High on nostalgia focus, how Araldite is rekindling its bonds with young India

Araldite, the 70-year old leading Swiss adhesive brand, believes in repairing not replacing, because it knows everyone owns irreplaceable things. The company’s recently launched campaign – #bondsthatlastforever – has attracted over 1 million views and is still going strong. Indians have connected with the company’s philosophy that in every Indian home, there are items that are worth far more than their price. Should such things break, repurchasing a similar piece cannot compensate for the loss.

The adhesive of choice for an earlier generation, Araldite is seeking to rekindle the relationship that the firm has enjoyed with India. Araldite had been India’s favourite brand for decades. Its nationwide digital campaign is once again bringing this once beloved brand to the attention of Indians. Locked at home during quarantine with little to do, people are re-examining their lives. They are reliving their relationships with epic shows they grew up watching and with brands like Araldite that were inside every Indian home.

Over 1 million people have been reached with the brand’s message in less than three months. They have expressed their connection to the brand by showering its message with likes. Younger Indians especially received the company’s digital marketing campaign well.

In conversation with Adgully, Shenoy Muralidhara, Commercial & Country Director - Huntsman Advanced Materials, Araldite, shares some key insights on the campaign, the positioning Araldite is going for and the TG they want to focus on.

What is the primary objective of the campaign? After running the current campaign what is the end objective or expectations you have for the brand to deliver?

The objective of the campaign is to bring the world’s strongest adhesive Araldite to the homes of Indian people. Due to lockdown, more and more people are experimenting with household chores every day, they are doing what they never used to do – helping at home, doing dishes. Any error in these activities is bound to happen, Araldite is here to undo the damage and fix anything forever. We want to ascertain and become an essential part of their tool kit at home so that they can repair and not replace the memories behind the broken objects.

The end objective is to connect Indian audiences with the company’s philosophy that we all possess a lot of materialistic things. But when there is even a small crack in any of these things in every Indian home, there are items that are worth far more than their price. Should such things break, repurchasing a similar piece cannot compensate for the loss.

Araldite is an old trusted brand, in doing this new DVC did you change the positioning of the brand? What was its early positioning?

Araldite believes that the lockdown has taught society not to take relationships or material things for granted. Both can suddenly break. Yet connections can grow stronger when material things exchanged between people are looked after. In this challenging time, people cannot step out of their homes to replace broken items; however, should the need arise; they can quickly repair them with an adhesive based on the core brand philosophy – ‘Repair is better than replace’.

Our earlier positioning was – Build, Bond. Protect.

What was the brief given to your agency on this campaign? What was their thinking process for this campaign? Can you also please elaborate the core idea for this campaign?

The brief given to the agency was to establish Araldite as the most superior adhesive brand and make it an essential in every Indian household’s toolkit. The core idea behind the DVC was to establish the brand philosophy that ‘repair is better than replace’ because be it things or relationships , it’s all about bonds like memories are mean to last forever and special moments that they signify or rather #BondsThatLastForever. We wanted this DVC to grab the audience’s attention and relate to the communication, so we designed the narrative around a very relevant observation/ insight is in this day and age: Multiple opinions from multiple sources. With the advent of 24x7 media, an average person’s mind today is continuously grappling with too many opinions. Most people find themselves at the crossroads wondering what is right/ wrong only to realise that every opinion is right in its own way, however, facts are sacrosanct. Facts like “repair is better than replace”.

Who is your TG? Your DVC addresses a younger generation, any strategic reason to tap these audiences?

The adhesive of choice for an earlier generation, Araldite is making its presence felt among all Indians. Over one million people have been reached with the brand's message in less than three months. They have expressed their connection to the brand by showering its message with likes. Younger Indians especially received the company’s digital marketing campaign well. Our target audience does not include any particular segment of the society but taps to the emotions of all the Indians.

What’s the idea behind leveraging digital for this campaign? What’s the kind of ROI you are looking at?

The digital advertising market witnessed a 25 per cent increase in its growth during financial year 2019, as per IAMAI’s (Internet and Mobile Association of India) Digital Advertising in India Report 2019. Looking at the stats and also anticipating the digital growth due to lockdown in India, we decided to leverage the digital campaign for Araldite.

This campaign aims at boosting awareness and establishing a brand recall for Araldite while making a toolkit essential in every Indian household, thereby increasing SOV across digital.

How are you addressing the demand-supply and distribution issue? What is your e-commerce strategy?

Our products are available on the e-commerce platforms, where one can easily buy the product. Stores in most states have opened up now and we are beginning to see some movement on the shelf. Yes, India will soon see Araldite officially being launched on an e-commerce platform to help each and every household fix things forever, wherever and all by themselves.

What are the markets you are looking to push this campaign? Is it being done in other languages to reach the smaller towns?

Once brand love is established across Tier 1 cities, subsequently we will penetrate into Tier 2 and 3 markets with future campaigns.