Kopiko gives a humour twist to small town India’s growth story

Kopiko, the hard-boiled candy made with real coffee extracts, from Inbisco India recently rolled out its new campaign that asks India’s youth to “Jaage Raho, Aage Raho”. The TVC continues with the earlier humourous vein, wherein the brand is shown to help people “Stay awake, always”. 

Conceptualised by Leo Burnett, the latest campaign introduces Durgesh, a young man hailing from a small town. He is ambitious, highly motivated, and has dreams of making it big. While Durgesh stops at nothing to achieve his goal, a 24X7 always-on-the-job approach begins to take its toll. However, Kopiko is his dependable pocket-sized saviour that keeps him up and ahead in life, especially during moments of need. 

Elucidating on the insight behind the campaign, Barani Dharan, Marketing Head - FMCG, Inbisco India, said, “A study among the youth revealed that we Indians are extremely competitive and would like to stay ahead of the pack. The TVC shows Durgesh stopping at nothing to achieve his goal, and Kopiko, containing real coffee extracts, helping him stay awake, seamlessly fits into brand insight of ‘Jaage Raho, Aage Raho’.” 

He further said that the key objective was to break through the clutter in the confectionary category through an ad that would not only communicate the brand promise, but also resonate with the TG. “A lot of people who love and consume Kopiko are college students, first jobbers who have just started their careers and have dreams of making it big. The new TVC highlights Kopiko’s proposition as a candy that helps recharge energies and stay alert, because of its real coffee extracts,” he added. 

Dharan further said that a strong distribution network for Kopiko has enabled them to penetrate markets and reach consumers across India. The company also endeavours to create memorable ads that communicate the brand promise and generate top of mind recall. 

“Kopiko is a candy for the adult taste, made with real coffee extracts. Evidently, therefore, it is a substitute for a cup of your favourite brew,” said Sanju Menon, Senior VP & Business Head, Leo Burnett India, adding, “We were tasked with coming up with a campaign to bring alive the product proposition ‘Stay Awake. Stay Ahead’. That said, it had to be relevant to the TG and create moments of consumption. Considering candy purchase is often an impulse buy and sometimes a substitute for small change where you take/ accept what is given, we had to create moments of consumption, bring relevance so that it becomes a matter of choice as well, and last but not the least, for the first time have an actual consumer (end) benefit, in a candy ad.”

Humour and ambitions of the everyday Indian 

Elaborating on the creative thought process behind the campaign, Menon said, “To begin with, we looked for inspiration from the real and diverse world, called India. Candy and India are both surreal, offering interesting situations, quirks and people with character to get inspired from or roles they can play. As real as India is, candy advertising in India is far from reality, possibly even superficial joy. But hey, we are a fun candy too, definitely not frivolous. And the difference being, we are all for delivering on a real promise. Going further, we peeped into the lives of the everyday Indian. We love our daily dose of humour and so does the everyday Indian.”

Giving further insights into the brand proposition, Menon noted that India is in a phase where it is all about growth, small milestones every day. “We are competitive and that makes us a nation of achievers. But it’s a population of a billion, all vying for the same space, the same college seat, the same jobs and the dream of reaching the top of the ladder quickest. We are putting in the long hours, overnighters in order to be on top of the game… but this 24X7 go-getter mindset comes with one major physical drawback… sleep deprivation. An untimely snooze at the moment when you are supposed to shine means “game over!” Enter Kopiko, the coffee candy with real coffee extracts designed to help you stay awake… and stay ahead! As goes the famous Indian adage ‘Jo Jaagat Hai, Who Paavat Hai’.”  

Thus was born the endearing story of Durgesh Singh, a small town boy with the biggest of dreams. With oodles of motivation and aspiration, he is willing to do anything to outshine his city counterparts… he reaches out to the “Gods”, reads books to perform better, is willing to learn from his boss’ chidings rather than be demoralised, and even gives up the desires to date the cutest girl in office. 

Menon further elaborated, “It was a very interesting behind-the-scenes run up to the day of the shoot. This was one brief that didn’t require the conventional approach, the agency team often chatted up over coffee, in the corridors, in sanitised meeting rooms and on the streets ideating on the situations that the everyday Durgesh goes through. We often stalked the young talent in office to observe their work patterns, their sleep (or the lack of it) and the resulting effect, much to their discomfort of being under the scanner and not knowing why! Funny for us, but certainly not for them. We spent hours lending a listening ear to first jobbers at “chai tapris” to understand their angst and hear more about demon bosses! And yes, all the blokes had stories about how love was lost at the hand of the demanding career pace.” 

Renowned Bollywood and ad film director, Vijay Maurya, was roped in to bring alive the humour and flavour of the film. TLG Group’s Prodigious India, headed by Vandana Watsa, and Producer Akshay Multani, executed this vision and turned it to reality. 

Creative writers Ashish Sharma and Sriram Iyer, along with AVP - Client Service Aman Sheikh and Hitesh Ramrakhyani, the Brand Partner, also worked on the TVC.