The Brief

The challenge was to communicate through product trials to new customers that unlike others, FCS Forest Honey was the purest, freshest honey available in the market. FCS Honey is a prominent player only in north India, whereas our competition has a nationwide presence and advertises actively on national television. To gain greater share in our markets, we had to do more focused communication to reinforce our positioning.

Creative Execution

Instead of getting a celebrity to endorse our product, we thought who better than bees to be our spokespersons. In a crowded marketplace, a man picks up a pack of FCS Honey from a kiosk. The moment he opens the pack and tastes the honey, a swarm of bees starts hovering around him and finally settles on his body. As the crowd gathers around him, covered with bees, the Beeman induces product trials. After the product trials, through response sheets, we expected to put together a database of 15000 new customers, who'll be willing to purchase our product in the near future.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

It is a widespread belief that honey drawn directly from a beehive is the freshest and purest. To check the source of our honey, it would not have been possible for all our consumers to visit our apiaries. So we arranged for our bees to visit the markets instead. We got a walking-talking beehive for a tasting session of FCS honey. Every product trial induced by the Beeman, served as a reminder that FCS honey is the freshest, purest honey available in the market.

Results

Through activation, we gathered a database of about 1,50,000 potential customers, who were willing to purchase our product in the near future. The activation created considerable buzz (quite literally) and was reported in leading magazines, newspapers and on television. We got free media coverage worth Rs 3.8 million. In the areas where the event was conducted, the product trials went up considerably. As compared to last year’s figures these areas clocked a 140% increase in sales. The client is now planning to use this promotion to explore various other markets of India.