Onida pumps in Rs 20 cr on IPL ads; unleashes the Devil to fuel owner’s pride

Onida, the consumer durables brand from Mirc Electronics Ltd, has pumped in a huge dose of nostalgia in its latest campaign for its air conditioners by bringing back its beloved mascot – ‘the Devil’. The company is spending Rs 25 crore to Rs 30 crore on advertising across all formats like television, print, outdoor and digital. The company has tied up with the Indian Premier League (IPL) for advertising and is spending Rs 20 crore alone on IPL advertising. 

The brand has roped in Taproot Dentsu to conceptualise the summer campaign. The challenge for the homegrown brand is to reclaim its place in consumers’ minds as it continues to focus on “owner’s pride”. The latest campaign is aimed at demonstrating the cooling prowess of the Onida Inverter ACs and giving the brand a distinctive voice among the scores of air conditioner and cooler brands that are present through the season. 

Agency Speak 

Commenting on the association, Umesh Shrikhande, CEO, Taproot Dentsu, said, “We were quite bowled over to learn of the many innovations that Onida has engineered for its products. This was a case of a very good and well-priced product not getting its due, thanks to the big budgets of the many brands in the category. The task of communication was to get the brand top of mind through communication that would make people sit up and take notice. I believe we have risen to this challenge well.” 

Elaborating further on the campaign, Shanshank Lanjekar, Strategic Provider for Brands, Creative People and Clients, said that the new phase of Onida begins with these latest campaigns. “Basically, there are two aspects to the content that we have plotted for the ad campaign. Firstly, ACs are primarily used for cooling, but with the kind of cluttered market that we have, which is full of foreign products, the focus on cooling is organically side-lined over a period of time where other features started getting in. But Onida has always believed that the basics should be extremely fundamental. So, if you see the old TVCs and the new one, the main agenda has remained the same and our focus remains on cooling. Secondly, it’s a seasonal campaign. So, during the summer days we will see more of the competition coming up with great innovations.” 

According to Lanjekar, the best way to keep Onida at the top of consumers’ minds is to create a unique way of communication. “When people will see the TVC, they will immediately visualise the brand with the devil and his tail, and now his wife!” he quipped.

Client Speak 

Upbeat on this development, Vijay Mansukhani, MD, Mirc Electronics Ltd, said, “We are very happy to announce that our iconic devil, with which the masses resonated with is back. With the company now turning profitable and Onida offering product for product and design for design in comparison with the other consumer durable goods available in the market.” 

He further added, “As we have tied up with the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 for advertising, this will create visibility across the country for our products.” 

While admitting that the competition in the air conditioner segment is stiff, Mansukhani affirmed that Onida remained the “owner’s pride” because of its features like using only environment-friendly gases in its devices, besides introducing as many as 84 new inverter models that offer faster cooling and are affordably priced. 

“People these days are hooked on foreign brands. We want to dispel the myth of foreign brands by offering superior quality and will articulate it through our advertising. People have this perception that foreign brands are better than Indian brands, but the devil will change everything!” he maintained, adding that this superior quality offering will be extended to Onida’s other product categories such as television sets, washing machines and microwaves. 

Post implementation of GST, the company’s profit margin has zoomed and it has bounced back on its original track, Mansukhani claimed. “Now, we want to bring the devil back and we will be spending a huge chunk of our budget on this. For the new campaigns we have allocated a budget of Rs 20-22 crore, while IPL has seen the biggest bang for the buck and I think it’s a good bet for us,” he added. 

While the summer season will see Onida push its air conditioners, the monsoon season will see a marketing blitz for its washing machines leading into the festive season, when there will be campaigns for its television range. “With our diverse range of products comprising televisions, washing machines and microwave ovens, we are catering to the mini metros as well as the Tier 2 and 3 markets,” Mansukhani said. 

He sees a huge scope for the air conditioner market as according to him the current penetration is quite low – at just 5 per cent. He added, “Currently, our turnover is 45 per cent, but this year we are expecting to double that. Our share of the AC market is around 8-9 per cent.”

 

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