Bollywood actor Kareena Kapoor will be seen quenching her thirst in a new commercial for Limca, which will hit television screens tomorrow.
Beverage giant Coca-Cola, which owns Limca, recently signed the actor in an endorsement deal valued at Rs 2.5 crore a year. The contract with her extends for two years. Leo Burnett is the creative agency on the brand.
Wasim Basir, Coca-Cola’s director, integrated marketing communications, says the new commercial will have a refreshing take on the thirst-quencher premise on which Limca has stood.
While Limca has a market share of about eight-nine per cent, shifting positions between fourth and seventh in the pecking order of the top ten carbonated beverages in the country, Coca-Cola has been looking to infuse new life into the brand.
This, say experts, has partly to do with rival PepsiCo’s work for 7Up, which is the lemon-flavoured drink in its portfolio.
In February this year, PepsiCo launched its new ‘Dil Bole I feel Up’ campaign with actor Sharman Joshi for 7Up, which, in a span of two months, has become extremely popular with the youth. PepsiCo took the animated route here showing Joshi dancing with a penguin. The campaign was done by BBDO and shot in Australia with computer generated imagery or CGI. BBDO also managed to get international choreographer Simon Lind to choreograph the entire film.
Coca-Cola, say market experts, is looking to take the sheen off that campaign with the new Kapoor-endorsed Limca commercial.
The new ad is expected to run through the summer after which Coca-Cola may come out with fresh creatives featuring the actor.
After mango drinks, lemon-flavoured drinks rank second in terms of popularity amongst Indian consumers of packaged beverages. Both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have attempted to increase the lime and lemony connection with their mainline brands in the last few years given this preference amongst consumers. Both beverage giants have in the last few years played up the refreshing aspect of lemon with imagery featuring slices and splashes.
In the juice drinks category too, both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have invested heavily behind brands such as Nimbooz and Minute Maid Nimbu Fresh respectively to give consumers a taste of real lemon juice, a beverage which is prepared and consumed both in-home and out-of-home.
According to market estimates, India consumes about 115 to 120 billion litres of beverages per year. Of this only four to five per cent constitutes ready-to-drink, packaged beverage consumption. The balance is unpackaged consumption, of which 50 per cent is that of lemon juice, popularly called nimbu paani.
