Inside ENO lockdown campaign: Graphics, remote shoots & social listening

GSK Consumer Healthcare's Naveed Ahmed shares insights into the conceptualising and execution of the lockdown campaign by ENO.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has got people shut in their houses for extended periods of time. Quite a significant number seems to be stepping into the kitchen, learning how to cook for survival and leisure. Picking up on an increase in experimentation with food, untimely eating and reduced physical activity leading to instances of acidity in individuals, ENO came up with a campaign to remind people they are there for them in the lockdown.

The campaign was executed in two phases, each with its unique set of narrative and communication challenges. With the help of Naveed Ahmed, Area Marketing Lead- OTC, GSK Consumer Healthcare, we dissect the two phases of the campaign and more.

As part of the campaign, four films have been released that talk about specific lockdown issues. Could you share the insight and process of narrowing down on these?

Consumer insights have been a key factor in designing a communication framework for our brands. With citizens staying at home due to the lockdown and social distancing, it has resulted in interesting consumer trends emerging. There has been an increase in snacking and experimentation with food, coupled with untimely food timings and reduced physical activity.

We wanted ENO to be seen as a trusted ally to consumers in these times ensuring they can continue with their lives non-stop – be it food experiments, food craving or working from home. We, therefore leveraged these themes to stitch a campaign for ENO with a humorous approach that is in line with the brand personality.

Could you tell us about the strategy behind dividing the campaign into two phases?

There are primarily two reasons behind the division of the campaign into different phases.

Speed of execution:

The first phase of the campaign went live on April 8. For this, we took five days from idea to execution. As you can see, these are animated films and going live was the need of the hour. So, the entire time was utilised to bring speed to launch them digitally.

The films in the second phase went live in the last week of April. Here, the films were shot entirely at home due to the movement restrictions announced by the government. These, however, took longer time to be produced both in terms of ideation as well as implementation. 

Understanding the evolving consumer behaviour during COVID-19:

We stayed close to the consumer via social listening to keep a close watch on the emerging trends. We tried to understand and gauge the trending conversations on social media so that we could design a campaign that would be relevant to the consumer. 

The first part of the campaign was based on insights on work-from-home and the lack of physical exercise which had relevance for acidity occasions. The second phase was based on insights around food experiments and the disrupted food schedules, which were picked up from the rising social conversations around these topics. 

What are the steps ENO has taken from a production and distribution perspective to be available for consumers?

All our business processes have been operating under the government guidelines of social distancing and lockdown to ensure that we continue to be available to consumers. We have made ourselves available across various channels so that our consumers have continued access to the products.

Also Read: FGII’s #CoverTheDistance – Decoding client-agency rapport amid lockdown

The videos seem to have been shot remotely and are heavy on graphics — could you tell us about how the lockdown has impacted the creative thinking and content creation process?

This was the biggest challenge as getting a normal shoot done during lockdown was not possible. We had to figure out ways on how we could deliver the campaign ideas effectively under the given restrictions.

It required a far higher level of coordination than a normal scenario between the creative agency, brand team and production team.

For the first phase, we decided on going with animation and with the voice recording done inhouse by the voiceover artists. The second phase of films has been delivered like Instagram stories which tie up seamlessly to the handheld camera type treatment made for the films. The challenge in delivering the campaign amidst so many restrictions was real, but we are happy with the response we have received from our consumers.  

There seems to be a strong focus on OTT and social media platforms for disseminating the campaign. Is the brand looking at the TV too?

We are constantly evaluating our options to connect with our consumer effectively through different platforms. 

How has the lockdown impacted the marketing strategies of ENO across mediums? What do you anticipate would come next?

The current pandemic has created a shift in marketing strategies that we are currently deploying for ENO. Traditional mediums like newspaper, OOH etc, have been rendered ineffective due to the current crisis.

We have been progressively evaluating how to leverage digital as a medium for it gives us the ease to customize the message according to audiences.

Similarly, we feel digital is going to be one of the key mediums in the upcoming times as well.