Serving freshly-baked strategy: Parle goes beyond conventional advertising

Parle's new 20-20 campaign tries to project itself as a representative of young India and the message from is that you deserve full marks if you think the way modern India does

Over a decade ago, the Indian cricket team created history by winning the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, the very first edition of the tournament. Beyond the field, the larger world saw the shortest edition of the game establish itself as an accepted format. As Twenty-20 came to be associated with youthful energy, little did a marketing team know that the inspiration to name its brand on this format of the game would result in giving the brand a head start in 2008. Today, late-comer Parle 20-20 is the number two brand in the cookies segment in India. It enjoys a 21 per cent market share in volume in the approximately Rs 103 billion cookie segment in the country.

While the brand’s packaging has undergone many changes since launch, what has remained constant is its association with a young target audience. “When 20-20 was launched, there were no other cookie brand specifically targeting young adults and teens except Hide & Seek, which, again, had just one variant,” says Mayank Shah, category head, Parle Products. To be able to connect with a young audience, the product packaging and creative design had to ooze energy and oomph.

“It was targeting the SMS generation. We wanted to tap into their fast-paced lifestyle. We were lucky that T20 happened just around the time as it got us our brand name that clicked with the audience instantly,” Shah adds.

Commemorating its decade-long association with young India, Parle 20-20 has launched five new ad films that focus on the challenges that young people encounter every day and drive home the message that instead of questioning the appropriateness of their choices, older adults must accept and even encourage them. “It’s a 360-degree campaign; we have started with television; we will move to print and digital in the next phase,” says Shah adding, “we want to doff our hats to people who encounter these young adults but don’t judge them for their choices.”

Though its customer base has evolved over the years, the brand has tried to maintain a connect through its messages — be it the Short me niptao idea in 2010, to Jiyo like 20s in 2016 and the current Taste mein 20 out of 20. The message it wants to send out through the new campaign is that you deserve full marks if you think like what modern India does.

“If you want people to talk about your brand you have to say something meaningful in your campaign,” says Shah. From not judging a girl for wearing a short dress to renting out your house to a family with a religion different from your own, the campaign hopes to represent a “progressive” India.

Pramod Sharma, executive creative director, Everest Brand Solutions, the creative agency behind the new campaign, asserts that young people of today want to be a driver of change. “The idea was to portray the open mindset of the youth without offending anyone and at the same time convey the values of Parle 20-20,” he says. “Our narrative ensured that Parle 20-20 went much ahead of conventional biscuit advertising to applaud positive thinking in a world that is getting crippled by thoughts that divide people and discriminate among them on the basis of colour, creed, community, language and religion.”