Cycle Incense Sticks

Established in the year 1945, Cycle Agarbatti was a well-respected and much preferred brand when it came to their target audience, being deemed a ‘trustworthy’ and ‘traditional’ brand. However, over the years, things had changed – access to technology increased, competition increased, nuclear families increased and so did the presence of internet in one’s life. Given this context, and given that Cycle wanted to connect with the youth, being ‘traditional’ wasn’t all that desirable any more.

So the challenge was to make the category and the relevant for that part of society that had not given them a thought yet. Out of all the things that divide this country, class, caste, creed etc. , there was only one unifying factor – Cricket. In our country, it is equivalent to a religion, where Sachin is revered as the God. The entire nation had hoped that the personal success of Sachin Tendulkar and the collective success of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 would coincide in one grand affair.

We won the cup, but a huge chunk of the cricket crazy nation was not appeased as their God stood at a precarious juncture in his 22 years of cricketing action. It was just a matter of time. All communication in this category has been established within the realms/ confines of prayer, both as a concept and a creative hook. Building brand salience for Cycle brand was the key and had to explore, create and exploit opportunities where one would have to leave reason to rest and just had to keep the faith.

The answer to all prayers and a long and tiring wait came in the form of Sachin Tendulkar’s 100th international century on Mirpur on 16th March 2012. The maestro became the first cricketer to notch up 100 international centuries when he scored 114 against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup ODI tournament. And when he did, all he did was to look up and thank his God. This became the intervention point for Cycle with the message “Everyone has a reason to Pray”. It took Sachin over a year to score his 100th 100.

And when it did, he thanked god.  What makes the innovation differentiated and unique? Twists and turns in cricket cannot be predicted. We managed to creatively and contextually place a brand message without being a part of the desi commercial blitzkrieg with vada pavwallahs, gola vendors and cola giants and spending crores celebrating the same. The scale of execution Every leading newspaper was going to cover Sachin’s 100th 100. There were going to be half page, full page and page on page coverage of the same.

And our message was present on each such page. There were several pictures of Sachin in the coverage. But our brief was very clear: we would only have our message published in newspapers which had THAT picture of Sachin looking up, to thank god at the momentous occasion of his 100th 100. There were 6 publications who agreed to do so. Deccan Herald, Prajavani, Hindustan Times, Vijay Karnataka, Hindu and DNA with all their editions were chosen to populate this simple yet contextually relevant message.

The brand message only occupied around 635 sq cm beneath Sachin’s picture which was set in over 5000 sq cms of editorial coverage across publications in ONE day. There are several ways in which a brand can populate their message: Spending money’s to create opportunities Vs. Latching on to events or occurrences fitting the brand ideology. Scenario 1: If we were to rope in Sachin as a brand ambassador, create a campaign for his 100th 100 and then celebrating it in media – it would mean an easy twenty crore + spends for us.

Scenario 2: Instead, we managed our money by celebrating his win in a smart way and plugging the extremely relevant brand message 4 The Campaign won the ‘Big Bang Award 2012’ from AD club Bangalore. Our Media agency DDB Mudra MAX won the gold in the category print innovation.

The parameters for the award selection:

1. The simplicity of the idea- (all great ideas are simple)
2. The brilliant brand fit
3. The execution
4. Cost effectiveness-in a way Sachin became our idea ambassador for ‘Everyone has a reason to pray’ at zero cost.