Kellogg’s banks on a multigrain proposition with its Chocos relaunch

The brand’s senior director of marketing tells us all about the renovation and the onboarding of Kajol as the brand ambassador.

Breakfast cereal brand Kellanova’s (previously known as Kellogg’s) signature cereal brand Chocos has been relaunched with a manufactural rebranding. The all-new Chocos, while retaining the original taste and texture, will now carry the multigrain proposition.

The announcement comes with a dedicated campaign, conceptualised and created by Ogilvy. In a new TVC, the brand is positioning itself as a mix of taste and health, free of maida and made with a blend of grains including wheat, jowar, rice, and corn.

The ad film also features veteran Bollywood actress Kajol, in an motherly avatar, who in a breakfast dialogue with her on-screen son is seen plugging the new multigrain Chocos. The actress also announced her collaboration with the brand on her social media handles, captioned “Excited to be a part of the Kellogg’s family. The new Kellogg's Chocos is multigrain , more chocolatey and has zero maida. Now that makes it a perfect deal!”

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The 30-second ad film sees a little boy plead his mother for Chocos at a breakfast table, while agreeing to have some multigrain meal right after. It is after he finishes his bowl of cereal that he’s told that Chocos was the multigrain cereal he is supposed to have.

The idea is to present a relatable exchange between a mother and a child at a breakfast table, filled with humour, banter, and care, as per Vinay Subramanyam, who is the senior director of marketing at Kellanova.

“All our campaigns get conceptualised at the breakfast tables of consumers that we visit. We observe with consumers the way breakfast is had and try to recreate the moments that happen between children and their parents. So our brief was to show the beautiful balance of nourishment and delight of new Kellogg's multigrain Chocos in the context of the charming world that exists between mothers and children,” he says, explaining the genesis of the campaign and the brief given to the agency.

Speaking about the onboarding of Kajol as the face of the brand, Subramanyam says, “I think one of the important aspects that we realised in our research is that mothers of today juggle so many roles. They are caretakers, disciplinarians, friends, allies, and confidants. To put it very simply, being a mother now is really about motherhood and 'masti'. And Kajol perfectly exemplifies that spirit.” 

The new Chocos had been in the works for about a year before the launch, on the back of multiple rounds of research and developments, sampling, and most importantly, consumer feedback. Subramanyam explains, “We went through multiple rounds of testing. We did multiple rounds of product formulation till we reached the place where we were happy with what we had. The entire process took more than a year.”

A predicament with redoing an already established brand like Chocos, especially in terms of its formulation is the challenge of retaining its signature taste and texture. How did the brand manage to pull it off? 

Subramanyam answers, “A more technical answer of this can be better given by my R&D and manufacturing teams. But one of the things that we always check when we renovate our brands is to make sure that consumers still love it for the distinct taste that the product carries. So therefore, it's important that we keep in mind the fundamental, most loved, signature taste while making the changes.”

The launch is supported by a film that will get covered nationally across multimedia channels, including television and digital platforms. Digitally, the film will extend to OTT, mobile, and gaming platforms. In addition, the campaign will have a strong social plan behind it. In terms of the ad spends between traditional and digital channels, Subramanyam reveals that the split is roughly 50-50.

The main campaign is also supported by ancillary sampling activity where the brand is distributing samples of the new Chocos across some of its retail footprint. “We sample in our modern trade outlets and we also give it tree as part of our other products. We are also making sure that through a bunch of different sampling techniques, we are actually able to go to more and more consumers to make them try the new product.” 

One key trend Subramanyam highlights in the category is that consumers are now increasingly becoming more aware of the kind of ingredients that go into their food, which is essentially the basis of the new campaign. 

He says, “Consumers want to know what is in their food. So, this is the trend that is actually culminating into a relaunch. If People wish to know what's in our Chocos, we can tell them it's multigrain, high fiber, high protein, fortified with iron, vitamins, calcium, etc. And this is a trend that we are seeing in many of our products.”