Rural radio plays HUL's new tune of invention

HUL's phone-radio for media-dark areas is its second big win at Cannes - a result of brand managers and agencies now focusing on channel innovations

When promoting his recently-released Hindi film Holiday, Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar made it a point to mention that if one wanted to listen to songs from the movie then the place to go was Kan Khajura Tesan or centipede radio station (referring to the earworm phenomenon).

As if Kumar's endorsement of the radio-on-mobile service available in north India was not enough, the service, the largest in Bihar in terms of subscribers, won three gold Lions at the ongoing Cannes International Festival of Creativity. It is a service that Hindustan Unilever (HUL), the country's largest advertiser and FMCG company, came up with last year in a bid to target media-dark areas in the north. This is the second straight year that the advertiser bagged a Cannes Lion for its media work.

Last year, HUL's Lifebuoy imprint on rotis (Indian flatbread), which the company called Roti Reminder, won a Bronze Lion at Cannes. The roti initiative was executed at the Kumbh Mela and continues to be a hot favourite at awards shows even this year. At the Kyoorius D&AD Awards last week, Roti Reminder picked up a Blue Elephant for O&M, which had entered the piece of work under the activation category.

Clearly, HUL is pushing itself and partner agencies (Kan Khajura Tesan was conceptualised and executed in association with creative agency Lowe and media agency PHD) to think out of the box.

This commitment comes at a time when the media landscape is increasingly getting fragmented and cluttered. As the largest advertiser, the pressure on HUL, say experts, is only growing to make consumers sit up and take note, even as avenues of media consumption grow and lines get blurred between traditional and non-traditional media.

"Out-of-the-box ideas that not only drive engagement but also drive utility will help marketers reach consumers better. In a flat world, this is becoming critical," Guy Hearn, chief innovation officer, Omincom Media Group, had said at the recently-concluded Goafest, India's adfest. Hearn also touched upon how innovation is becoming a department in itself at ad agencies.

In Kan Khajura's case, HUL went where brands think twice before venturing. As Priya Nair, vice-president, HUL says, "Areas that were otherwise termed to as 'media dark' are now 'entertainment-enlightened' with Kan Khajura Tesan reaching out to more than 11 million subscribers. In total, we have had 180 million minutes of engagement with our consumers and our ads have been heard 100 million times. We developed the idea (of playing songs, jokes and radio jockeys' chat, interspersed with HUL ads) to address a business problem of reaching consumers in deep rural markets. Creating a mobile-based radio channel has brought entertainment to consumers who have almost no access to traditional entertainment."

Among other innovations, a couple of months back, HUL had struck a six-telefilm deal with MTV to boost not one but five of its brands, with the director roster consisting of Bollywood A-listers.

Persons in the know say that HUL has been actively encouraging its brand managers to come up with innovative solutions to brand problems and communication needs in a bid to foster a culture of creativity within the organisation.

Creative ideas are being rewarded and immediately taken forward once their feasibility is determined. HUL hinted about this in its 2013-14 annual report, released earlier this month: "The company has identified three key behaviours: Growth mindset, bias for action and consumer and customer centricity that will supplement the capabilities to achieve business goals."

To achieve this, HUL set up a Customer insight and innovation centre last year to gain a "deeper understanding of shopper and customer needs". The annual report had said that the centre leverages the knowledge and lessons from Unilever, using technologies like interactive meeting rooms, virtual reality, retail lab, eye-tracking technology and mobile virtual reality solutions to develop and execute differentiated channel and format strategies for both traditional channels and modern trade.

The growing list of awards could be seen as proof of the advertiser being on the right path.