BackMentos rolls out new brand campaign
The mint brand of the 'Dimaag ki batti jala de' fame rolls out its new commercial for the brand known for its trademark think-on-your-feet ads
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New Delhi: Confectionary and chewing gum maker Perfetti Ven Melle India Pvt. Ltd that produces Mentos—the mint brand of the Dimaag ki batti jala de fame—has rolled out its new television commercial for the brand known for its trademark think-on-your-feet advertisements.
The company has an annual advertising budget of ₹ 15 crore for Mentos.
In the new 30-second ad, a young boy outwits his mother after chewing on Mentos by coming up with a solution to the eternal TV versus study problem faced by teenagers. A teenager’s mother denies him permission to watch television while studying. He chews on Mentos and comes up with the bright idea to turn his request on its head: he now seeks permission to study while he watches television, and the doting mother obliges.
“Dimaag ki batti jala de has become a part of the physicality of the brand and it instantly plays back the minute Mentos is mentioned. Our ads are based on real life situations, they showcase that one moment which we wish to transform to our advantage," said Preeti Bhatnagar, category head, Perfetti Van Melle, the maker of brands such as Alpenliebe, Centrefresh and Happydent.
Explaining the aam zindagi versus Mentos zindagi concept, she said, “The idea is to create two parallel worlds and show how Mentos helps people navigate through the same situation, but, smartly."
The commercial, part of the brand’s second ad campaign for the year, is being aired on Hindi and regional general entertainment channels (GEC). The six-week campaign, originally in Hindi, has been dubbed in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada to widen the brand’s appeal and is being supported by a similar digital campaign.
The company has not targeted English GECs, as “more or less the same audience is present online and, therefore, we target them through our digital campaign", said Bhatnagar. The brand has been sponsoring National Geographic Channel’s show Science of Stupid, for almost two years now.
Perfetti Van Melle India, a subsidiary of the Italian manufacturer and marketer of gums and candies, works with advertising agency Ogilvy and Mather for the Mentos ads. The agency has so far produced nearly 10 commercials for the brand.
Anurag Agnihotri, executive creative director, Ogilvy and Mather, who has been working with the brand since 2005, said, “As far as Mentos is concerned, our creative team always works on ads based on the theme of smart ideas, something the youth will relate to. Unless there is a variant which needs to be advertised, all the ads are conceptualized around Dimaag ki batti jala de."
This break from the usual theme was seen when the brand changed its packaging and increased the price of Mentos from 50 paise to ₹ 1 for one mint in December last year. The advertisement which was rolled out in December 2014 and aired again in June 2015 for four weeks focused on the “bigger, softer and better" Mentos, diverting from the usual dimaag ki batti jala de theme.
Commenting on the audience response to the campaign, Bhatnagar said, “Youth between the age of 15 and 24 years is our core target audience and we have a 1.4 million-strong online community. Our first campaign for the year, in which we introduced the price change, was aimed at retaining loyalists. Despite that we achieved sales significantly ahead of our targets. We hope our second campaign will yield similar results."
Currently, the brand is available in six variants.
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