Amul takes to global sports events

India's largest dairy cooperative Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) and owners of the Amul brand is increasing its association with sporting events, taking a cue from the traction it had seen earlier.

Mega sports events are emerging as a way of furthering the connect with the youth as Amul increasingly talks to a young audience and ramps up its play in impulse categories such as ice creams. Last week, GCMMF announced that it will sponsor the Indian contingents to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games (CWG) and the Asian Games at Incheon in South Korea. It is following it up with campaigns, especially for its more staid product, milk.

Jayen Mehta, general manager, planning and marketing, GCMMF says, "Such associations help us to connect with the youth with a health-first proposition. It not only helps the ice cream segment, but helps boost connect across product categories." He adds the brand is pushing the slogan 'Eat milk with every meal', and is trying to do away with the popular notion of 'milk fat' being unhealthy.

"We are trying to promote the goodness of milk, and have several taglines across product categories, like 'Ek chammach Amul ghee' for our ghee (clarified butter), 'Power of protein' for our paneer," he says.

"It's a masterstroke from Amul. It positions the brand into a space that pulsates with the country's sentiment and more importantly, a changed mindset today. It immediately connects with the top marketing themes of today such as youth, health and sports (particularly non-cricketing) with their core product, that is milk. It is a good long-term strategy to make milk and milk products cool for the new generation," says Saurabh Uboweja, CEO & director, brand strategy, of brand consultant Brands of Desire.

To highlight the new sports sponsorships, GCMMF will run its campaign till October, covering CWG 2014 and Asian Games. So far, Amul had the over-arching positioning of 'Taste of India'. It is raising its sports pitch with the spunky 'Mooch nahi to kuch nahi', developed by da Cunha Communications. The other ad, which is older is the 'World's original energy drink' campaign, developed by FCB Ulka.

What started as a campaign for digital media was extended to television around the FIFA 2014 World Cup. Rahul da Cunha, managing director and creative head, da Cunha Communications says ,the Mooch campaign was targeted online at an audience younger than Amul's usual, given their predilection for 'viral' videos.

The mooch campaign is also reminiscent of the hugely popular but ineffectual (did not actually increase consumption of milk) campaign that ran for two decades since 1993, 'Got Milk?' that showed celebrities flaunting a glass of milk and a milk moustache, created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners for the California Milk Processor Board.

However, da Cunha says that Amul's milk moustache is built on the notion of the moustache being a symbol of pride for Indians. He says, "As such the milk moustache is a common symbol of drinking milk, and has been used by several brands in as many years. For that matter, my father (the late Sylvester da Cunha) had done a similar campaign in the 1960s. This campaign says how moustaches are a symbol of pride for Indians, and should connect with the audience better."

This is not the first time that Amul has chosen to leverage sporting events to enhance its brand. It had earlier associated with the London 2012 Olympic Games as the official sponsor of the Indian team. It was then that the 'World's original energy drink' ad was run across TV, social media, print and radio etc. Mehta says the earlier feedback has led the brand to step up its efforts in sports. "For kids and their mothers, it is a good connect, as it shows top sporting talent drinking milk, while corporations, too, respond well to association with big-scale sporting events," Mehta says.

Associating with international events becomes all the more significant as Amul spreads its wings. Its exports had seen a three-fold rise to Rs 530 crore in the last financial year.

"GCMMF has timed it right, also because it allows Amul a chance to build and strengthen the brand at an international stage. Amul already exports to 21 countries. With the Glasgow and Incheon games, the brand would get featured in front of the Commonwealth nations where it is not so strong and Asian markets where it already has a significant presence," Uboweja says.

Amul sets aside a budget of one per cent of its turnover for brand promotions. "There is no change on that front, our promotional budget is always around 1 per cent of our turnover," Mehta says, refusing to cite the spends on this year's sports associations. However, with the turnover growing steadily, the spends on promotions will only increase. The dairy major crossed a turnover of about Rs 18,000 crore in FY14, growing 32 per cent over previous financial year.