How multi-platform engagement strategy is helping Nippon Paint have an edge this IPL season

Founded in Japan, Nippon Paint has over 140 years of experience in paint manufacturing. Nippon is now the number one paint manufacturer in Asia Pacific, and is one of the top paint manufacturers of the world. Nippon Paint produces a wide range of international quality hi-tech paints for decorative, automotive, and industrial sectors. Over the years, Nippon Paint has perfected its products by quickly adapting breakthrough paint technology, with an emphasis on innovation and eco-friendliness. Nippon Paint’s mission is to create advanced products that boost quality of life while protecting the environment. Through innovative technology, Nippon Paint benefits its customers and society. With vast global presence they are today present in over 31 countries.

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The paint industry has been battling for the last few months due to the pandemic. While there is still fear among many households to get their houses painted, but we could see some action happening as the festive season nears. Companies are taking all kinds of safety precautions to help their customers in getting their houses painted. They are also training the painters to follow the rules and arming them with all protection gears to follow the safety protocols. While there is some amount of optimism and positive feeling that painting activity will catch up during the festival season, one needs to wait and watch if that will happen in the usual way. The IPL has also boosted the sentiments and Nippon Paint is also associated with IPL to leverage the tournament. Campaigns will be rolled out during the IPL to boost demand and woo customers to bring cheer in their life this festival.

In an exclusive conversation with Adgully, Mark Titus, Director - Marketing, Nippon Paint (India) Pvt Ltd (Decorative Division), speaks at length about the company’s strategy and plans for the festival season and how they plan to leverage IPL this year.

As an Associate Sponsor with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), how do you plan to leverage your brand in the 2020 editio of the Indian Premier League (IPL)?

IPL is one of the most anticipated events of the year. The past few months have dampened the spirits of consumers, who have been mostly working from home and have been devoid of any entertainment. Especially in India, cricket is celebrated with passion and with the return of the IPL season, we are certain it will bring a spirit of cheer and celebration to Nippon Paint’s customers and fans across the world.

This association with the three-time IPL champions is something we hope to leverage in the coming months and we are confident that this partnership will have positive long term business impact. We have launched a complete 360 degree campaign that will encompass all possible multimedia platforms – TV, print, radio, digital, and retail visibility too. Over the past few weeks, we have launched a series of digital ads and contests on our social media pages for CSK fans and also aim to have interactive engagements with our consumers throughout the match and post that. Also, we have some surprises in store for our customers in the form of ads featuring some of their favorite CSK players and opportunity to meet them virtually. We are very positive that the overall engagement around the event will surpass all the previous benchmarks. 

Since there will not be much on-ground activation, how do you plan to compensate for that and make Nippon paint brand highly visible during the entire IPL tournament?

Yes, that is a major change in the current IPL season. For one, the absence of a live stadium means missing out on reaching the live audience and engaging with them. But this cannot deter the average cricket enthusiast’s passion to be part of the conversation and so we have aligned our marketing strategy to leverage every possible platform to engage with consumers. Another marketing activity was conducting regular meet and greets with the CSK players for some very lucky fans and channel partners – that is not practical in the current scenario. This, we will counter by conducting virtual ‘meet n greets’ with fans and our stakeholders. This also helps us reach consumers who hitherto might not have taken part in these virtual campaigns and contests, if we were not so digitally connected. Even organisations which had previously not explored digital as a viable prospect have begun to adopt various new efforts, which is definitely a step in the right direction. 

Any special tactical advertising campaign that you have created with the CSK team to be aired during the IPL tournament? What is going to be your overall media strategy and will digital be your key medium to engage your audience?

We are currently undertaking a multi-platform engagement strategy, which will elicit a more enhanced response from all our consumers. This includes a campaign (that couples both CSK and the festival season), where fans will get to interact with their favourite CSK players.

In honour of our partnership, we also launched a new paint shade called the ‘CSK Yellow’, a distinct tone of yellow wall paint. Fans can now opt for Nippon Paint’s authentic CSK Yellow to support the team and paint the town yellow!

Other than this, we have just shot a series of very witty TVCs in Dubai featuring some of the key CSK players like Shane Watson, Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay, and Faf du Plessis that we will be launching during the course of the IPL season. We are certain that the CSK fans will enjoy them. 

How do you see the consumer sentiments across the nation this year? Which markets are seen as leading the rebound and how? What factors will drive growth this festive season? How much do you see festive sales getting impacted due to COVID-19 this year?

Currently, consumers are conscious about investing in purchase of any non-essential products/ services owing to the pandemic. This, coupled with the slow growth in the real estate market, means that the paint industry has been affected, as is the case with many other sectors.

For the paint business at large to come back on track, domestic consumption should improve. Once the GDP growth is back on track, the paint industry would also grow as this industry closely performs 1.5 to 2 times of GDP growth. We are very positive that sales will rebound gradually, owing to both the IPL as well as the festive season coinciding. Further, there is a positive consumer sentiment, which is coupled with a general boost in the home improvement sector, leading us to remain optimistic for the upcoming festive months.

The work from home culture has highlighted the need for superior interior work, since people now spend most of their time indoors. The key factor which is driving the growth this festive season is the increased awareness and demand amongst customers for eco-friendly and wellness focused paint products. This led us to launch a marketing campaign – ‘Sanitize your Walls’, which highlights our range of Wellness paint products to keep consumers and their families safe at home. The range consists of Nippon Paint KIDZ, Nippon Paint Odourless Aircare, Nippon Paint Satin Glo+ and Nippon Paint Satin Glo Prime. These paints can contribute to the safety and well-being of the entire family by safeguarding them against microbes, harmful chemicals and impure air. While in the past, the focus during festive season was more on aesthetics and decorative purposes, the need of the hour right now includes more functional benefits of wall paints. Our eco-friendly and hi-tech paints with properties like best-in-class washability, breakthrough odour-less technology, low VOC, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal are much preferred by our customers. 

What kind of integrated marketing activities are you planning for the festive season? On which platforms will you be investing your ad spends more and Why? What kind of digital push are you looking at?

Considering the IPL tournament goes digital this year, we too have increased our advertising spends on digital platforms significantly, as is the case with most brands. This trend is here to stay as there has been an unprecedented surge in online media engagement since the lockdown. We will further increase our ad-spends as the season progresses as more and more people are slowly beginning to look beyond essential products, which have been staple for a while now. We will be running contests on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, and we will be making use of the Reels feature of Instagram since the app has been pushing it more now and give out our Nippon Paint and CSK exclusive merchandise. Currently, there are a lot of advertisements and offers driven around the products and services we offer, which we feel is a step in the right direction to woo customers to paint their houses this festive season. 

Do you see retail footfalls increasing during the festive season, given that people are still not venturing out for shopping in a big way? What alternate routes are you looking at to shore up sales – such as e-commerce, online purchases, D2C initiatives?

The IPL season, along with the festive mood, will do much to revive consumers’ spirits and encourage them to shop for non-essential items too. Considering most consumers make purchases during the festival season, the timing is right to target them. There would be an increase in sales through online channels, coupled with offline stores and dealers network. We have established tie-ups with a few strategic home décor partners and service providers to cater to the surge in demand expected during the festive season.

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