digen campaign
Part one of a two-part story on teasers on television is all it took to get Everest Integrated Communications, the creator of Digen Verma, to quickly pen an explanation about the Digen campaign. ... The issue, here, pertains to whether or not the Digen Verma campaign for Frooti was a meticulously thought through teaser idea. “A lot has been talked and written about the now famous Digen Verma campaign,” says the mail. “Most people, including industry folk, think that the Digen Verma campaign was a just a well-executed ‘teaser’ idea. ... ” To elucidate the relevance of Digen, the agency furnishes the market reality that forms the backdrop of the campaign. ... ” Everest believes that “the first phase” of the Digen campaign has achieved that end. “The campaign successfully created a celebrity named Digen Verma, and built strong associations of him with the brand. More importantly, unlike, say, a Hrithik (Roshan) or a Sachin (Tendulkar), Digen is an exclusive property of the brand and will continue to remain so. ... Specific to the success of the campaign, Everest contends that only time will tell whether the strategy worked or not. ... “Perceptions take time to change, and the second phase of the Digen Verma-Frooti campaign will now leverage the celebrity status of Digen Verma to build strong relevance with the brand and the consumer needs.” By the looks of it, the agency does not view Digen as a teaser campaign – at least not in the conventional sense of the phrase. “It is amusing to see that some are calling part of this strategy a ‘teaser’ campaign – possibly for want of a descriptor that can best fit this strategy. However, both client and agency are clear that this is just the first phase of a larger exercise, and unlike all other teaser campaigns, Digen Verma continues to be the brand ambassador for Frooti. ... By definition, a teaser campaign is one where the consumer is not supposed to know anything about the brand being advertised till that opportune moment when the advertiser chooses to disclose details about the brand. Now if the Digen Verma campaign was not a teaser campaign (even initially), why was agencyfaqs! requested not to reveal what Digen Verma was all about when we came to know about Frooti? Digen Verma? ... ” “Digen is so cool. ... ” In much the same way that the models in assorted Frooti ads either dismiss or praise Digen, post-Frooti, the reaction to teaser advertising on television has elicited an array of opinions from the advertising fraternity. ... For the record, Digen is definitely not the first teaser on the tube. ... 2000 had quite a few teasers, the more prominent of them being Pepsodent’s ‘Ha-ha, he-he, hu-hu’, Maruti Alto’s ‘Hottest…’ campaign and the one for the STAR-ANZ co-branded card. ... In March, Digen Verma happened. ... Ashutosh Khanna, senior vice-president, Grey Worldwide, is convinced that Digen has set this thing off. ... ” Trend or no trend, formula or no formula, there is no doing away with creativity in the execution of a teaser campaign. “If a teaser campaign is cleverly done, it’s good for the brand,” says Bedi. “But you must ask yourself, is the teaser campaign taking the consumer closer to the brand? ... ” He cites the example of the Alto campaign conceived by Lintas. ... ” And no, he doesn’t think too highly of the Digen campaign. “There’s nothing that builds the Frooti brand in Digen. Digen drinks Frooti, fine. ... ” That’s quite harsh on Frooti, considering there’s so much money riding on the campaign. ... “Broadly speaking, teasers, as a genre, waste a lot of money but don’t achieve much,” agrees Virat Mehta, vice-president, client services, O&M, which devised the Electra campaign. ... ” He, however, strongly defends the Electra campaign – and its success. ... ” Mehta too isn’t kicked about Digen. “Initially, Digen was intriguing. But once I discovered what Digen was, I found the relevance lacking. ... ) “Digen’s role in this campaign is not clear. ... ” As far as Grey’s Khanna is concerned, Digen is a very unusual way of gaining attention. ... Khanna also feels that Digen has cracked the old paradigm of ‘why waste money on teasers’. With Digen Verma drawing such contrasting opinions, it is essential to understand the reasoning at Everest – for the record, if for nothing else.