Interview: To succeed in the healthy snacking category, we need an influencer: Anupam Bokey, RP- Sanjiv Goenka Group

By
Sneha Yadav
-
Anupam Bokey

In conversation with Social Samosa, Anupam Bokey, Sanjiv Goenka Group puts the spotlight on Too Yumm!’s brand journey since inception and road to 2020.

Too Yumm! made headlines during their launch in April 2017 with their healthy snacking options and the announcement of India’s most beloved fitness icon, Virat Kohli, as the brand ambassador. Touted to have introduced “guilt-free” snacking in India, RPSG announced the brand’s launch expecting growth worth an investment of INR 10,000 crores in the category over the upcoming 5-7 years. We get talking to Anupam Bokey, (CMO, FMCG, RP- Sanjiv Goenka Group) to deep dive into the brand journey so far, the marketing strategy, Virat Kohli’s ambassadorship and much more.

Excerpts:

How has the Too Yumm journey been since its inception in April 2017? We entered the market with one sole aim: to disrupt the current snacking industry in India with options that are not just tasty but also healthy. Over the years, we have expanded our range to offer a number of variants and flavours. Since its inception, we have built the brand around its core of healthy bingeing and now see our consumers associate the two with each other. Virat Kohli has been the face of Too Yumm! since the very beginning. Admired by the youth for his fitness regime and healthy lifestyle, Virat consuming Too Yumm! has made the snack an aspirational product for the millennials by default. In the first year of our launch, we surpassed competitor brands and their performance statistics. Last year, Too Yumm! was the first and only FMCG brand to set a Guinness World Record at the Kumbh Mela 2019 by lighting the world’s largest diya signifying good health brings to life the brand’s emphasis on good health for one and all. What led you to foray into the healthy snack category and its evolution in India? What is TooYumm’s market share at present? The recent years have witnessed a shift towards more responsible eating and not just ‘empty calories’. RPSG group decided to leverage the health wave and decided to foray into the snacking market, which is otherwise full of unhealthy products. The main aim was to tell people that ‘healthy can be tasty too’ which meant going against this deep-rooted belief that healthy can never be tasty, especially when it came to ‘chips’. Through the launch of Too Yumm!, the group aimed to target the young audience between the ages of 15-35 who were ‘Guilty Snackers’ known to binge on unhealthy snacks due to lack of a tasty option. Too Yumm! currently holds the market share of 5% in metros and 2% in the overall snacking category.

Also Read: Too Yumm! awarded digital mandate to Interactive Avenues

How challenging was it to get on board Virat Kohli as the snack endorser? How has his presence benefited the brand value and also how are you leveraging it? Virat Kohli has been the face of our brand since its inception in 2017. At the time, we saw a celebrity endorser as our best path forward. For us, the role of the celebrity was to build credibility for our proposition and also to get a strongly entrenched association with it. Hence the personality of an icon like Virat Kohli fit perfectly with the attributes that we wanted to build for the brand – healthy, young, modern, energetic and premium.
Additionally, since he is an inspirational personality representing the most loved sport of our country and falls within the target age bracket – the match seemed ideal. Being an inspiration to the youth of the country, Virat is admired for his fitness regime and healthy lifestyle. Keeping this in mind, when youngsters look at Virat endorsing and enjoying a pack of Too Yumm! they immediately associate the brand to health and wellness. Last year you partnered with Amazon Prime Video for Inside Edge Season 2. How did the association pan out?  Are there any more projects in the pipeline? A new platform that we are slowly taking on now is new-age OTT platforms like Amazon Prime Videos Originals and MX Player Originals for brand connect with the target audience.
We believe that it is through such branding initiatives that we can reach out to our target audience easier. The right genre and right content can help sharp targeting, relevant for your TG, and even help strongly entrench your brand proposition. We made sure that the brand was integrated in a seamless way to not disrupt the storyline of the show in any way. Inside-Egde Season 2 provided a perfect fit for Too Yumm! as our brand’s core proposition of health gets strengthened through our association with cricket/fitness and aligns well with healthy bingeing on content and healthy snacks! What is Too Yumm!’s TG like? Since we are a youthful brand and focus on fitness and healthy eating, our target market comprises individuals between the ages range of 15 and 35. Millennials or Gen Y are a large part of the demographic we reach out to. Currently, the millennials are the go-to audience because they are open to experimentation. However, we are seeing higher awareness from Gen Z, as their eating habits are not so ingrained and they are far more aware of healthy choices. How has the association with IPL helped in brand recall? Do you also plan to foray into non-cricket sports properties?  Associating with IPL was a strategic decision for us. Two years ago when we were in our first year of launch, we communicated guilt-free bingeing through IPL. As any long format video/TV viewing is accompanied by snacking, the execution idea then was ‘one gone, next on which aligned to the fall of wickets. It paid off really well for us to help us spread the message around the brand’s claims of essential goodness and health.
Our objective with IPL last year was to further fuel the #SayNoToFriedSnacks movement which we began at the Kumbh Mela in February 2019. We took it a notch higher with an integrated strategy during the IPL which targets digital, TV and the traditional media together.
The ROI metrics are straight forward – spontaneous awareness increase in a short time, brand equity building as the genre is aligned to our brand values, distribution increase, and obviously sales and market share.
We also used digital and social in a big way to build stronger engagement for the brand.
As for foraying into non-cricket sports properties, we have always seen cricket as our main pillar. India’s love for cricket is well known to all and with Virat being our brand ambassador, it fits just right.
How significant are influencer and content marketing, according to you, in a brand’s marketing plan in current time? We realized rather early on in our journey that to succeed in the healthy snacking category, we would need an influencer. Influencers have become more significant than ever before now. With influencers picking only brands and causes that they support and can get behind, consumers take the opinions of influencers into consideration before making a purchase. For us, making Virat our health ambassador helped us successfully reach our target audience and convey the right message. Virat’s personality matches that of our brand and hence our consumers get the right idea. We make sure to rope in our health ambassador in most if not all our communications with our consumers. Kindly shed some light on Too Yumm!’s media mix? We have a healthy marketing media mix for all our campaigns. While TV remains our main medium to reach, digital and social helps build engagement. We also use point of sales to effect purchase in stores at the most important moment of truth. Lastly, what are the three advertising trends to look out for in 2020?  Associations with OTT Platforms: While consumer interests are shifting from DTH to OTT, 2020 will be the year of innovation and acceptance of new opportunities. While Too Yumm! has already entered the OTT space, we look forward to more path-breaking opportunities that can help derive a connect with our consumers. We will see content and ads that grab the attention of the consumers within the least possible time giving out the message out loud.  Therefore, short-form videos are likely to gain more appeal. Innovation playing a key role in 2020: The biggest trend for the advertising industry in 2020 will be about brands reaching out to their consumers through innovation. We are currently in the most creative phase of advertising where the industry has much more than just images and words to work with. Brands can use all the resources available and hit the chord with their audience like never before. Brands will turn into content creators: This will be the year where you see advertising which doesn’t come across as advertising. 2020 could be the year that can encourage new startups to come to the forefront like many others that did last year and showcase their innovative side to the audience. Brands will be more than ever willing to innovate and create relevance in terms of content with their audience.

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