Maggi's new ads focus on breakfast and comfort foods

The ads are for Instant Upma and Poha – add hot water and your meal is ready. Also, don't miss the rejig of Maggi's signature tune...

The crackle of mustard, the sizzle of ghee, the smell of turmeric – there’s a certain comfort that comes with the familiarity of food. Comfort food seems to be the theme of the ads of Maggi's two new breakfast offerings.

We first spotted the ads for Instant Upma and Instant Poha products on Maggi India’s official YouTube channel. It’s the first of the ads that don’t contain a hungry child, or a ‘caring’ mother who makes the child’s favourite dish.

The ingredients are the stars of the ad. We see shots of manicured fingers sifting through flattened rice, the spices as they join the dish, and fried peanuts and chopped vegetables. Both the ads also feature a 'remixed' version of the iconic 'Maggi Maggi Maggi' tune, in what appears to be a bid to create trust and familiarity with users.

The call to action is fairly simple – add hot water and the meal is ready. This call to action was previously used for Maggi’s own Cup Noodles offering and MTR's Instant Poha.

So far, MTR has been selling its poha and upma offerings in a cup format (again, similar to cup noodles). But this time, we see that Maggi has chosen to go with packaging that is quite similar to its noodles format.

We also noticed that Maggi has picked up two traditional 'breakfast' comfort foods for this offering. We couldn't help but wonder how relevant the product is, as lockdowns have given rise to a lot of 'home chefs' who take the time and effort to prepare their own meals.

Says Vidur Vyas, founder-CEO, NorthSide, a strategy and execution company, "Over the years, Maggi built itself around the noodle format and used it to add fun to the hunger occasion. With a strong brand, it is great to see Maggi return to its core and expand to other locally relevant food formats in packaging, usage instructions and advertising execution that is very close to the brand equity."

He adds that the visual language and the execution will tempt consumers to try the brand. However, Vyas mentions that what remains to be seen is whether the product's taste lives up to the taste expectations from Maggi and whether it is able to extend its brand to older cohorts.

"To take this journey forward, Maggi, with all its now different food formats, will also need to come out with more products and advertising that make the hunger occasion fun for the family," Vyas concludes.