Big Bazaar: A flaunt-your-homes contest

Actors Sakshi Tanwar and Ram Kapoor have come on board as the brand ambassadors for the contest that promotes the home decor category.

Extending the concept of 'active consumption occasions' with a particular focus on the home decor category, retail chain Big Bazaar has launched the first edition of its annual campaign, India's Most Stylish Homes. The campaign aims to promote the affordability of stylish decor, and also attract new customers to its stores. However, the most important aim is to create the home decor category as a consumption driver across various classes of buyers.

The fifth annual event of Big Bazaar, the campaign is spread across 31 cities in India and covers 106 Big Bazaar stores. It involves a contest wherein people have a chance to flaunt their homes. The 10-day contest, targeted at SEC AB, 25+, has taken on board actors Sakshi Tanwar and Ram Kapoor (who play the protagonists in the popular soap Bade Achhe Lagte Hain) as brand ambassadors.

Explaining the concept of 'active consumption occasions', Madan Mohapatra, head, media and marketing, Big Bazaar, says, "There are two kinds of consumption occasions - natural and created. While Diwali and other festivals are the natural occasions, we at Big Bazaar have created two of the most trending shopping occasions, January 26 and August 15."

The new contest is expected to draw about one lakh participants. To take part, customers must shop for a minimum of Rs 300 and send in pictures of their homes through email, the Facebook page of Big Bazaar or drop a picture into the drop boxes at various outlets.

The winners will be announced at three levels. In the first or store level, each of the 106 stores will have one winner with the most stylish home. The picture of the winning house will be brandished within the store premises.

At level two, these store winners will compete for the title of the most stylish homes of their respective cities, thus giving 31 new winners. A team of interior designers will decide on the winners till this level. However, in the final stage, a national winner will be selected based on the decisions of judges as well as the brand ambassadors who will also visit the winner's home.

Tanwar and Kapoor will be associated with various radio broadcasts during the announcement of the first and second level winners; however, for the third and final level, they will visit the winner's place.

So, what prompted Big Bazaar's association with the stars of Bade Achhe Lagte Hai?

Mohapatra explains that the couple is not just popular but interesting too, since the on-screen characters they portray come from different backgrounds. "Even if the couple is grounded to values and have an ethnic look, they are upmarket, too. They symbolise modern ethics, while being traditional," he says.

Big Bazaar has rolled out an aggressive marketing campaign to promote the contest, with planned spends of Rs 15-18 crore, at par with the marketing spends on January 26 and August 15 shopping festivals, reveal market sources.

DDB Mudra Mumbai handled the creative part of the campaign, Tribal DDB India looked after everything digital on this and DDB MudraMax handled all the BTL elements including activation and OOH. Whereas, Allied Media is the media buying/selling agency for Big Bazaar.

The television campaign covers more than 25 channels (Hindi and regional GECs, and news channels) with a total of 260 spots per day. TVCs featuring the brand ambassadors will be telecast during the contest. On print, Big Bazaar has associated with both English and regional newspapers in 14 markets (over 30 newspapers and 150 insertions). The contest was launched with a Times of India jacket insertion.

The store has also partnered with Radio Mirchi, wherein the radio channel airs mentions of the contest in most of the RJ communication, apart from ad-spots. Audio ad-spots have also been bought on other radio channels across markets.

The campaign also targets young couples through the online medium. On digital, the entries are invited on Big Bazaar's FB page, Google Ad Search and on YouTube, which also carried videos and the TVC featuring Tanwar and Kapoor.

On the outdoor medium, the contest is promoted through billboards in Mumbai and canters across the cities. Mall activations are being carried out in all the cities and Big Bazaar stores.

Speaking about the challenges faced in the execution of the contest and the campaign, Amol Mohandas, business head, Allied Media states that a campaign of this magnitude necessitates a lot of planning and perfection in execution. "It is not about an activation done in a mall over a weekend, but is extended to a very innovative way of creating awareness on ground as well as other platforms. Each of these platforms behave in a very peculiar manner, hence managing the timing of the execution across platforms is quite a daunting task, which we believe is working well for us till now."