As the world continues to adapt to staying home, Burger King in America launched a campaign to salute those staying indoors while Manulife in Hong Kong came up with a 12-part home workout video series. Meanwhile in India, amid a nationwide lockdown, DD National decided to re-telecast Ramayana and Amul cleverly chose to ride the nostalgia wave by airing their ads from the 80s. This week, Ritwika Gupta reviews marketing initiatives by Amul, Burger King and Manulife.
1. Amul
Ramanand Sagar’s iconic drama series, Ramayana, returned to television last month amid a nationwide lockdown to combat the coronavirus pandemic. The mythological epic first aired in the 1980s on DD National and it garnered massive audience back then, with its actors gaining near idolatry status. The response, this time, isn’t too different. According to a BARC & Nielson report, the Ramayana rerun got the highest ever rating for a Hindi GEC show since 2015. Cashing in on the sudden wave of TV nostalgia within the nation, Amul brought back a few of its old, popular ads from the 90s which aired during the Ramayana & Mahabharat telecast. The dairy brand tweeted that it is going into ‘retro mode’ by bringing back some of its classic ads from the bygone era. These include ads for Amul Ice Creams, Amulya Premium Dairy Whitener and Amul Butter among others. When it comes to moment marketing, Amul has always been the leader. The brand has been vocal about trending topics, current affairs, pop culture and other global developments in real time. That is how they connect with their audience. But what I found interesting about this whole initiative is that instead of creating absolutely new creatives, Amul made best use of resources in the current situation and simply dug up their old archives. It’s that easy yet so impactful! Since nostalgia seems to be the flavour of the season on TV these days, I wonder if other brands will follow suit and go down the memory lane? Guess we will have to wait and watch!
Campaign: Bringing Back Old 90 Ads Aired During Ramayana
2. Burger King
Burger King has launched a new marketing drive titled “Stay Home of the Whopper”. In case you did not know, Burger King’s tagline is “Home of the Whopper”. For this campaign, the restaurant has tweaked it to “Stay Home of the Whopper”, encouraging consumers to be “couch po-ta-triots” by staying home to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. The fast-food chain is promoting its delivery app by waiving its delivery fee on orders over $10 on its app. Well, I liked the fact that Burger King is taking a stand to encourage consumers to stay home and be “couch po-ta-triots” – an amalgamation of the words “couch potatoes” and “patriots”. I mean, how often do you get a salute for being a couch potato? And while you are home, you might as well order in from Burger King using the restaurant’s app. I think this initiative comes with a simple and straightforward objective. Burger King obviously wants to boost app orders. At a time when traffic at its stores is likely down due to shutdowns, I like how the brand is smartly making use of the current situation to drive app downloads. The brand also uses humour to tell us how easy it is to be a “hero” and a patriot in these times by simply staying at home. And what’s interesting is that the video was made from footage created for another project. Talk about being resourceful! Good stuff, Burger King.
Campaign: Stay Home of the Whopper
Agency: FCB
3. Manulife Hong Kong
Since gyms, fitness centres and sports grounds are all closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people are resorting to exercising at home in order to stay fit. Multinational insurance company, Manulife in Hong Kong has launched a campaign to promote a healthy and active lifestyle. The brand has rolled out a six-minute video, the first of the series consisting of 12 videos, on its health and wellness platform, ManulifeMOVE, and YouTube. The video, globally accessible, showcases various home workout exercises performed by health and wellness trainers. The exercises have also been designed based on regular fitness routines but customised to make them easy for everyone. While I think YouTube is already filled with a bunch of workout videos, an initiative like this can inspire more people to keep moving. The brand’s strategy focuses on enabling a consumer to take care of their health and it works for an insurance brand like Manulife. The demand for health insurance policies has seen a huge spurt during coronavirus pandemic. However, instead of coming up with a regular ad, Manulife has chosen to promote its brand through a fun, useful and motivating series. The videos are also part of the campaign, “100 Million Steps Challenge”, which aims to reward members of ManulifeMOVE who achieve an average of 7,000 steps a day. Overall, I think this is an interesting way to engage customers with healthy and fun activities during these difficult times.
Campaign: 100 Million Steps Challenge
Agency: McGarryBowen Hong Kong
