Campaign Logic: Driving with a new generation

The latest brand campaign for Maruti Suzuki Celerio seeks out the generation of tech-savvy Indians. The three TVCs that are part of the campaign focus on new family values

Brand: Celerio
Budget: Rs 18 crore
Agency: Dentsu Creative Impact

Maruti Suzuki has launched a new brand campaign, 'Aaj ke zamaney ki leap', to celebrate the success of the Celerio, the first auto gear shift car launched in 2014 in India. The campaign features three television commercials (TVCs). The first TVC shows a woman teaching her husband to drive an automatic car. The second TVC shows a father supporting and cheering his daughter as she defeats her brother in a game of cricket. The third TVC is about an elderly couple partying till late and being received by their young daughter-in-law and son in the car who drive them home.

In 2014, Celerio was launched with the promise of being "a progressive car for a progressive audience". Honouring this brand promise, Celerio supported the positioning with the communication message, 'Like takes a leap'. Taking that thought forward, the new campaign identifies the car as 'Aaj ke zamaane ki leap', clearly targeting a young age cohort. "When it was launched the Celerio boasted of a lot of firsts-such as, the auto gear shift transmission (AGS). The communication back then was focused mainly on creating brand awareness. So the first set of TVCs were product-driven and the AGS technology, space, style were the key highlights. Now that the Celerio brand is established and growing, it was natural to move towards a customer oriented campaign," says Vinay Pant, general manager, marketing, Maruti Suzuki.

Celerio finds a place among Maruti Suzuki's top selling car models and features among the top 10 bestsellers in the category in India. The company claims that on an average, the Celerio clocks sales of about 7,000 units per month. The car crossed the 1,00,000 sales mark in July 2015. So far, Maruti Suzuki has sold 1,30,000 Celerios in India.

Before the launch of the campaign, Maruti Suzuki and its creative agency, Dentsu Creative Impact, studied the Celerio customer profile and their lifestyle. The study indicated that the Celerio customer was progressive, she was open to new technology, believed in experimenting, loved gizmos and led a modern lifestyle. All this is reflected in the new set of commercials. One of them, for instance, shows a wife tutoring her husband on the intricacies of auto gear shift, reflecting the fact that more and more women are taking up driving and, in fact, are taking the lead in different facets of life.

And that thought stemmed from the brief given to the agency. Amit Wadhwa, branch head and senior vice-president, Dentsu Creative Impact, says, "The brief was to come up with three different TVCs that use everyday scenarios to establish the progressive mindset of the Celerio owner. The campaign does just that while creating a differentiated space for itself and strengthening the brand positioning of 'Life takes a leap'." To be fair, the campaign does not restrict itself to the most obvious issue of women's empowerment-it talks about new age relationships in general and new family values in particular.

Industry estimates put the budget for the campaign at Rs 18 crore. The creative agency has chosen a 360-degree route to drive home its message, with an increased focus on the digital medium. "We introduced a game on the brand page online, which has so far been played by 1,20,000 players. Even the launch of the diesel version of the Celerio was streamed live on the website, attracting 6,00,000 views. Celerio enjoys 54,000 followers on Twitter, which is the highest among all car brands in the Maruti Suzuki stable. It also boats of 1,12,000 fans on Facebook," claims Wadhwa.