The Campaign

Lay’s, India’s snacking category leader, has always been associated with fun because of its delightful flavours. When Lay’s decided to launch Baked as ‘healthier’ chips, we successfully leveraged media hype to seed in the same brand DNA for the low fat range and yet differentiate it from the core! The TG was health conscious young women who go on regular diets/choose organic food to stay slim/look good. We used this insight to focus on looking good as a hook to leverage ‘unrestrained fun’ i.e. eat your favourite chips fearlessly (now with 50% fat) and still stay slim/keep looking good, i.e. Eat the cake, and have it too! Research revealed that fashion show celebrities are role models for all young women, so we decided to marry Lay’s Baked to fashion by launching the brand with a high profile Lays’ Baked fashion show in collaboration with leading designers, Nikhil-Shantanu. The show displayed the Lay’s Baked range and the models (including former Miss India, Sarah-Jane Dias) were draped with Baked colours/textures. And just to make sure that the message got across, the ‘extremely slim’ models had Baked on stage and offered it to guests too! As expected, the show got extensive coverage.

The Brief

Thus we needed to create positive buzz through an unprecedented PR activity which would establish the ‘unrestrained fun’ proposition with TG and cement the bond further with the ‘healthy chip’ silver lining, albeit, in a subtle manner, so as to not hurt rest of the Pepsi foods portfolio.

Results

India’s leading designers, Nikhil-Shantanu designed an entire range of apparel with Lay’s Baked colours, textures and even the packs of Lay’s Baked range. The models showcasing the range included former Miss India, Sarah-Jane Dias. The Lay’s Baked launch and the fashion show was done at a leading 5-star hotel in the national capital of Delhi and was covered extensively by electronic media with whom the Pepsi Foods Marketing Manager and the Category Head of Western Foods (Pepsi Foods) did a detailed press conference. This was the first time that an FMCG brand used a fashion show as PR platform to launch a brand, thus adding to the buzz. The ramp walks by models (with them having and offering Lay’s Baked chips) and the Lay’s Baked apparel was captured and shared on the Lay’s Facebook page, thus adding a viral social media leg to the PR activity.

Execution

India’s leading designers, Nikhil-Shantanu designed an entire range of apparel with Lay’s Baked colours, textures and even the packs of Lay’s Baked range. The models showcasing the range included former Miss India, Sarah-Jane Dias. The Lay’s Baked launch and the fashion show was done at a leading 5-star hotel in the national capital of Delhi and was covered extensively by electronic media with whom the Pepsi Foods Marketing Manager and the Category Head of Western Foods (Pepsi Foods) did a detailed press conference. This was the first time that an FMCG brand used a fashion show as PR platform to launch a brand, thus adding to the buzz. The ramp walks by models (with them having and offering Lay’s Baked chips) and the Lay’s Baked apparel was captured and shared on the Lay’s Facebook page, thus adding a viral social media leg to the PR activity.

The Situation

Lay’s new launch, ‘Baked’, was low fat (50%), and was aimed at extending the “unrestrained fun” proposition to young women (a new cohort for Lay’s) who are ‘calorie conscious’ but couldn’t restrain themselves from the opportunity of having their favourite Lay’s chips.

The Strategy

The TG for the brand was health conscious young women, in the age group of 20-30, who live in metros, and whose core interests are good looks, often enabled by designer labels from leading fashion brands. Also, data from Lay’s research showed that the largest drop in consumers in recent months had come from the same young women who are also health conscious and choose to discontinue consumption of potato chips/snacks which are considered incompatible for the slim figures and good looks. Thus our solution was a marriage of fashion with ‘calorie consciousness’ through a customized Baked fashion range from leading fashion designers (Nikhil-Shantanu) which exemplified ‘unrestrained fun’ through the models who boasted exemplary figures and looks and rubbed it in by having the low fat Baked range on stage and offering it to guests too! The press-conference following the show gave us just the ‘glitzkrieg’ we needed!