Inside: Tata CLiQ 's summer campaign as the brand invests in star power

Conceptualized by Mullen Lintas, Tata CLiQ’s new campaign with a series of 4-brand films showcases a witty banter between Karan Johar -Twinkle Khanna, urging consumers to ‘Cliq’ this summer. We speak with the brand and agency duo.

In a crowded market, it becomes inevitable for brands to break the clutter, this is where advertising comes in. With humor and wit as the popular themes of the season, Tata CLiQ released a series of 4 brand films, featuring Mrs.Funnybones, Twinkle Khanna, and the candid, Karan Johar in a fun-filled battle of words for the summer campaign #CliqThisSummer.

We speak with the brand-agency duo to deep-dive into the making of the Tata CLiQ campaign and its business impact.

Objective & Insight

While the CLiQ campaign started with the brand wanting to leverage the summer season, the key thing they realized was that everything else about summer is actually good except the bad rap due to the soaring temperatures in the Indian terrain.

Another insight shared by the brand was the fact that no two good summer experiences are felt in the same way - each person has their own story to tell. “Keeping these two fundamental building blocks in our crosshairs, we set off on a journey to make Tata CLiQ THE brand which helps consumers to enjoy the summer of their choosing in their own unique way”, shared the brand spokesperson.

The campaign aims to introduce Tata CLiQ through large-scale platforms ranging from TV, digital to display ads and social media creatives during the India vs England cricket series.

By leveraging the topicality of summer, the strategy is to build an umbrella idea by delivering relatable and relevant narratives while driving awareness for TATA CLiQ.

The BIG Brief

The task, at hand, for the team, was essentially to say ‘Hello’ to a wider audience through the medium of Television, while breaking the clutter to champion across two key categories - Fashion/Lifestyle and Appliances - ACs & Refrigerators, capped with the topicality of summer. They also wanted to highlight the platform’s wide anniversary sale over a 3-month window.

Leveraging Star-Power: Karan Johar x Twinkle Khanna

With Twinkle Khanna known for her tongue-in-cheek wit along with the candid and fun, Karan Johar, the brand attempted to make a statement. The duo also happens to be real-life friends, creating a relatable narrative on screen.

Kishore Mardikar, Chief Marketing Officer, Tata CLiQ, said, “Using a never-before-seen pair of Karan & Twinkle provided a clear differentiation for the brand. The witty banter between the duo will surely keep the audience engaged and entertained.”

Further, the reasons to leverage the celebrity friendship for the new campaign were

• Both the personalities had resonance with Tata CLiQ as the brand
• The brand wanted to bring to light the inter-personal chemistry of the BFFs

The brand also highlighted that both the individuals permeated aspirational values core to Tata CLiQ’s TG while emulating strong lifestyle cues.

Garima Khandelwal and Azazul Haque, Chief Creative Officers, Mullen Lintas, also, shared, “In the CLiQ summer campaign, we see a celebrity pair that stands out from the usual couple chemistry we see in advertising. Having BFF's roasting each other, the brand gets scale and flavour to stand out from the competition.”

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Conceptualization & Execution

The Tata CLiQ campaign was released during a crucial Cricket match that required to grab the attention of the audience to remain engaged. To have an edge over the clutter, the teams had to ensure that the message landed in 15 seconds, keeping in mind to bring out the comedy/savageness in their banter.

“A lot of research was done in order to get the chemistry right and make the jokes personal. The team went through almost all the interviews, the reality shows of both the celebs that they could get their hands on”, shared the agency.

Khandelwal and Haque put forth that keeping 15-seconds as a format was pertinent to keep it as snackable content, showcasing a banter between the endorsers. They added, “We borrowed from their real-life chemistry and made the category the third character in their conversation.” The intent was to ‘CLiQ’ with the TG while standing out with the tonality of the story, shared the agency.

After building out the script, the agency also worked with Director, Gauri Shinde, who had worked with both, Karan and Twinkle. The inputs from the Director led to some great, relatable dialogues, as per the agency spokesperson. To the makers, the whole act became quintessential to life-like conversations and not merely acting by the artists.

The communication had a distinct look and language with a sitcom vibe to it, shared the team, behind the making of the brand films.

Key Target Audience & Major Channels

The key target audience for the brand-agency is the top 10 million households - primarily residing in the eight major metros.

Keeping Television as the prime channel for communication for mass-reach, the brand leverages digital- display ads to social media marketing to amplify the campaign and garner the maximum possible attention during India vs England Cricket series.

Mullen Lintas further reiterated that the integrated strategy will be supported by all digital and social touchpoints.

As the way forward, the brand plans to aggressively work on the building parameters of brand equity all year round with more trans-media storytelling coming from the brand.