How Havmor’s Coolest Summer Job became a successful activation platform

Havmor Ice Cream culminated the third edition of its Coolest Summer Job consumer engagement program in May this year. As part of the program, winners get the opportunity to work alongside a celeb chef and create their own unique flavours at Havmor’s Naroda facility in Ahmedabad.

Coolest Summer Job started with 400 applications in the first season, which went up to 15,000 applications and 400 videos. In the third season, 35,000 forms and 2,600 videos were received.

For the third edition chef Saransh Goila was roped in, who mentored the finalists of the Coolest Summer Job program. The finalists were given the title of ‘Chief Tasting Officer along with a stipend.

Speaking to Adgully, Anindya Dutta, MD, Havmor Ice Cream, speaks at length about the entire campaign and how it has created a greater connect for the brand.

What is the objective of the Havmor ‘Coolest Summer Job’ campaign?

The objective is to build a strong connect with the consumer. The idea started from there and the activity started becoming bigger than the initial idea. Today, it has taken a shape and form that is bigger than just consumer connect. The thought was how can engage my target consumer with an activation platform which will connect with them. We said okay, let’s create a property for ice cream lovers and get them engage in the creation of ice cream that’s how it started.

Today, it is definitely fulfilling that purpose. We have a very strong engagement platform. This particular activity has reached out in this season to almost 100,000 consumers. 35,000 of them have engaged with us in the next level. 7-8 thousand of them sent us videos and content all talking about how much they love and why they love ice cream and how they would like to come work with us and create something completely new.

This is truly inspiring us to innovate. While innovation is a big thing as a strategy that we do this as an activity has helped us very positively. Not just by getting product ideas from the consumer but also getting to understand the consumer by the larger organization. My entire R&D team and marketing team is involved with these 10 consumers who have been chosen from a larger pool. They are chosen not only because we believe they are the epitome of ice cream lovers, but also because they are creative, expressive and therefore they just bring in the consumer world to the company. It is an energizing thing. It almost takes a festival shape in our company and people look forward to this CSJ that is going to happen. It kickstarts or brings us to start thinking about innovation and new products. Every year we are getting somebody like Saransh Goila involved which is adding a multiplier to this whole thing. He is a young chef and connects to the youth very well. So, he brings a dimension that I’m looking forward to.

The whole idea is to be in the medium where the consumers are largely. That is digital. We did use other mainline medium like our parlors where consumers come. Everything else we direct it back to the social media platform which is more shareable and content is being generated.

The contestants were selected from across India. We have people from Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata, and Bangalore. They are young men and women from diverse fields.

Read More: Havmor launches 3rd season of Coolest Summer Job initiative

What is the period you are marketing this campaign?

This whole initiative began 6 weeks back and culminates with the 3-day event here. Last year, couple of ideas that we have put into a product came from the Coolest Summer Job initiative. The Tripe Chocolate Product idea came from somebody who is crazy after chocolate.

The innovation process is rigorous and continuous. From the idea to the final sign-off on the product, there are many steps in between where we do many consumer tests. The concept of the product is first tested in a blind format. Then it goes to commercialization. While this can be done in 3 months’ time, however innovation is a funnel for us and products are continuously being launched. The time selection of the launch does not depend on when we are ready with the product but when is the right time to launch the product. We like to launch more products during the onset of the season and not in off season. Some launches may be closer to Diwali or festive time when ice cream consumption peaks. Apart from the Summer season, from Dussehra to Diwali ice cream consumption peaks and again slumps during December. We usually launch our whole range of products during mid of February. Then we keep doing our flavor of the month in each and every parlour once every month. If we get a great idea here, we try it out in the parlour for flavor of the month.

What sets apart Havmor as a brand?

What sets us apart as a brand is the fact that innovation is at the heart of everything. We are trying to make this factor our core strength. Continuously innovating becomes a critical strategy drive for us. Another strength that we have is we offer the largest range of ice cream anywhere in India. Not just by the number. We see our range as a combination of formats including cups, cones, candies, tubs, kulfis, and other varieties.

We do the blindfolded test to check the quality of our ice cream. We blind fold the consumer and get them to taste test our ice cream and competition ice cream to understand which one tastes better. To make it harder, we approach our competition users for test. 60 per cent of their consumers should like our product more, if we clear that assessment then we have the right product and can move ahead with it.

With Summer being your biggest month, how much are you growing year on year?

Last three years, we have been growing at 20 per cent CAGR. This year, we are in high teens but by the end of the year I’m sure we will catch up. During the first quarter which was Jan, Feb, March, India saw extended winter this year. This impacted all categories that depend on the weather. It usually becomes hotter in India during mid-February which did not happen this year, it happened closer to Holi which is around March. However, the Summer quarter which is April, May, June was very good for us.

What are the markets where you are present in?

We are present in 16 states. However, we classify our presence in Metro, Mini Metro, Urban like that. This month we are launching in Kolkata. Post that launch, we would be present in 50 top cities including metros and mini metros with a population above 10 lakhs. We are present in 300/500 cities that have a population between 1 lakh and 10 lakhs. Our aim is to be robustly present in the 500 cities of India and any towns and cities nearby these cities. We have parlors in the main cities as well and are currently in the midst of expansion to mini metros.