Blackberrys goes bold for BangOn

In the quest to provide a complete wardrobe solution to Indian men, menswear clothing brand Blackberrys has launched BangOn, its innerwear range this season.

For the launch of BangOn, the brand reached out to women on the streets of Delhi on Valentine’s Day, asking them about their choice and preference when it comes to men’s innerwear.

Ajay Pradhan, Brand Manager, Blackberrys, elaborated, “The innerwear category gave us the opportunity to loosen up the stiff imagery that the brand has due to strong presence in suits and formals. This Valentine’s Day, we decided to approach women instead of men to understand what they thought of men’s innerwear. For a range that has edgy and quirky design, we wanted a campaign that would resonate that.”

Shradha Agarwal, Strategy Head, Grapes Digital, added here, “We worked on the insight of how men play a part today in purchase of women lingerie. The same stands true for women of today. They are bold, confident and know what they want. They also want their men to wear cool and hot inner wear.”

With this insight, and to create a virality quotient, Grapes Digital came up with a VOX POP for BangOn. The campaign was promoted across social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.

“The responses we received were funny and exciting. We were amazed to see 1.5 million hits in less than 24 hours. Today, the total views stand at 2.5 million across all platforms for the campaign,” informed Pradhan.

The campaign:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZiEzwHmNoY

Nitin Mohan, Director, Blackberrys, shared further insights on the campaign:

The objective behind the campaign:
“Blackberrys has a legacy. We have been seen as a brand that comes up with very formal clothing range. So this was an opportunity given the product category. This was an opportunity to connect with the younger audience. People who are more with it or the people who are more ahead or today’s generation and, therefore, the choice of that medium. Of course, I am sure you already know that on the social media, Facebook and YouTube put together it has garnered near to one and a half million hits. So I think the choice is really being validated.”

Has social media become a better medium to share the brand’s ideas and innovations?
“I wouldn’t say that it is a better medium, but it is definitely an emerging and alternate medium. The conventional mediums are still okay, but then you want to connect at a very intense level. When the engagement level is high, then I think you have to pick another route.”

Idea behind the campaign:
“The product itself has a great and very unique quality. The best kind of fibre is used. The cotton that is used comes from the US, keeping in mind the comfort that the innerwear should provide. So carrying that concept forward, we actually went to the opposite gender and we spoke to them about their opinion on innerwear. The idea was to sort of go out in the market and create something new. The idea started with the product itself, so the product conceptualisation is absolutely fresh and the communication just follows up at the same level.”

So the idea was to get the insights of opposite gender on male innerwear?
“They definitely have a unique insight – I would not say better or worse – but they have a completely unique insight and that is actually relevant.”

Expectations from the campaign:
“I think it has helped the brand loosen up a little from our legacy and position so as to say. I think this opportunity is well utilised to get the attention of a newer set of responses so all in all it’s very good and well propagated.”

Was any agency involved in this campaign or was it conceptualised in-house?
“We do have a creative team inside. They work with the digital marketing agency along with India Times. It was a fizzer partnership and they did a really good job.”

Past campaigns:
“We had this unique property called Sharp Night about a year back. We had invited musicians from various parts of the world to play their music, which also cheered up social media and got a great response.”