The Campaign

Phonetically the language of Urdu is regarded as "sweet" sounding. A mix of Persian, Arabic and Hindi give it a dulcet, melodic and honeyed tone - for centuries, poetry in the Asian subcontinent has been written in Urdu for this very reason. Even the script form of Urdu is Arabic and Persian based, using beautiful, flowy calligraphic styles. Our idea was to revive the beauty of Urdu by making it wanted again through something that’s just as old and sweet as the language but is still considered cool: Jalebi. Jalebi is a popular 10th century South Asian dessert made of dough and sugar, and fried in banaspati vegetable oils. The sugary treat is made by hand-drawing spirals in heated oil. It was the perfect opportunity to merge it with Urdu calligraphy.

Execution

Collaborating with two artists, a calligrapher and a chef, the campaign was launched using the words of a 13th century Urdu poet, Amir Khusro, considered the father of Urdu verse; whose poetry was brought back to life in the form of this dessert. The craft was meticulous. All of Urdu script is not written in joint letters, whereas jalebi can only be formed when it is connected as one unit. We therefore had to create a unique lettering design and practice how to calligraph it in jalebi. We gave it a fitting hashtag: #UrduPoeatry. For PR, we picked high impact venues: The Karachi literary festival held in London and local book stores in Pakistan. Every word of the poem written in jalebi was served with the complete couplet and its english translation. A film was released online on Pakistan’s 70th independence day, along with a billboard of the artwork.

The press caught on and the results were as sweet as jalebi. For the first time, the brand was featured in the local news. 5 million+ reached and over 1 million views in 24 hours. The live activations were immensely popular, with thousands of people turning up to try the jalebi poetry. The project has now developed further to be taught Urdu poetry within secondary schools accompanied with the first proper Urdu alphabet song, the first of its kind for the language. A 13th century poet, a 10th century dessert, 2 artists, a modern calligrapher and a devoted brand all came together to revive the sweetness of a national language.

The Situation

As a food brand, we came up with a campaign idea that not only connected directly with the consumer experientially, but also did it in a highly original manner which was relevant to the brand, helping build it a stellar reputation. Our task to revive a national language, while generating direct trial of our product, resulting in priceless PR through earned media, was achieved with much success.

The Strategy

In a market dominated with what we call "song-and-dance" films, all of which look alike, Kashmir Cooking Oils decided to pursue a completely different strategy: a more mature, heritage-based approach with a nationalistic appeal. It was a bold stance for a Pakistani food company to take. As a brand connect, jalebi was the perfect ingredient since it is traditionally fried in banaspati. The target audience was Pakistanis of all ages who knew that interest was dying in their national language.