“Bayer aspires to reach 100 mn households in India with our self-care products in 5 yrs"

Supradyn, the multivitamin brand from Bayer Consumer Health Division, India has just launched their latest and new campaign – ‘Sahi Poshan Harr Din, Khane Ke Saath Supradyn’. For the first time in its 60-year legacy, the brand will be directly communicating to consumers urging them to unlock their full potential, not only leading discussions but also trying to create awareness in the nutrition category. The campaign is based on the startling insight revealed by Supradyn’s latest Nutrition Survey conducted with 220 doctors and nutritionists. The relaunch campaign conceptualised by Lowe Lintas Mumbai will be rolled out across TVCs with a 30-second film in digital channels, across its key markets, including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi, Karnataka.

In an exclusive conversation with Adgully, Ritu Mittal, Head – Marketing and Digital, Bayer Consumer Health Division, India, speaks about the objectives and the relaunch and how they conceived the idea and executed the campaign for iconic brand Supradyn.

The pharma market is filled with so many multi-vitamin brands with multiple drug formulations. How is Supradyn different from the rest and how have you repositioned your brand?

Supradyn is an iconic multivitamin-multimineral brand with a 60-year legacy in India. This September, the brand has launched its first-ever consumer campaign that encourages people to reach their 100% potential every day. The brand re-launch is supported with an upgrade in its formulation, which now contains 5x Zinc (as compared to the older formulation) and 12 essential vitamins for more energy and immunity. We have also refreshed the packaging, making it more contemporary and with a clear call out of Supradyn Daily’s key benefit – ‘Builds Energy and Immunity’. As per a recent survey commissioned by us, an average daily diet can only provide up to 70% vitamins and minerals. Supradyn Daily’s ‘complete’ formulation has 20 key nutrients that help our consumers get up to 100% key nutrients every day.

Through Supradyn’s latest campaign, ‘Sahi Poshan Harr Din, Khane Ke Saath Supradyn', we intend to educate our consumers on the grave micronutrient insufficiency in their diets in a relevant and memorable way. We want to encourage them to take one Supradyn Daily tablet every day for improving their energy levels and boosting immunity.

What’s the purpose in pushing this brand with a complete focus as an OTC brand? How do you plan to measure the performance of the brand?

The penetration for multivitamin supplements in India is abysmally low, specifically if we compare it to developed markets like the US. With a large population, rising health awareness and rapidly increasing penetration of Internet and mobile phone usage, India is a key market for Bayer’s Consumer Health division. India currently stands eighth in the OTC market rankings and is the fastest growing market globally. Moreover, as per projected growth rates, India will be in the top four OTC markets globally by 2029. At Bayer India, in the OTC segment, we have 10 brands in our Consumer Health division. Of these, Saridon and Supradyn are our two biggest brands in terms of the consumers reached.

Over the next five years, Bayer aspires to expand access to everyday health and reach 100 million households in India with our self-care products. We want to empower the transformation of everyday health for 1.4 billion Indians so that they can keep pursuing their dreams and continue making India incredible.

This is in line with Bayer’s overarching vision of ‘Health for all, Hunger for none’, and we are focused on improving human lives while ensuring nobody is left behind along the way.

Please elaborate on how the insight was derived for your new campaign – ‘Sahi Poshan Harr Din, Khane Ke Saath Supradyn’? Why are you focussing on women as your core target audience?

Supradyn’s latest campaign is rooted in the insight that an average Indian diet meets only up to 70% of one’s daily nutrition requirement, according 9 out of 10 doctors and nutritionists from urban India as per a recent survey commissioned by us. The study conducted by BrandEigen Insights and Analytics, surveyed 220 healthcare practitioners (doctors and nutritionists) across major states from all four zones of the country, on the sufficiency of micronutrients in the average diet, bringing to light an alarming gap in meeting the body’s 100% nutrition requirements. This stands true across all zones in India and across different types of diets – be it vegetarian or non-vegetarian. The study revealed that as many as 90% of doctors and nutritionists agreed to at least a 30% nutrition gap in their state’s average daily diet.

Therefore, our latest campaign aims to create awareness on how this deficit can be overcome by simply adding a multi-vitamin to our daily diet and positions Supradyn as the go-to solution to unlock one’s 100% potential every day. The campaign film highlights how simple daily activities may seem like mammoth tasks when a diet is unable to meet the body’s daily nutritional requirements. It finds its protagonist in the average woman of today, aptly named ‘Miss 70’, who is able to give at most 70% output despite putting in her 100% effort due to the wide nutrition gap, leaving her not only low on energy for most part of the day, but also more prone to falling sick.

Via this campaign, we have redefined our target audience as women between the ages of 25 and 45. She is seen as the ‘pilot of her own life’ and wants the best for herself as well as her family. We are targeting women because they are the Chief Medical officers of their household and we want them to first adopt the brand and then make their families use it also

You have only looked at 10 states as your key markets. What about the rest of the markets and how do you plan to reach them?

This is a pan-India campaign, which aims at targeting young Indian consumers aspiring to live in their prime. For our 10 priority markets, which include Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi, Karnataka, Punjab and Gujarat, we have rolled out the film in eight languages. The integrated campaign is being promoted across TV and online mediums such as YouTube, OTT, Search, Social Media platforms, etc., which will help us in reaching a wider audience.

When any pharma brand goes the OTC way, they lose the doctor’s prescription. How do you plan to address that challenge to ensure that doctors also prescribe?

Over its 60-year legacy, Supradyn built a trustworthy relationship with doctors and healthcare professionals and we are now happy to also address the consumers directly for the first time, leading discussions and creating awareness in the nutrition and multivitamin-multimineral category. Our campaign brings to light Supradyn’s role in complementing a healthy diet, which provides only up to 70% key nutrients, thereby bridging the nutrition gap and providing more energy and immunity every day.

As I briefly mentioned, our vision is to make self-care a reality for billions of people around the world through everyday healthcare. Self-care forms a vital part of a larger healthcare system and ensures individuals can proactively manage their health and nutrition.

Having said that, we will continue focusing on the relationship that we have built with doctors and complementing the healthcare system as we endeavour to meet the nutrition gap. We are confident that doctors will continue to prescribe the best multivitamin-multimineral supplements to their patients, including Supradyn Daily, so that they can benefit from daily nutrition sufficiency not just during convalescence but everyday of their lives.

You are looking at reaching 10 big markets. What’s going to be your media strategy and budget to reach that women audience and what’s your campaign duration?

Our campaign encompasses all modes of media mix with a strong focus on digital. The campaign is currently being promoted via TV spots, digital ads across online and offline mediums such as YouTube, OTT, Google Search, Facebook, Instagram to name a few. Our media strategy is to reach more and more Indian women consistently with our campaign so that they can make a tangible improvement to their everyday life by getting up to 100% key nutrients and unlock the potential to achieve their dreams. Women as the ‘Chief Medical Officers’ of their homes will also influence others in the family to make this change for good.