Magnum Ice Cream Promotes Pleasure
The premium ice cream brand has launched teaser videos, marking a shift from ‘royalty’ to ‘pleasure’.
How can a simple and mundane task, like taking a selfie, be
challenging for anyone? And yet, Kareena Kapoor in the latest Magnum
digital campaign is so lost in the taste of the ice-cream she is eating
that all her selfies turn out to be quite unpleasant. The latest
campaign – #LostInPleasure – from the premium ice-cream brand reflects
on the taste that makes one forget everything else around.
“Magnum is a brand with ‘personal pleasure’ at its core, and encourages
its target audience to actively seek pleasure in their lives,” explains a
spokesperson for Magnum. Two of the Lost in Pleasure teasers are out at
the moment. The first shows Kapoor in her van having a Magnum and
trying to get a perfect selfie. The second video picks up from where the
first leaves – when Kapoor enters the shoot. However, a spot boy hands
her another Magnum and once again she forgets all about work and tries
to get herself and the ice-cream stick in the same frame for her selfie.
A third teaser is on its way. It will be followed by the main ad film
but only on the digital platform.
“This may be a digital campaign but the scale was no less than that
of a full-blown TVC. It took us four days to build a 6,000 sq ft set
and, to give it a full-blown Broadway look, we used over 750 bulbs. We
shot over two days with a day for lighting. As if shooting three teasers
and one main film wasn’t challenging enough, we only had 12 hours to
get everything done with Kareena,” explains Roopak Saluja – founder
& CEO, The 120 Media Collective, the content creation company behind
the videos.
However, what makes it stand out is that since its launch in India,
and even internationally, Magnum has been known for its ‘royalty’
proposition. During the launch, the in-cinema advertising showed a lady biting into a Magnum stick. As soon as she does this, her
environment changes, to be filled with people dressed as royalty. The
lady herself gets the royal treatment as she continues to relish her
Magnum.
The same royal treatment was given to unsuspecting shoppers in India.
In malls, whenever someone picked up a Magnum bar, a butler would
arrive to push his cart, the cashier would be dressed in British regal
outfit and the customer herself would be escorted out of the mall with a
marching band. Another Magnum ‘prank’ showed a shopper’s hatchback
being replaced by a luxury car – just to bring in the flavour of
royalty.
“Magnum’s ‘Pleasure’ peg is an overall idea. It is under this
umbrella thought that we had brought out ‘Enjoy the royal treatment’ and
now in phase two ‘Lost in pleasure’. We wanted to create intrigue
through the teasers and will build it up with time,” adds Russell
Barrett, managing partner & chief creative officer, BBH India.
Irresistible? Or Irritating?
R
Sridhar, innovation coach and partner, IDEAS-RS, feels that the
communication lacks a universal appeal. “The activation ideas were
interesting because the customers all took it in a nice way; no one was
irritated that their shopping was halted. However, the digital videos
featuring Kareena feel like a highly exaggerated way of enjoying the
brand. It is self-indulgent to a level.”
Magnum subtly introduced the conversation on ‘pleasure’ a few months
back through BTL activities. It asked women what the most pleasurable
thing for them is. The replies ranged from spa dates to shopping without
worrying. The brand then asked the same respondents to take a bite of
Magnum and resist it for 10 minutes. If they succeeded, the brand would
sponsor a shopping trip or a day at the spa for them.
Prathap Suthan from Bang in the Middle felt that while the idea of
being lost in pleasure was okay, the incorporation of the selfie was a
forced thing. “Magnum has done some fantastic work across the globe. The
Magnum pleasure hunt or the TVC designed by Bruno Aveillan had set a
benchmark. From whatever I saw in the teasers, it is below par. The
quality of communication, along with the use of a celebrity like Kareena
has made it more mass than premium.”
The person handling Magnum at Hindustan Unilever is Abhijit Kulkarni,
who also looks after Kwality Walls, Paddle Pop and Cornetto. But Magnum
will have to carve its own niche. The brand is priced at a premium –
with a stick available for Rs 85. However, while brands like Häagen Dazs
and Movenpick offer customers an experience with their boutique or
café-like seating arrangements, London Dairy and Magnum can be brought
over the counter in grocery stores, malls and supermarkets. Will it be
enough to talk to digital consumers then, about the pleasure and taste
while ignoring the walk-in customers that other brands enjoy? It looks
like the work is cut out for the brand, even before it has found a sure
footing in the country.
