Exclusive | 'Don't fake it' says Diageo's new campaigns

Of all advertising done on television, what interests many is devising commercials for liquor brands. The reason for this, many cite, is the challenge to convey your message to a very niche target audience while not breaching the code of the advertising set by the concerned authorities. Hence advertisers need to go the surrogate way for the same.

Keeping in line with this, Diageo has devised commercials for two of its popular brands – Smirnoff and VAT69. The Smirnoff campaign surrounds the Smirnoff Experience which wants to set India’s new music festival; while Vat69 is a gaming portal where people connect to get a different experience in gaming.

Adgully caught up with Bhavesh Somaya, Director Marketing, Diageo to get a sneak peak about their upcoming campaigns for their brands Smirnoff and Vat69.

Speaking about Smirnoff Experience’s campaign Somaya says that, “The whole idea of Unfakeit is based on the theme of having real fun. Today’s Gen Y wants more of realistic life than just a normal boring one. They want to be themselves and they do not wish to be unreal or fake! The concept of this music festival is that we want Gen Y or the youth to be themselves, we want them to explore themselves and not fake it all the time. Hence we came up the Unfakeit. However, this is not the first year that we have had this music festival; we did a Smirnoff Experience last year in Bangalore and are coming up with its second edition early next year”.

On the other side, ‘Be One in A 100’ is a gaming portal where all the crazy players come together and experience the power of Vat69 gaming. “This is a more competitive platform where the players explore each other’s spirit of competitiveness”, added Somaya.

Somaya states that it is very important for brands to have a social connect. “There is a unique journey of every brand which they want to connect to a person’s real life”, he said.

Speaking about the story of the two brands in India Somaya said, “Smirnoff has always done well, ever since they came into this country. In fact it was one of the premier Vodka brands that entered the country. While Vat69 has an altogether different journey; it is only in the last three to four years that the brand is re-establishing its roots in the country by doing various creative activities with the brand, one being the restructuring of the look while others being a part of ‘Be one in a 100’”.

Somaya goes onto mention that while the campaigns and activations are largely on the social media, the brand also wants to have a lot of engagement and on ground activities with the youth at various available platforms. He informs that both the campaign plan to go live by next month.

As mentioned above, being a liquor brand it is difficult to advertise. Sharing his thoughts on the same, Somaya said, “India is a challenging market. For brands like us, we need to ensure that we are within the given timeline and we also have to ensure that we are not resorting to any medium or messages that are against the law. Advertising in this category is not really difficult; it is more of an emotional engagement with the consumers. It is fun to work on the creative’s because we have to find ways that are not the usual ones. We have to figure different paths while keeping in mind that they cannot directly advertise their brand and that what their team enjoys”.

He further informs that while McCann has worked on the Smirnoff campaign, BBH has worked on the Vat69 campaign. “The brief that was given to these agencies was very simple. For Smirnoff, it was to create a brand point of view and a popular culture around what is relevant and most important for the Indian context. On the other hand, for Vat69, the idea was to bring alive the brand and to bring the men to succeed or doing things innovatively and that what led to the birth of ‘Being One in a 100’”, he concluded. By: Archit Ambekar | Twitter: @aambarchit

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