‘Pyarelal’ ad highlights emotional space Rasna occupies: Manish Bhatt

“Over the years, Rasna has unveiled some of the most remarkable and lovable campaigns. Our latest campaign has been created keeping in mind our journey of over generations wherein we have spread love and served more than 120 billion glasses,” says Piruz Khambatta, Chairman & MD, Rasna Pvt Ltd, of the brand’s new ad campaign – ‘Pyarelal Ka Bachpan Ka Pyar’. 

Conceptualised by Scarecrow Communications and produced by Chrome Films, campaign aims at celebrating the brand’s journey of spreading love for decades across generations. Rasna’s ‘Pyarelal Ka Bachpan Ka Pyar’ campaign is spread in three parts, including teasers followed by ad films of 2 minutes, 40 seconds, 30 seconds and shorter durations. 

Unlike earlier campaigns, wherein Rasna’s mascot has always been a girl child between 3 and 8 years, this time, the brand has roped in two veteran Bollywood actors – Ram Sethi, also popularly known as Pyarelal, and Daisy Irani. Regarding the two actors, Khambatta said, “I am confident that their charm as Rasna’s 60-year old grand man and grand lady will amplify the overall impact of our ads.” The ad film captures the affection between the two actors in different time periods and the journey of Rasna in their lives as a unifying factor. 

The company has now ventured into the snacks segment with the launch of Rasna Vitos, a baked sweet snack. Rasna is planning to target the sweet snacks segment with focus on kids coming from school. As of now, Rasna Vitos will be available in chocolate and strawberry flavours. 

Watch the ad film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2CpM2kYMNk

“Vitos is our answer to the huge opportunity in the evening snacks and kids back from school segment. This product will drive the proposition of evening snacking in a tasty and healthy manner. The focus will now be on increasing the penetration of Vitos by levering our robust marketing and distribution network,” added Khambatta. 

Agency Speak 

Adgully spoke to Manish Bhatt, Founder Director, Scarecrow Communications, on the making of the ‘Pyarelal Ka Bachpan Ka Pyar’ ad film. 

What is the creative thought process behind the ‘Pyarelal’ campaign?
Rasna is an iconic brand and has always sported the tagline, ‘I love you Rasna’, with a cute little girl saying that. Lately, because of the competition, the need of a new flavour, the need of more energy, the context throws and pushes you to do something which every year is being researched, and whatever wins the research is put on air. This year when we got the mandate – which was just a nice happy accident – we knew that here was something which was rational and good and well-liked by the consumers. But proactively we as an agency told Piruz Sir that let’s do something in this line, where we summarise the emotional space that the brand occupies, just like Volvo which occupies the space of safety or Honda which talks about dreaming. 

Rasna has been occupying the space of love, childhood love. It has been consumed by kids from a very early age and everyone was familiar with ‘I love you Rasna’. So, we wanted to summarise this entire premise of what the brand owns and create a storyline which reminds and re-emphasises that emotion which the brand occupies. Piruz Sir has been really instinctive and courageous to do this film and we decided to test this concept. To everyone’s surprise, it won over all rationality, consumers chose this, and then we decided to go ahead with this. 

How did you decide on using a veteran actor like Ram Sethi for this campaign?
That was the idea of our production house. We wanted someone endearing, cute and really adorable. When you have your heart in the right place, everything falls together perfectly. Who knew that the person who is known as Pyarelal will come up with a story of ‘bachpan ka pyaar’ (Childhood love). It all fit very well. Vijay Nirmal is not only a good director, but also has been doing casting for Chrome Pictures for a long and has got a knack for good casting. 

‘I Love You Rasna’ has been a very familiar line running through Rasna campaigns. Can we expect the return of the ‘Rasna Girl’ as well?
After this, what next has not been thought through, but I am sure this has a life. Next time, we may come up with some rational story and not an emotional one, because we have already summarised it. As of now, we just want this to sink in the consumer’s mind. 

How do you plan to take forward the campaign thought for Brand Rasna?
It’s going to be a multimedia campaign and will be on television and all possible mediums. The ad is going to be on air for the entire month, but I believe this ad will have a longer shelf life.