The Campaign

Going digital as the preferred platform for communication was a no-brainer, but using ‘Technology to play Cupid’ required some serious strategizing. Wearable technology in India is in its nascent stage but is hugely popular with the youth. We decided to use this to our advantage by means of a wearable gadget which had to be strapped onto a person’s hand like a watch. Via a customised mobile application the gadget was synced to another watch. The app used light-based, optical heartrate sensor technology to track a person’s heartbeat. Couples had to wear these and sync their heartbeats which would be displayed on a big screen. Synced heartbeats indicated that they were a perfect match for each other, thus helping them to SHOW THEIR LOVE. If their heartbeats didn’t match, they were given two minutes to do fun activities together as a couple like dance, run, or jump to win Cornetto-Gifts,

Creative Execution

Love Booths in top 20 Pandals over 7 days gave the youth a chance to shed their inhibitions and ‘SHOW THEIR LOVE’. Advertisements & bespoke content in leading dailies & radio stations was created to drive awareness. Promoted post on Facebook, Twitter and Geo targeted ads in the vicinity of pandals added to the footfalls at the love booths. Youngsters on love booths were also asked to log in through their Facebook account to share their game results. Those who missed the opportunity could and play the game virtually on Facebook. The moment their heartbeats matched a notification was sent on their facebook page thus reaching close to 3 million audience on Facebook in 7 days. This database of custom audiences was used for retargeting adding to footfalls at the love booths Over 7 days the campaign reached out to 16 lac youngsters ensuring 22,000 heartbeats were matched on-ground.

The campaign was amplified voluntarily by youth on social media platforms creating a lot of buzz for the brand. This helped Cornetto strengthen its image as new symbol of love bringing alive its brand-proposition and driving engagement with youngsters. Campaign-Evaluation: • Increase in brand scores on attributes – “Cornetto helps you express love” by 210 basis points “Cornetto is about Love & Friendship” by 255 basis points • Sales grew by of 10.2% in 2016 versus 2015, thus achieving our target. • Increase in spontaneous-awareness by 310 basis-points vs. target of 200 basis-points

Finding an opportune moment to activate the brand was also critical and hence the choice of Durga Puja festival. During Durga puja, all brand’s sales tend to spike, as people shop and spend time with friends and family. The youth look forward to this festival as it is an occasion to dress up and visit Pandals (a temporary stall, where a statue of the Goddess is installed for seeking blessings). There is also the prospect of socializing with the opposite sex freely in an otherwise conservative society. The pandals therefore where strategic locations to reach out to youngsters on the go in large numbers and the right frame of mind. We activated the brand at pandals by creating LOVE BOOTHS at which youngsters were invited to wear the watch and sync their heartbeat with a special someone to ‘SHOW THEIR LOVE’.