Digital forms almost 40% of Benetton’s marketing spends: Sundeep Chugh

United Colors of Benetton has been highlighting social issues such as inclusion, racial harmony, ending discrimination against persons with HIV/ AIDS, gender equality and more in its campaigns the world over. Provocative and often controversial, Benetton’s campaigns have never failed to generate conversations and strong reactions. 

While its campaigns in India have been relatively toned down, nevertheless, Benetton has time and again raised a voice for social causes such as gender equality and women empowerment. Reaffirming its commitment to address these causes, Benetton has now launched its new campaign – #UnitedByHalf. 

Conceptualised by Creativeland Asia, the comprehensive campaign launched on Valentine’s Day, seeks to start a movement of men acknowledging and celebrating women as equal partners. The objective is to highlight the need for genuine equality for women with their partners that do not restrict them through taboos defined by society. #UnitedByHalf aims to reach out to women and men from modern families to stand up against stereotypes and take a pledge to claim and give their beloved their deserving share in a relationship. 

Launching the campaign in Mumbai on Friday, February 10, 2017, Benetton held a talk involving celebrities such as Kalki Koechelin, Gul Panag and Meghana Bhat along with Purab Kohli and Sundeep Chugh, CEO, Benetton India. Promoting gender equality and women’s safety as the priority for India, Benetton is executing key elements of its global sustainability roadmap, the Women Empowerment Program, a long-term Benetton Group sustainability program aimed at supporting the empowerment of women worldwide. 

Elaborating on the latest campaign, Sundeep Chugh said, “Women’s safety and gender equality are issues very close to our hearts and we promote them through the Benetton Women Empowerment Program. We believe women in India are still struggling to claim their equal rights. In the plan of happiness for a successful relationship, man and woman play equally powerful and important roles. The #UnitedByHalf campaign is our way of changing the mindset of the society and celebrate women as equal partners, and actively stand for her right to an equal life. Women from all classes and societies would be able to relate to it as this is about inspiring women to question the limits they have been conditioned into accepting and challenge status quo. It is time to unite with love and equality!” 

Speaking at the launch, Kalki Koechelin said, “Violence and discrimination against women is an evil presence in our society. We as a society need to understand the significance of empowering women and providing them with rights to education, safety and equality. Benetton’s #UnitedByHalf campaign echoes my sentiments towards the matter that I have always been very strongly standing up for. I am delighted to be associated with this initiative by the brand and feel that it is about time we as a nation stand up against shameless inequality and demand our most deserving share of equal half!” 

The #UnitedByHalf campaign echoes Benetton’s commitment to India as a strategically important market. With the successful initiative of #UnitedbyDonts last year, that aimed to break stereotypes regarding women’s safety and well-being in India, Benetton has been constantly taking initiatives to work towards the five key priorities for gender equality: Sustainable livelihood, Non-discrimination and equal opportunities, Quality education, Access to healthcare and Combating violence, and them. 

In conversation with Adgully, Sundeep Chugh talks about the conceptualisation of the #UnitedByHalf campaign, Benetton’s communication strategy for the Indian audiences, digital push and more. Excerpts: 

Benetton’s campaigns have always challenged social norms. What factors do you keep in mind while devising campaigns for the Indian market? 
For the Indian market, we look at issues which are relevant for the Indian society. Basically, the decisions are taken on the analysis of what works in India, what the Indian audience or the current generation is looking at. We strongly believe that as a brand we need to act as an enabler to help the society to evolve to the next level. So everything we do is looking at the sensibilities and current thought process or the mindset. 

Please tell us about the conceptualisation of the latest campaign.
#UnitedBy is sort of a communication language that the brand has come up with. We did #UnitedByRooms last year; #UnitedByPlay on August 15, 2016; #UnitedByHer on Breast Cancer; #UnitedByChange, which was launched on January 26, 2017 around the Indian flag and what kids feel about the Tricolour. #UnitedByHalf appeals to the society as a whole, you will not find it addressing just the one section, but has a very inclusive approach. 

#UnitedByHalf as a campaign was conceived around six months back. The aim is to address the Indian society in a very inclusive way and ask them to pledge their half for their better halves, to pledge for the equal half for the women in their lives. We have a young team at our office – a strong women workforce – all these campaigns are discussed, conceived there, debated and finally, the women team in our office finalises the content. 

What was the brief shared with the agency?
Creativeland Asia is our creative agency, which has actually helped us develop this campaign, right from ideation to the final execution of the campaign. The brief shared was around having ‘#UnitedBy’ as our language for engaging with the consumers and add one topic that is relevant at that particular time. We will also develop sort of a brand communication language, wherein ‘#UnitedBy’ will play a very important role, a specific relevant topic will be added to that caption to devise the campaign. For this particular campaign, the brief was about our association with the United Nations and women empowerment programmes. So the idea is how do we look at current topics that are more relevant in our country, we think about them and then work around them for the campaign. So, when we were doing the research, two prominent topics that came up were – security for women and equality in society. This research actually led us to the campaign. 

While Benetton has been heavily active in print and outdoor for their campaigns, what is the digital strategy going forward?
Digital is a very important medium for us and it would be close to 40 per cent of our marketing spends. Digital would be a very significant platform for us to reach to our consumers. 

Given the growing competition in the brands targeting the youth, what is Benetton’s strategy to maintain its relevance and engagement in the market?
Benetton, as a brand, would like to pick up ideas that are there in the young people’s minds and talk about those ideas in a positive way. It would actually help the youth if the nation takes their ideas to a bigger level. That’s the objective of Benetton and that’s how the brand would create distinction from other players. 

How will Kalki Koechlin be involved beyond this campaign to take the message forward while associated with Benetton?
As of now, the campaign phase is from Valentine’s Day to Women’s Day, which is almost for a month, wherein Kalki will be associated with us in all the possible mediums such as print and radio. These are two important mediums where Kalki will be helping us in taking the campaign to the next level.