Britannia Good Day campaign: A smile challenge

The brand felt that they had a beautiful story to tell which could not be narrated effectively through a 30-second television spot

A day in the life of a Royal Indian Guard, a digital film by Britannia Good Day is inspiring people to smile more. The campaign features a Royal Indian Guard, Parwinder, who stands guard at the Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate with a straight face all day. He guards the memorial, betraying no trace of emotion, from dawn to dusk and watches people go about their lives as business as usual, as his vocation doesn’t grant him the luxury to smile. However, at the end of the day, we see him going back home and discarding his uniform. Standing in front of a mirror, Parwinder  flashes a broad smile as he relives the varied joyful and amusing moments of the day at India Gate.
 

The campaign plays on the premise that Indians do not smile enough. And we need and should smile more as this effortless gesture brings cheer and happiness to people around us.
 
The digital film takes forward the philosophy of Good Day — the world will be a better place if people merely smile more. But what inspired the brand to go digital to convey the message?
 
“Digital is a growing medium with a reasonable reach of its own. So far, our digital strategy has been patchy. With this film and similar communication messages planned for the future, we want to ensure that we pursue digital media vigorously to reach out to the targeted audience,” says Ali Harris Shere, vice-president, marketing, Britannia Industries.
 

Shere also points out that the team strongly felt that they had a beautiful story to tell which could not be narrated effectively through a 30-second TV spot. The story lends itself beautifully to long-format media that digital supports, he adds.
 
Good Day is the largest selling Britannia brand with a turnover of Rs 2,500 crore, which makes up for more than 25 per cent of the company’s overall sales. It is also India’s second largest selling biscuit after Parle G. The film targets SEC A and B, male and female consumers in urban areas as Good Day is the largest selling brand in urban markets.
 
The campaign has been conceptualised and executed by JWT Bengaluru.
 

“We felt that we needed to drive home the importance of smiling in an impactful manner. A manner which would leave people with a strong and compelling reason to smile more. We found the answer to this challenge in the extraordinary story of a man who guards the India Gate without emoting. And at once we believed that this powerful story had the essence to impart the message of smiling more in a heart-touching way,” says a JWT spokesperson.
 
Good Day believes that world will be a better place if people smile more. Therefore, the film attempts to drive home the point through a guard at India Gate that, if one is perceptive enough, there are many things that one can smile about in our daily routines.
 

Team JWT had faced two challenges while working on the campaign.
 
The first challenge was to craft and shoot the film in a way which authentically represents the life of the guard at India Gate. The second challenge was to convey the brand philosophy of ‘smiling more’ in an engaging and impactful manner where at the end of the film, the viewers are left with a broad smile and a valuable learning. And we are glad we were able to succeed at both the challenges.