Exclusive | Keep Trippin' says Fastrack's Panchamia

With a lot of youth demanding exciting and newer products, companies are finding it difficult to cater to their changing needs. This trend is seen across all industries from apparel to accessories, to watches to shoes and so on.

Every brand is seen on television, but no one has really focused so much on the digital pllatform. Trying to break through the clutter and do something different, there is one company which has and has gone out of their way in the digital space.

This company is none other than our very Indian brand, Fastrack. Recently, Fastrack came with an only Digital campaign "Keep Trippin' " and they’ve done much better than what they have otherwise.

Using a music video as a base, Fastrack’s new trademark is an interactive digital destination that takes the brand’s audience engagement to the next level. For the first time, not only can viewers interact with the video but they can buy their favourite Fastrack goods through this exclusive digital destination. At any point during the video, viewers will be able to pause it with a single click, receive details on a product they like and purchase it instantly. There is nothing better than bridging the gap between a product catching your eye and the thrill of actually buying it, down to just a couple of clicks.  The micro site can be viewed across devices, thereby not eliminating any consumer facing interface.

To get a deeper understanding on how their only digital Keep Trippin' has done Adgully caught up with Hemal Panchamia, Marketing Head for Fastrack India.

Keep Trippin' is indeed a very creative and interactive campaign and speaking on the conceptualization Panchamia said, “This is Fastrack’s first music commercial. We’ve been toying with this idea for about two years now. Music was something that the brand was able to relate a lot and layering it with a music video was an ideal thing that we were looking for. Hence we created this. This is also in a way a product showcase for us for this quarter. The entire new range of our products that we’ve launched is integrated in this video.”

While he leaves the choice to the consumer whether they want to be entertained by the video and understand the brand performa and those who really want to interact with the product can stop the video and buy the product.

Indeed 22Feet, the agency with which Fastrack has been working on for their creative has done a fabulous job on their latest long form video. Panchamia says, “The way we work with the agency is that the agency doesn’t crack anything on their own. The client and the agency sit together, brainstorm and together we came up with this idea.  It wasn’t difficult for them to crack the brief. The brief given to them was that we want to create an interactive music video that brings out the reverence of the brand. Because it is on reverence that the brand is positioned on.

Fastrack is among the first few companies to enter into the long form video space in advertising. Highlighting some reasons Panchamia said, “On television as a platform you really can’t do long form. The reason being the audience which is consuming advertising on television is very different than the one that is consuming communication in the digital as a platform. People are willing to spend far more time on digital to see what brands have to offer in terms of communication. Keeping this in mind we thought that it has to long form communication and it has to be only on digital and not on any other platform. The only back mark about television considering is the duration that is the ad line which is about 30 seconds or 45 seconds and there was a need to create a long from video.”

The campaign has already begun in the first week of November and is going to get over in a fortnight from now. The campaign has got a good response so far. Panchamia adds, “The campaign has done very well for us till now. We’re not measuring this video on the total number of views. We are actually trying to measure it by seeing how much time people have spent watching the video, how many of them have interacted with us and eventually how many of us have shopped online. In fact the average time the video is watch is a whooping 2mins 30 seconds out of the 3 minute 46 second video that we have.”

He adds, “From a talking point of view I think this is the first time that an Indian advertiser that has done something interactive likes this.”

Giving a little insights on the figures Panchamia adds, “The average conversion in how many people have clicked and how many people have bought is more than 20% than usual on television.”

The campaign is primarily for the Indian market and the brand wants to lead people to buy these products. Currently, they do not have any facility outside India. Though it’s the web they are not catering to markets outside the country.

After having set a benchmark with their breakthrough long form video their next campaign is not going to be similar for sure. Commenting on the same, “We strongly believe in not repeating what we’ve done in the past. While we’ve done a long form video this year probably it’ll be something different next year. We haven’t really started planning for that as of now.”

With a fabulous 2014, as compared to the struggling brand in 2013; the brand has seen a double digit growth in the year that just passed.

Speaking about their way forward he adds, “We’re coming up with a 360 degrees marketing campaign. We are doing something special for digital. And it is going to be an extension to the campaign that we do on television.”

On a concluding note Panchamia said, “The biggest thrust is going to be on digital. I think we are one of the strongest brands on the digital front and I think next year we will enhance it more than what we have already been doing. A large portion of the marketing budgets are going to be diverted to communications towards digital than any other medium. We are considering it but no plans as of now.” By Archit Ambekar | Twitter: @aambarchit