John Players engages the youth with 'Buddiez'

The youth of the country today not only demands comfort, but also classy and more uptown in their apparel designs. And apparel brands are trying to brace themselves with growing needs and demands by not only providing the best products, but also engaging their customers through new and innovative campaigns. John Players, ITC Lifestyle recently launched a new innovative campaign to engage their customers. Launched in 2003, the menswear fashion brand from ITC targets the fashion conscious, aspirational male, in the age group of 18-28 years, who is looking at a more relaxed and effortless dressing that looks stylish yet classy.

The brand campaign, ‘Buddiez’, is targeted at the youth and plays extensively on the spirit of ‘fun, freedom and friendship’. The brand, with its tradition to keep up with the millennials’ lives, has brought in newer technological platforms like Dubsmash, Periscope, etc., to engage during tasks. And to top this fun ride, the brand has added to Goa Trip & Music video.

Elaborating on the campaign, Atul Chand, Divisional Chief Executive, ITC Lifestyle, said, “John Players’ season 2 of #Buddiez is reaching out on ground to colleges across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Kolkata and Hyderabad. The initiative with its launch recently has already got 1,500+ group entries and has garnered over 1.5 lakh interactions already on social media. In its second season, John Players has taken a big leap to make this grandest activation of its kind, ever. Apart from increasing the reach to 46 colleges in six cities, the brand has roped in popular Zoom VJs – Manish, Aradhana & Teeshay – who take all buddies on board through this journey of fun-filled tasks for a month to arrive at the winners.The brand also showcases key ensembles from John Players range with winners wearing them in the music video. All the participants also get gift vouchers to explore our youthful range and make the brand part of their wardrobe.”

Marketing strategy

John Players’ marketing programmes have encompassed a multi-media, multi-platform approach, making it amongst the most exciting and talked about brands amongst its audience. Chand further said, “The initiative, apart from emotional experience, also adds to the brand salience through 360 degree media amplification – TV, Radio, Digital, etc. The brand has been building memorable experience for digitally savvy consumers through various engagement initiatives to get ahead of competition. John Players celebrated Friendship Day with users sharing their tales of friendship on social media. #Thosefriendswhohashtag trended as No. 1 trend in India on Friendship Day creating huge number of conversations around the brand. The brand also created a Friendship Book later with user generated content adding power to consumers. During the ongoing #Buddiez season 2 activity, the brand generated great buzz on digital with first ever on-ground usage of Dubsmash in the category with users dubbing the season 1 song at the venue.”

Using digital platform for brand engagement

Conventional above-the-line media inputs have been combined with comprehensive social and digital marketing plans to ensure brand conversations are initiated to successfully engage with its young and rapidly growing franchise. Chand added, “We are using digital as a key engagement medium for John Players Jeans and also expanding our brand availability offline as well as online. In a first on Twitter, John Players Jeans created a digital innovation, #JPJFlipographs, conveying the brand proposition of ‘Being Multifaceted’ with images flipping into a DJ from a banker; or Explorer from a Scientist when clicked contrary to usual enlarged image. The campaign trended all India and drove 2,000+ conversations in an hour.”

Role of visual merchandising

One of the key consumer touchpoints for a brand is their stores and visual merchandising plays a critical role in delivering enjoyable in-store experience. As a part of redefining retail identity of John Players, the brand has recently launched new format stores with a contemporary look and feel. In the new format, consumers can explore a free flowing experience with focus on various categories through usage of props and lights. For instance, John Players Jeans’ essence of celebrating multifacetedness of youth is being showcased through multiple passion props. “With more of these new format stores opening, John Players is creating a rich brand experience for its consumers,” said Chand.

John Players is on a trajectory of rapidly expanding the brand footprint across all retail sales channels. Chand informed, “We are looking to rapidly expand our brand footprint across key accounts and large format retailers like Reliance Trends, Max, Central and Pantaloons. In the e-commerce ecosystem as well, John Players is making rapid progress, partnering with various key fashion apparel e-tailers like Myntra, Jabong, Flipkart, and Snapdeal, among others, besides driving own e-commerce platform.”

“In this year itself we are looking to add more than 100 new exclusive John Players stores across tier 1 and 2 markets to its existing 400+ exclusive stores. These new stores represent a refreshed and more contemporary retail identity, making shopping experience richer and more immersive,” he concluded.

John Players zoom #BUDDIEZ Season 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drg6bp32iME