Parle G rides on the idea of 'everyday genius'

There would rarely be an Indian who has not grown-up on Parle-G. The larger positioning and communication platform of Parle-G has been around the concept of everyday Genius. But to make this thought more appealing and engaging and most importantly- real, Parle-G decided to create a movement. A movement to free children from the bondage of structured education and invite them to be curious and explore their true talents. As we all know India is a country with extremely young demographics. The creativity and innovation displayed by our youth will be benefiting the country in the years to come. Hence, we targeted mainly parents and then children. The objective of the engagement was to question the current educational rat race and to get children to discover their true hidden talents. Parle-G has always been at the forefront voicing out its respect for the ‘Geniuses’ in our midst. Parle-G kick-started 2013 with India’s first all round campaign spanning over the print, digital and TV space. The campaign displays a vertical integration in Parle-G’s ideology wherein the focus is on putting across the idea that every child can be a Genius if his/her curiosity is given the right guidance.

“Parle G is a brand that's been an integral part of most of our growing up years. It takes me back to a time when we as kids loved to ask questions and go outdoors and explore life through discoveries. However over the years that childhood that we've had has only become more and more complex and competitive where children are no longer children but mere reflections of their adults. The joy of being curious, asking questions and trying to find answers; to learn things that affect their own lives in real ways are lost. So, after Parle-G’s last campaign that was built around childhood memories we thought it to be a great platform for brand Parle-G that has had such a great lineage, to gift a part of their lineage to the children of the future.

We hope that this platform helps a cohort population of students, teachers and parents to go beyond the confines of the syllabus and curriculum.

I'm excited and looking forward to being a part of this great movement!” – Neha Contractor

Digital Law & Kenneth, the Brand Partners of Parle Products Pvt. Ltd., took a two-pronged route to promote this campaign. They started by posting teaser questions on Facebook and Twitter about the curious questions that kids always ask. The idea was to make our fans more inquisitive and come up interesting ways to answer these often asked questions.

Once a sizeable amount of buzz was created around the campaign, we created 3 interesting videos that revolved around “how kids are awesome at being kids and we often take their curiosity for granted”. To promote these videos we initiated the #IfIWereAParent Twitter contest where we shared the videos on the Facebook and Twitter and asked the users how they would react to that situation.

#IfIWereAParent Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TI1WFosI0Y

The Twitter contest was received very well and the hash-tag #IfIWereAParent trended all over India at no.1 and in all the 14 major cities. The best part was that it even beat the hash-tag #HappyNewYear. So, the official top popular hash-tag and person on Twitter on 1st January were #IfIWereAParent and @thegeniushub (Parle-G Twitter Handle).

With the success of the teaser campaign Parle-G initiated an exclusive launch of the Official TVC only for the Facebook fans and Twitter followers and the official campaign website https://www.thefuturegenius.com/ went live. The highly interactive site lets parents post media in the form of videos, audio clips and documents to showcase their child’s talent. The site will be used as a portal for the “My Kid is a Genius” campaign in the near future.

Along with the launch Digital Law & Kenneth hosted #BeCurious campaign on Twitter to promote the TVC on social media. The TVC song has been penned by Gulzar, sung by Piyush Mishra with Clinton Cerejo as the music director. The video for the TVC was created by O&M India. It is aimed at letting a child’s fertile imagination take wings because only then can we spark the genius in a child.

At the time of writing, #BeCurious is the no. 1 trend in India and all major cities, with users tweeting the most imaginative questions they have asked as children – Because genius and curiosity go hand in hand.

#BeCurious managed to trend worldwide on the top 5 most popular trending topics on Twitter, an awe-inspiring feat for an Indian brand to achieve. In a space where topics are started by celebrities and hugely popular influences, Parle-G’s message is being heard.

“Being curious – The most important fodder for our evolving youth. There couldn’t have been a better insight to roll out this campaign. The Social Media executions were solely based on a simple message that we want the kids to do what they are good at, “Being Kids”. Our team at Digital L&K was committed to make this campaign a success and it was their experience and perseverance which made it possible. Now that we have managed to spark the debate worldwide, all our future executions will be focused towards making www.thefuturegenius.com a renowned community for parents and kids” – Aarti Samant, Group Head – Social Media Marketing Digital Law & Kenneth.