DS Group’s Pulse Candy extends on-ground activity with gamified mobile ad

DS Group’s Pulse Candy, the market leader in the candy segment for last five years, wanted to magnify the awareness of their on-ground activation. The brand launched a ‘Grab the Pulse’ challenge where the audience gets a chance to participate in a claw machine game. The twist here was instead of the actual claw the audience had a chance to be the claw in order to grab the candies from a pool full of goodies.

“One of the most exciting ways to drive any audience experience is to have an on-ground marketing activity that creates a more personalized and tangible experience for consumers. Moreover, we felt it was pertinent we take the digital route to drive more footfall to the offline activity.,” said  Arvind Kumar – GM Marketing, Dharampal Satyapal Foods Ltd. Currently, the mobile ad is reaching close to 5 million users, while the on-ground marketing activity including outdoor takes off at prominent locations across multiple cities.

The innovative ad replicates the entire on-ground user experience using gamification, having redeveloped the human claw game for users to play on their phones. Users have 10 seconds to move a man in the left and right direction using arrows, grab a bunch of candies and drop them in a bucket. On completion, users are shown how they can grab big prizes in real life, with the CTA – ‘ADD TO CALENDAR’ redirecting them to their calendar which has all the details about the on-ground event happening in their city!

The ad is currently achieving a click through rate of more than 14X higher than industry average, with users spending over 13 seconds on average engaging with the ad. Anita Kotwani, CEO, Carat Media added, “We wanted an engaging mobile ad that creates an unmissable connection for the users to the on-ground experience. The ad created an interactive experience for the audience while conveying the key messaging of the campaign. Through this ad, users were taken on an immersive journey where they could play the claw machine game through their phone and then were encouraged to experience it live as well. The results truly surpassed the highly set expectations we had from mCanvas”
“At mCanvas, we aim to provide the best solutions to help brands achieve their marketing KPIs effectively. For Pulse, we saw the opportunity to amplify their on-ground marketing event by leveraging mCanvas’ gamified mobile ad formats,” concluded Banya Saikia, Regional Head – Ad Sales (North), mCanvas.