Parle-G’s push for empathy among kids is genius marketing

For long Parle-G has been associate with providing kids and adults with a healthier choice when struck with hunger. For some time now, Parle-G has been communicating about the ‘Genius’ factor and encouraging kids to be the best that they can be. Now, Parle-G has tweaked it communication to encourage kids to be kind and empathetic towards others.

The three-film campaign, created by Thought Blurb Communications, tells simple stories that show the protagonist child as empathetic, clever and decisive. In these films, a child’s active mind sees a loved one’s disappointment, takes note of it, thinks on his/her feet and devises a solution that brings a smile to their face. The childlike innocence of the solution is part of the charm that compels the audience to take the message to heart. All the qualities come together to create the Parle-G ‘Genius’.

In conversation with Adgully, Mayank Shah, Senior Category Head, Parle Products, elaborates on the creative thought and vision behind the latest campaign, why kindness and empathy from the strong message in the brand communication, the marketing and media strategy, and more.

What is the objective of this campaign?

Primarily, this is the continuation and second leg of the Parle-G campaign which we initiated around a year ago. We have evolved our brand from, say, being a genius to providing a new perspective to genius. Children have become very self-centered these days. This is because during the pandemic most kids stayed at home, there was little social interaction. Life for them was more about themselves. And with the present family situations, where we have largely families with either one or two children, children are observed to have less consideration for others. It tends to become more about I, me, myself.

Therefore, we decided to talk to kids about values like being nice to others and having empathy for others. We believe that the most important value, which is probably compassion or kindness to others, is something that is urgently needed, because post pandemic, when they go out, if they do not have those kinds of life lessons, it will be very difficult for them to survive.

We as humans are created to be very social. We are social creatures, and without those skills, it would be a very tough environment for children to live in. While the first campaign was more focused on the virtue of kindness, the second leg of the campaign emphasises on the quality of selflessness and sacrifice for the sake of others. It strives to make children understand that there is bliss in keeping others’ needs above your own. When you sacrifice a bit of your own happiness for someone else, the kind of joy that you get is something that you will not get otherwise. As a result, we decided that we need to develop a campaign that can depict the importance of instilling these principles in them.

The three-film campaign delivers straightforward narratives that portray the child lead as sympathetic, astute, and determined. The combination of all these traits results in the Parle-G ‘Genius’. The commercial simply states, “Genius wohi, jo auron ke khushi mein paye apni khushi”, without a forced tagline to impose the messaging.

How do you arrive at the insight and what was the brief to the creative agency gaining

The insight, as I shared, was that we saw that post pandemic, there was a lack of social interactions, social skills, empathy, compassion, kindness, which they would have otherwise, if they would have been going out meeting their friends or probably in a joint family setup. They would have acquired those skills, but given that, that was absent, kids were becoming very self-centered. Whenever you talk to them, they talk about their happiness, and there was probably little consideration for others, be it their friends, be their siblings or anybody else. So, that observation moved us to create a film that will encourage them to pick up the value of being kind, compassionate and having empathy for others. Making them understand and imbibe these values, that was the insight that we used as a brand. I think we are best suited to talk to them and make them realise that these values are very important in their life. These are the kind of values which will help them throughout their life, and they need to migrate right from an early age.

What is the media mix strategy for this campaign?

We are looking at a 360-degree strategy, where we are looking at the primary mediums – TV and digital – and the same will be followed up with outdoors in that order.

In what terms do you think your approach differs from your competitors, when it comes to marketing strategies?

I think when we talk about most of the brands, they normally talk to kids at the level of achieving something; all those things are good, but I think current times require moving beyond that. I think if we want this world to be a better place to live in for Gen Z or the coming generation, we would have to inculcate values beyond just winning or achieving things. In fact, the pandemic has been a major disrupter, which has taught us how important these values are. When we saw people suffering, we eventually understood that it is through mutual help that we can survive. It’s the people around you that will come for help, you cannot really expect help coming in from either the government or people sitting far off.

If we want this world to be a better place to live, ideally, it is our duty to inculcate these values in the younger generation. I think the biggest difference that we see in this campaign compared to other campaigns is that this goes beyond achieving something for yourself, it is more about giving up something to make others happy, and be happy in their happiness. So, that’s why it says, in the joy of others life, lies our own. It is a higher state of mind that we are talking about, it’s a value that takes you beyond your materialistic dreams. It is all about being happy by seeing others happy.

What has been your engagement strategy with your audience? How is this great initiative leveraged on the media?

We are using various mediums, right from TV to digital. Now, typically, when you talk about TG, we have two TGs – one is primary TG, which is kids, and the secondary TG, which is gatekeepers or mothers. Normally, we talk to them in terms of advertising through programs, or on channels, which primarily target them. A lot of traction also comes in through advertising on kids’ platforms, digitally. Once we released this campaign, digitally, the kind of sharing of the campaign and its creatives that we have seen has been really phenomenal. Somewhere, I think these are values that every parent would like to imbibe in their kid. And hence, what we have seen is that the message resounds with a lot of people, hence resulting in an organic number of shares. Sometimes they also go viral.

We have seen a huge amount of interactions initiated with these commercials online, coming across some very interesting comments – some even touting it as one of the best things to be communicated to children, thereby increasing their empathy level for others.

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