Sweet promise of an irresistible treat

DS Group's maiden TV ad for its Pulse candy tries to build mass connect

DS Group’s kachha aam (raw mango)-flavoured hard-boiled candy Pass Pass Pulse was an instant hit with its launch in 2015. Within a year, Pulse became a Rs 100-crore brand and it is now worth Rs 300 crore. Since its launch, Pulse has grown solely on word of mouth. However, with the brand gaining scale, the manufacturers have taken to mass media to reinforce brand connect with existing consumers and to get new consumers on board.
 
DS Group has launched first ever campaign for Pulse titled, “Pran jaaye par Pulse na jaaye” showcasing how far people can go to guard their Pulse candy. The TV commercial opens with a man waking up to a false fire alarm set by a group of friends. The frenzied man goes all out to seek his hidden stash of Pulse in the strangest of places such as a DVD drive, inside a remote and in a trumpet. Once the man retrieves his treasure trove of Pulse candies, his friends rush up to him to claim their share. The surprised but helpless man realises his friends have played a prank on him to get their hands on his stash. The TVC ends with the tagline, “Pran jaaye par Pulse na jaaye”.
 
“With the campaign, we are taking the core proposition of irresistibility to the masses. The objective is to establish the love of consumers for the Pulse candies showcasing their irresistible passion for the candy. And in the process, we are further strengthening the consumer connect with existing as well as new consumers,” says Shashank Surana, vice-president, new product development, DS Group.

 
The campaign has been created by J. Walter Thompson.
 
The brief to the creative agency was to come up with an idea that would capture the irresistibility of the brand in an engaging manner.
 
Shujoy Dutta, vice-president and executive planning director, J. Walter Thompson, says, “With irresistible products, especially candies, the typical human behaviour is to hoard it. Or rather, save it. From experiences in our office alone, we found that Pulse candies left in a cubicle or a corner office would soon disappear.”
 
The team noticed that people wouldn’t keep Pulse on their tables, but in a drawer or behind a book or something. The agency thus decided to extend the thought — to suggest Pulse is so irresistible that one really wants to protect it — to the core of its communication.
 
Candy advertising is a huge challenge. Being an impulse product, great work has happened in the past to put brands on top of our minds, so that at the pan shop or the grocery counter, a particular candy is sought.
 
Therefore, the biggest challenge before the creative agency was to come up with an entertaining advertisement while identifying the right type of humour and joke.

 
“This is not quite as easy as it sounds, because humour is very dependent on consumer tastes, and the joke has to have a snug fit with the product so that it works for both the consumer and the brand,” points out Dutta.
 
Confectionery including candy is an impulse category with low consumer loyalty. So, what’s the key to commanding consumer loyalty and keeping the target group engaged? Surana says one needs to keep reinventing the offering in order to avoid category fatigue and be on top of the mind of consumers. Consumers are experimental and have evolved taste buds. They are always on the lookout for newer experiences.
 
DS Group has sustained the excitement going around Pulse Kachha Aam by launching variants like Pulse Guava and Pulse Orange with a tangy core.