A toffee with a promise as strong as caffeine

While most confectioneries are positioned as fun, 'time-pass' sweets, here's one that promises to mimic an Espresso shot.

The pocket coffee candy brand, Kopiko, which belongs to parent company Inbisco India, recently caught our attention while we were browsing through LinkedIn.

>

While the message is getting through with its TVC, we wondered if the idea of today's youth having a candy claiming to have real coffee extracts to stay awake, seem like a far cry.

Coceptualised by Leo Burnett, Kopiko, the coffee flavored hard boiled candy brand leveraged influencer marketing around this 2017 ad to reach out to the youth through social channels

With regard to having Brand David Communications as their creative partner, in an exclusive chat with afaqs!, Barani Dharan Sivaprakasam, marketing head, Inbisco India, has this to say, "Our core TG are the millennials who are college goers and first-jobbers."

"It's a 360-degree campaign reaching out to our targeted audience across multi-screens and multiple touch points. We will be active across social media, digital and TV," he adds.

Rahul Vengalil

Manish Bhatt

Rahul Vengalil, founder of What Clicks, a digital media audit and strategy firm shares his take, "This could have worked a few years back, but with the changing aspiration and, more importantly, the exposure and options that today's youth have, I'm not sure if it will serve the purpose."

There's also the fact that India is not primarily a coffee drinking country, but for pockets in the south.

"Given these challenges, Kopiko is going to have an uphill task capturing the market with this. We shouldn't forget that they have to fight with energy drinks, which is a much cooler option for the youth," shares Vengalil and we can't agree more.

As a flavour, it doesn't sound that new, but as a communication approach for candy, it seems slightly different. So, does positioning coffee in a pocket work?

Manish Bhatt, founder director, Scarecrow M&C Saatchi seems to agree. "As a serious candy substitute for coffee, it doesn't work. Candy keeps you active because one's mouth has something to do - it keeps you active and going, yes. But giving you 'a kick', on a serious note? That doesn't sound too believable," he states.

ALSO READ: Confectionery brand Kopiko looks for creative agency; pitch underway in Chennai