shashank Surana said, “The Pulse candy has retained number one position, second year in row due to its irresistible taste heightened by tangy twist. The communication of Pulse is hinged on the temptation to seize a Pulse candy, whatever the circumstances. This three-film campaign also highlights the extent people go to get one in ‘Pran jaaye par Pulse na jaaye’, situations presented in comical and eccentric plots.’’

    DS Group executive creative director and vice president Sundeep Sehgal added, “The content consumption nature of consumers has changed and Pulse is a brand which is very conscious of this. As a result for this next round of communication, we’ve created short crisp 10 second commercials that are snackable content for the consumers and also work well from an attention perspective. However, the challenge remains to deliver an impactful piece of communication without losing the essence of the brand and I feel this is one such example.”

  • Pulse candy now comes in pineapple flavour

    Pulse candy now comes in pineapple flavour

    MUMBAI: The famous tangy, sweet Pulse candy is back in news, but this time for another flavour! DS Group has launched a new flavour ‘Pulse Pineapple’, further expanding its collection of the existing Pulse favourites of Kaccha Aam, Guava and Orange. Pineapple as a flavour and a fruit is diversely used and enjoyed across all age groups. The new candy will be available in a pillow pack at the cost of Re 1.

    DS Group vice president new product development Shashank Surana says, “Since the candy’s launch in 2015 with the Kaccha Aam flavour, we have been coming up with new popular and niche flavours. After guava and orange, Pulse pineapple is the latest variant in the candy basket and we anticipate a good response from our consumers”.

    The organised hard-boiled candy market is worth Rs 2650 crore in India and Pulse is the market leader with 12-13 per cent market share. Apart from India, the company has also started distributing Pulse to countries such as UAE, UK and South East Asian markets.

    Pulse Pineapple has received an encouraging response to the test marketing undertaken in key cities of the country in the last few months. The candy is being launched pan India leveraging on the company’s distribution network to reach out to the target group. The launch of pulse pineapple will be supported by activities like POSM and market sampling.

  • LinkedIn unveils trio of mobile apps

    LinkedIn unveils trio of mobile apps

    MUMBAI: LinkedIn on Wednesday showed three mobile apps that aim to boost productivity of mobile professionals and capture on-the-go audiences.

    The professional network unveiled a new app called LinkedIn Intro along with a redesigned Pulse and LinkedIn iPad app. LinkedIn Intro is a mobile email product that allows users to have people’s LinkedIn account connected with popular email accounts so that they can immediately identify people.

    LinkedIn Intro works on iPhones and is available for download at Intro.LinkedIn.com and will hit Apple’s App store in coming months.

    “This adoption of smartphones over the last decade or so has really changed the way we think about products,” said LinkedIn senior VP of products and user experience Deep Nishar.

    LinkedIn is experiencing explosive growth in users coming to its services from mobile devices, much like Facebook, Google and Twitter. About 38 per cent of its members visit from mobile.

    LinkedIn senior VP of products and user experience Deep Nishar

    For recruiting professionals, often out at job fairs and networking events, mobile apps that replace desktop functions are important tools.

    LinkedIn acquired Pulse in April for $ 90 million in stock and cash. Pulse’s popular news reader, started by two students while at Stanford University, had quickly become a sensation for its slick interface on touch screens ideal for flicking through news feeds. Under its relaunch, LinkedIn meshed many of its desktop features into Pulse, such as integration of its Influencer blogs.

    LinkedIn’s redesigned Pulse app will be available for download on iOS and Android for both smartphones and tablets in the coming week.

    Last week, LinkedIn unveiled ‘Recruiter Mobile’ and ‘Mobile Work With Us’, two popular desktop services adapted into apps for on-the-go use.

    ‘Recruiter Mobile’ will enable recruiting professionals to search for candidates, allowing them to send InMails, call or text. Also, recruiters can take notes on candidates and forward prospects to hiring managers.

    Recruiter is LinkedIn’s primary subscription service and is responsible for the largest portion of the company’s revenue. The product is used by more than 20,000 companies.

    LinkedIn’s new ‘Mobile Work With Us’ gives employers the ability to show job openings on the profiles of employees at their company. These job advertisements will appear at the top of member profiles.

    LinkedIn acquired CardMunch in January 2011 for an undisclosed sum. CardMunch’s mobile app allows people to take photos of business cards and convert them into their mobile contacts.

  • LinkedIn unveils trio of mobile apps

    LinkedIn unveils trio of mobile apps

    MUMBAI: LinkedIn on Wednesday showed three mobile apps that aim to boost productivity of mobile professionals and capture on-the-go audiences.

    The professional network unveiled a new app called LinkedIn Intro along with a redesigned Pulse and LinkedIn iPad app. LinkedIn Intro is a mobile email product that allows users to have people’s LinkedIn account connected with popular email accounts so that they can immediately identify people.

    LinkedIn Intro works on iPhones and is available for download at Intro.LinkedIn.com and will hit Apple’s App store in coming months.

    “This adoption of smartphones over the last decade or so has really changed the way we think about products,” said LinkedIn senior VP of products and user experience Deep Nishar.

    LinkedIn senior VP of products and user experience Deep Nishar

    LinkedIn is experiencing explosive growth in users coming to its services from mobile devices, much like Facebook, Google and Twitter. About 38 per cent of its members visit from mobile

    For recruiting professionals, often out at job fairs and networking events, mobile apps that replace desktop functions are important tools.

    LinkedIn acquired Pulse in April for $ 90 million in stock and cash. Pulse’s popular news reader, started by two students while at Stanford University, had quickly become a sensation for its slick interface on touch screens ideal for flicking through news feeds. Under its relaunch, LinkedIn meshed many of its desktop features into Pulse, such as integration of its Influencer blogs.

    LinkedIn’s redesigned Pulse app will be available for download on iOS and Android for both smartphones and tablets in the coming week.

    Last week, LinkedIn unveiled ‘Recruiter Mobile’ and ‘Mobile Work With Us’, two popular desktop services adapted into apps for on-the-go use.

     

    ‘Recruiter Mobile’ will enable recruiting professionals to search for candidates, allowing them to send InMails, call or text. Also, recruiters can take notes on candidates and forward prospects to hiring managers.

    Recruiter is LinkedIn’s primary subscription service and is responsible for the largest portion of the company’s revenue. The product is used by more than 20,000 companies.

    LinkedIn’s new ‘Mobile Work With Us’ gives employers the ability to show job openings on the profiles of employees at their company. These job advertisements will appear at the top of member profiles.

    LinkedIn acquired CardMunch in January 2011 for an undisclosed sum. CardMunch’s mobile app allows people to take photos of business cards and convert them into their mobile contacts.