Wrigley wants to start something fresh in its consumer connections: Yogesh Tewari

Wrigley’s Doublemint has rolled out its new ad campaign, which depicts a heartwarming love story of a young boy, Adi, and his new neighbour Niara. Conceptualised by BBDO India, the ad is based on the fresh and beautiful cover of the song “Ek ajnabee hasina se”, originally sung by Kishore Kumar. Reiterating the recently launched Doublemint Mints’ freshness proposition, the love story around the quintessential romantic Indian couple encourages us to ‘Start Something Fresh’ whilst making ‘long lasting connections’.

The ad was released on YouTube first on October 21, 2016, followed by a nationwide release on October 22. The ad film has been directed by well-known film director Shoojit Sircar, while the production house is Rising Sun Productions.

Commenting on the new campaign, Josy Paul, Chairman & Chief Creative Officer, BBDO India, said, “The role of Doublemint is to help create new connections and start something fresh. Like the innocence of true love – you can’t write it; you can only wish it. Love just happens when you are busy doing other things. That’s what this campaign is about. When I saw the offline of the film, I was moved to tears. I called Shoojit way past midnight bawling like a teenager. It took me back to the purity of love. It’s not advertising, it’s the sound of a world looking for a more meaningful relationship. We are not just selling chewing gum or mints; we are spreading the hope of better connections.”

Shoojit Sircar added here, “This has been such an interesting journey for me personally. We brainstormed and sorted through close to a hundred songs before settling on ‘Ek ajnabee hasina se’, which fits beautifully with the story. And we have added a refreshing take to this Bollywood classic. This TVC debuts with fresh faces, who have brought Adi and Niara to life. The actors, Banita and Shubham, beautifully portrayed the innocence of a first time love story with absolute purity. This advertisement aims to tell a simple tale of a young couple embarking on a new connection infused by the freshness of Doublemint Mints. We are confident that this romantic story will strike a chord with millions.”

The ad showcases the love story of Adi, a simple and shy boy, and Niara, a bubbly and full of life girl, who meet through a chance encounter and start the journey of their beautiful relationship. The film revolves around the many facets of their connections, over their ‘firsts’ – first eye contact, first movie date, first dance – and their journey of letting go of hesitations and bonding over the ‘moments of freshness’ spent together. Doublemint Mints acts as the ‘enabler’ of connections, friendship, and love. The TVC ends with a beautifully orchestrated marriage proposal, with the many kissed Doublemint Mints boxes given by Niara to Adi through their ‘connections’ journey. With Adi finally on his knees, this Doublemint love story is this year’s sweetest love story, full of connections.

 Watch the ad film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5BbHPHpbvE

 The marketing push

Yogesh Tewari, Marketing Director, Wrigley India, commented, “Doublemint boasts of a rich heritage and has been intrinsic to the Wrigley portfolio globally. With the launch of Doublemint Mints in India, we are launching our flagship product in the mints segment, which endorses freshness and long lasting connections. Through a young couple’s journey of love, the advertisement brings out the essence of Doublemint that provides the confidence to be ready for any encounter full of possibilities. I am certain that our new advertisement will leave a sweet, fresh and long lasting impression on millions.”

Speaking further on the #StartSomethingFresh campaign, Tewari explained that Doublemint is one of the biggest brands from the Wrigley portfolio and the brand’s proposition is around freshness. He added, “The global campaign #StartSomethingFresh and the brand stand for building connections. It gives the consumer the confidence to go out and make spontaneous and effective connections. This is within the global footprint, as we say, or the brand guidelines. With this campaign, we have given an Indian twist to it.”

Speaking on the crowd-sourced love story, Tewari explained, “We wanted something as a build-up for the launch of our TVC and this idea came through BBDO, one of our agencies who has also conceptualised the commercial, and MediaCom. We felt it fit very well because crowd-sourced book as a concept is still very new in India. So it was starting something fresh. Thus, from a proposition perspective it fit very well with the brand. Our commercial is about building connections and love is one of the integral parts of connections. We, therefore, thought Durjoy Dutta is the best placed person because he writes love stories. Thus, all things came together in this campaign and the build-up, which started from October 8 and the last 10-12 days have been a part of the digital campaign, culminating in the launch of the TVC as well.”

Elaborating further on the association with author Durjoy Datta, Tewari said, “This is the only association that we have with him. What he brings to the table is his large fan base, his talent for identifying and writing love stories, his understanding of romance, connections and relationships. Therefore, he has added that value to our campaign and brought in this freshness. I think, this campaign through Durjoy has given us the opportunity to engage with our consumers and have them participate in this relationship with them as a brand.”

On roping in Shoojit Sarkar to direct the ad film, he said that BBDO had recommended Sarkar’s name as the ad film’s director. “Once he saw the story, Shoojit was highly motivated and passionate about it and, therefore, everything came into place,” Tewari added.

Speaking further on the market response to Doublemint Mints, which was launched in India two months back, Tewari said, “We have launched it in the top eight metros and while it is still early days, the feedback that we have got from our customers, our business partners, our associates and consumers has been phenomenal. I think consumers have loved the packaging because it is very user-friendly and attractive, and the product is fantastic because it gives an instant burst of freshness that is long-lasting. So, we are pretty confident that the product should do exceedingly well in the market and help us achieve our goals for the brand.”

Excited about the launch of the new campaign, MV Natarajan, Managing Director, Wrigley India, is also confident that the audience will connect well with the new TVC.

Giving some insights into the market dynamics revolving around the chewing gum and mints business in India, Natarajan said, “The gums and mints market in India is about Rs 1,000 crore, out of which gums constitutes about 70 per cent share and mint is much smaller a 30 per cent. The market largely revolves around chewing gum at this point of time and the fruit platform, the fruit flavour partitions, etc., is something which is pre-dominant. But having said that, we are seeing portions of this category – sub-category so to say – which is oral care, where we are present through Orbit, growing rapidly even though it is extremely small in size at this point of time, and has a huge head room space to grow further.”

He added that while Wrigley India is making up in the mints space, the company is present in one-third of the chewing gum space.

Throwing more light on the mint mouth freshener category in India, Natarajan informed that there are a number of factors that contribute its growth. “Firstly, it involves making sure that the product suits the consumers’ palette in terms of overall mouth feel, how strong is the flavour, how long-lasting it is, etc. That’s the starting point. Secondly, packaging plays an equally important role because the mints product that we have is on-the-go consumption and is not at a point of time. So you should be in a position to store the product in a suitable and hygienic manner. Thirdly, what is equally important is how you communicate about the product and get the message of a good product in a pack across, including the product benefits. That is really where the role of advertisement and a 360-degree campaign comes in. So that’s one part of it in terms of the consumer. The second part is in terms of making the product conveniently and widely available. So that’s really a route to the marketers, as we call it. How pervasively present you are across channels, for example, will become an important criteria. Thus, these are the two broad reasons and ways in which we can establish the product and grow in the category in India.”