The recent ad campaign of Nestle reiterates the trust factor of the brand that suffered in the spate of the latest controversy, says KV Sridhar, Chief Creative Officer of SapientNitro, reviewing the ad in ‘From Logo to IMPACT’
Reviewing the recent ad campaign of Nestle in Episode 24 of ‘From Logo to IMPACT’, on Bloomberg TV India, KV Sridhar, Chief Creative Officer, SapientNitro says “I think somewhere the Maggi noodles controversy has put a finger on the brand. Till now many companies like Nestle, Phillips, Good Year, etc., have been perceived to be Indian companies. However, suddenly the controversy has created a speculation - Nestle is not an Indian company. It is a multinational company. This ad is trying to addresses that specific issue. And also address the trust factor - everything was a fiasco, the way things have happened should not have happened. But unfortunately for the brand, things have happened in a detrimental way, in a way which was beyond their control.”
Describing the efficacy of the ad, he continues, “The brand needed to come up and say a few things: We have always been here; we are an Indian company; we are a part of you and your lives and culturally we are no different. Because it is also true that in Nestle there are no firangs, only Indians. The second message that needed to be conveyed (which the ad manages to achieve) is trust. The TVC conveys that the brand has been around for a hundred years and is a familiar brand in India. I mean which child has not grown up on Nestle products? So the TVC in that sense conveys that not just the young generation but their fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers have had a connection with Nestle products.”
According to Sridhar strategically the ad makes sense. He goes on to explain, “It has taken something very simple and made people relate to it. Probably in terms of execution it could have added some flair, the way the Hamara Bajaj ad did, by linking pride to specific attributes of the product. However, I feel that keeping it simple and subtle was a conscious strategy of Nestle.”
About the campaign
The campaign seeks to reiterate the intrinsic connection that all Nestle brands have had with the average Indian consumer over decades. The TVC of this campaign released on the digital platform is a simple, matter of fact account of how the brand and its products have been a ubiquitous part of Indian lifestyles and events since a hundred years, present in moments of victory and celebration and simple everyday activities.
The opening shot of the TVC shows a congregation of men under a banyan tree sipping a milk concoction in bowls made of dried leaf (a very traditional Indian symbol). Cans of Nestle were placed near the huge vessels containing the milk preparation - an effortless way of establishing the brand’s connection with traditional Indian food. Those were the days immediately following Independence when family elders were explaining the meaning and value of Independence to youngsters and community heads were educating people about the travails of the Independence struggle and the significance of our (then) new-found freedom from colonial rule. The voice-over and subtitles reinforce that Nestle too has not become part of India for nothing - after all it has partnered India faithfully in all its moments of victory, celebration and growth. The ensuing visuals demonstrate this fact.
Each visual establishes a different attribute of the brand - for instance the one with a mother and child on a railway train is a reminder of the hygiene factor. The one where an air hostess is serving refreshments to a passenger says that the brand is an obvious choice when it comes to moments of physical and mental rejuvenation. The brand has a commitment to nurture and care for Indians - this is explicit in the mother daughter visual. Indians have evolved and so has the brand - this message is brought home in the last visual where an old man is watching television on a tablet while on a picnic outing with his family. The other visuals are a crisp recount of the fact that the brand is entrenched with Indian values and aspirations. A striking feature of the commercial is that while it features most of Nestle’s signature products, it has consciously excluded the controversial Maggi noodles. Even the last visual clip in the TVC which displays all the products excludes Maggi noodles.
About the Show
Each week, the half-hour show ‘From Logo to IMPACT’, co- produced by exchange4media and Bloomberg TV India, brings together top CMOs, ad gurus and agency heads to provide an in-depth analysis of the hottest trends and news in the ad-media-marketing space. Its focus is on the new age economy and new entrants in the advertising space. The show is aired on Bloomberg TV India at 10.30 pm every Wednesday, with repeat telecasts at noon on Saturday and 6.00 pm on Sunday.
