How Havmor is using the idea of travel in COVID times for focussed targetting

Over a period of 75 years, Havmor Ice Cream, a part of Lotte Confectionery Ltd, has grown immensely by reinventing itself time and again. Havmor has grown ten-fold, establishing a strong brand presence and emerging as one of the fastest growing, most loved ice cream brands of the country. With a wide and varied range of flavours, 18 states, a network of 40,000 retail outlets and more than 250 flagship stores, Havmor is truly a national brand that caters to a wide spectrum of audience across the country.

Also read:  Havmor explores post Lockdown cravings in new campaign

Embarking on the road to the new normal, Havmor Ice Cream is unveiling its web series, “Havmor Passport”, in association with celebrated artist Malhar Thakar. The travel series, with the tagline “Khaata Jao, Farta Jao”, promises to take the audience on a virtual tour of seven international destinations with Malhar and his favourite Havmor ice-cream. The series has been written and directed by The Comedy Factory and has been conceptualised by Sideways.

Adgully spoke to Abhijit Awasthi, Co-Founder, Sideways, to know more about how the whole idea of a travel show was conceived and produced.

Travel is fun and joy and so is a product like ice cream. The connection with Havmor and travel seems to be a perfect brand fit. How did you come up with the idea of leveraging travel with the Havmor brand and where did the inspiration come from to create this virtual travel show presenting some great world destinations?

We’re all aware of Gujaratis’ undying love for sweets and travel. And at a time when they have been deprived of both, we thought it would be cool to give them a virtual tour of some of the best destinations in the world with their favourite Havmor ice-cream. While we’re living in a time with endless work video calls, we decided to put the same device to a different use – travel.

This idea during a lockdown is something unique and different. How did you go about planning this as the show is trying to give you a real-life experience of connecting with some of the best tourist destinations?

While the pandemic scenario in India was bad, things were starting to look better in certain parts of the world. We thought it would be a good idea to connect with Gujaratis around the world in order to tap the Gujarat audience in India. Furthermore, shooting with Malhar and his actual friends and relatives elevated the real-life travel experience for viewers.

How did the choice of Malhar Thakar come up? What was the criteria and did you look at any characteristics and personality of Malhar that connected with the brand?

No matter what mood you’re in, an ice-cream will always cheer you up. This fitted seamlessly with Malhar’s cheerful, joyous personality. Malhar was featured in ‘Passport’, the movie which released a few years back. We felt this could strengthen the affinity with the name of the show ‘Havmor Passport’.

What was the objective that you had in mind when you were planning this travel show? Who are you targeting and can you profile the audience who will be pulled to watch this show?

The objective was to deepen the love the Gujaratis have for Havmor. And Havmor as a joy-giver decided to bring to the people what they have been sorely missing – travel. While we were predominantly talking to the core digital audience – the youth, we felt that a travel show would also appeal to other audiences such as families, housewives, a grandfather-grandson duo and more. Our motive was to get every single Gujarati at home to enjoy virtual travel with their favourite Havmor ice cream flavours.

What is the duration of the show? Right now, this is shown in Guajarati. With Havmor’s national presence will this be extended into other languages? Will you also go beyond the 7 episodes?

The show will span over a period of 7 weeks in Gujarati. However, Havmor will be open to the idea of having the show in Hindi and also extend the number of episodes as per the consumers’ demand.

One can currently view this on the Havmor YouTube channel. Are you looking to explore other digital mediums to increase your reach? What’s the frequency of the show?

While the show can only be streamed on YouTube’s Havmor Ice Cream channel, other social media handles are being utilised to drive more viewers to YouTube. All 7 episodes will be aired weekly.

What’s the media strategy to create awareness for the travel show? Are you running any tactical promotional campaign to promote the travel show?

Instead of taking the traditional ad promo approach, we chose to tie up with influencers to promote the show. Havmor has partnered with over 20 regional celebrities along with 40 communities to create buzz around the show.

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