“It is important to feel the film, and see if it touches your audience” – Falgun Bhatt

Audiences don’t want to watch your ad. They want to watch a story, a touching moment, a gag, anything which will engage and entertain them”

– Falgun Bhatt, Head Marketing, Shree Renuka Sugars

Madhur Sugar launched a campaign on Karwa Chauth and roped in celebrities – Karanvir Bohar and Teejay Sidhu. 

In spite of being a big festival, not many brands have used Karwa Chauth for marketing purposes. So, this is definitely an interesting move from the Madhur Sugar marketing team.

We talked to Falgun – the brain behind the campaign and learned the story of how they conceptualised and executed the ad film.

Read on..

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1. What is Madhur Sugar’s internal process of coming up with a campaign?

 Madhur Sugar’s internal process for coming up with a campaign started a year back when we met up with a lot of consumers through a structured process called consumer immersion. 

We spent hours talking to each of our TG members – consumers and non-consumers of Madhur Sugar. 

There were data points we needed responses on, but it was also a very freewheeling chat, which allowed us to understand the relationship with and expectations from Madhur Sugar. 

We dug into her apprehensions, fears, ambitions, joys, responsibilities, and defined the role we wanted to play in her life – to help her and her family enjoy guilt free indulgence. 

All sugar applications, barring beverages are indulgences – be it for western desserts or Indian sweets. Given the role we wanted to play in her life, we thought of how best to celebrate the guilt free indulgence, and out came the campaign!

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2. Please share the story behind the campaign – Karwa Chauth with Karanvir Bohra and Teejay Sidhu.

The thought process here was very simple – Karva Chauth with Karanvir Bohra & Teejay Sidhu film is a part of the much larger ‘Indulgence’ campaign. 

Every film, including this one, was about how our face lights up on seeing our favourite sweet/dessert and how when we relish the first bite of it, it is like tasting heaven itself. Specifically, this film marked the occasion of Karva Chauth. 

We at Madhur love Karva Chauth, just as we love all festivals and traditions, not the least because each tradition and custom has food very inseparably linked to it. 

Here too, after fasting all day long for your partner’s health, breaking your fast is as much sensory as it is emotional. 

The film celebrates the love, which is often the foundation to the celebration of these festivals – where this year Karanvir has instead fasted for Teejay, and is unfortunately stuck at work due to which he is unable to break the fast on time. 

Teejay uses some ‘magic’ to feed him his first bite of his favourite sweet and helps him break the fast. 

I loved the film a lot, as it had copious amounts of emotion, fun, light playful teasing, but most of all, there was the sweet!

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3. How marketers should approach celebrity hiring/ endorsement?  

I prefer approaching celebs hiring/endorsing with a bit of heart and a bit of mind. Mind tells you what celeb is the perfect fit – someone who influences a large portion of your TG without wasting him/herself on the wrong audiences. 

For e.g. Madhur Sugar has benefited immensely by having Anita Hassanandani, Surbhi Jyoti, Karanvir Bohra, Karishma Tanna, etc. talking about its benefits. 

Being TV stars, they are not only immensely popular and loved, but the male audiences aren’t as high as, for e.g. in case of cricketers and film stars. 

Nothing against male audiences, it’s just that Madhur Sugar’s TG is Women aged 25-45 yrs old! However, this is as far as the mind will take you. 

More important is the heart’s role which starts from here. It is important to feel the film, and see if it touches you, in the way it is designed to. Whether the brand has a role to play, whether it is as indispensable in the film as the celeb him/herself. 

Whether the attributes and benefits are coming out strongly. But most importantly, is the integration and story looking seamless or forced. If forced, then go back to the drawing board. 

Audiences don’t want to watch your ad. They want to watch a story, a touching moment, a gag, anything which will engage and entertain. 

If in the process, the brand gets highlighted, great. But they dont sign up to watch the ad. Ever.

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4. What mistakes Marketers should avoid when it comes to planning festival marketing campaigns?

Celebrate. Don’t preach.

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About Falgun (in his own words)

My childhood has been the most joyful. I was born and raised in Gujarat, where the people and even savouries are sweet. 

I was always passionate about food, just like everyone else in my family. It is perhaps karma then, that I forever ended up serving and nurturing food brands all my life! 

On a lighter note, however, I observed very early in life that food was the one joy that remained consistent from the youngest to the oldest of ages. 

There are various other passions that one cultivates at different ages, but relatively speaking, they are transient. It is playing sports at some age, romance at another age, and passion for work and material riches at the older age. 

However, something everyone equally remains passionate about is food. Further, it is the sweet taste, amongst all other taste, that remains a continual love interest. 

It is perhaps the first taste you relish as a baby and the craving for something sweet at the end of the meal is something you retain through your life! 

Of course being a Gujarati, I love the sweet taste so much I don’t even wait till the end of my meal – I need it in my veggies and dals!

Another strong influence growing up has been watching my father who served Amul almost all his life and retired as the head of QA and R&D. 

Contrary to popular beliefs, we never got free samples which was an immense learning for me in personal integrity. 

However what shaped my attitude towards an honest disposition was that he spent a lot of his income buying Amul products, and occasionally even gifting them to friends and relatives. 

Such was his immense belief in the quality and excellence of his company’s products. It has always been my endeavour to not only serve with such belief, but also use all influence at my command to ensure only the very best of products hit the market shelves. 

Luckily, all the brands that I have served until now have been ethical on this aspect, but it’s a lesson for life.

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