Unboxing 'Fearless Kota'

Horlick’s recent ad campaign ‘Fearless Kota’, created by FCB Ulka is an emotional advertisement. Let’s decode the campaign to get more than just the birdseye view of the advertisement. Horlicks is manufactured by GSK - one of the world’s leading based pharmaceutical and medical companies. Horlicks has the uniqueness of being a clinical proven drink for kids thereby making them stronger, sharper and taller. Though it enjoys a brand legacy, Horlicks faces stiff competition from Bournvita, Complan, Boost, Pediasure etc. This forms the competitive landscape of Horlicks. Horlicks has undergone a cultural transformation in terms of brand imagery from being a restorative drink in 1960s to an immunity building drink in 1970s to a healthy drink stimulating mind in 2003. Horlicks aims to cater to every section of the market and thus has variants like Junior Horlicks, Women Horlicks, Regular Horlicks, Mother Horlicks under its umbrella.

About the Ad: The Advertisement showcases a set of mothers who act as nutrition experts on their way to Kota to meet their dear children. Students are overwhelmed seeing their mothers and tears fill their eyes. It showcases snippets of mom-child moments ranging from hair oil application, feeding children, cooking children’s favourite dish. The ad ends with a emotional note saying mothers love is the best nutrition for exams.

With Fearless Kota, Horlicks is trying to capture the emotional benefit by positioning nutrition as emotional than rather just functional. It tries to get a deeper mind share of the audience. Previously the focus of Horlicks ads were purely functional and direct focussing on the nutrients and doctor’s recommendation. Fearless Kota talks about the current cultural landscape of Indian Teenagers and a widely yet unknown topic-Student suicides. The area in focus being Kota where every year approximately 1.5 lakh students go to study to get admitted into the top engineering colleges. The pressure during this rat race of books and exams is showcased beautifully in ad campaign. When we decode the communication matrix, Horlicks has beautifully unearthed a barrier during purchase which is parents usually look at only the scientific nutrition during early years of childhood. Teenage is a age, where nutrition is not talked about much. Emotional Nutrition is as important than physical nutrition is the campaign’s main communication message. The ad has used mothers as a reason to benefit which fits well with the consumer persona.

Unearthing a consumer insight is a significant necessity while drafting a communication, as I learnt in a Brand Building course by Kraftshala(https://kraftshala.com). It further renders the fact that when a barrier to purchase is addressed in the communication message, consumer perception towards the campign/communication undergoes a shift. Therefore, its imperative to study the consumer personas in depth for any brand before they come up with the next new communication message.