Parle Products increases production of Hide & Seek Creme Sandwich; launches new TVC

Parle Products had decreased production of cream biscuits during the last two years to improve production efficiency.

Parle Platina’s Hide & Seek has launched a new TVC for its Creme Sandwich range. The ad attempts to convey the uniqueness of the product- that is a chocochip cookie with cream sandwiched in it.

"It is indeed a unique offering. There’s no other product that has chocolate chip cookies and creme together. We can convey that through this TVC,” says Mayank Shah, senior category head, Parle Products.

Since the product is targeted to kids, the TVC has been launched at a time when kids are returning to school after their summer vacations. “Kids carry biscuits to school in their tiffins,” he adds.

In the TVC, the captain of a football team gives out directions on the game using Creme Sandwich cookies, the chocochips depicting the players. As she describes the goals, she keeps eating the biscuits away and the team watches her, hoping for it to come their way. The vice captain decides to intervene, only to take away the remaining biscuit for himself and leaving the team in despair.

The idea of casting a girl as the captain of the team was to signify inclusivity. “Rather than merely showing her as a character in the film, we thought it would be clutter breaking if we show her as a captain. Women today represent the society in every domain, giving a more wholesome approach to gender roles. By weaving small narratives of equality, especially in a TVC featuring kids, we wanted to embed the message of fairness in everyday occurrences,” he says.

The TVCs will be accompanied with a 360-degree campaign across various media.

The last TVCs for the product were launched a decade back and were on air till around 2016. Back then, the product was called ‘Fab!’ and it came in a different packaging.

The brand had launched two TVCs then and they emphasised the number of chocochips in the biscuit. In one, a mother uses the chocochip cookie to help her child to count for his mathematics homework. In another, a child uses the cookie as a dice while playing a game of ludo with her family.

“The earlier TVCs only spoke about the number of chocochips in the cream biscuit. We never overtly mentioned the uniqueness of the product. It didn’t mention that it has both chocochips and cream together. Here we are mentioning it,” says Shah.

The product was launched around 2008-09. However, during the Covid19-induced lockdowns it was not widely available as it was produced only in limited quantities and only half the demand could be met. Parle had brought down its production to focus on other products.

“During the pandemic there was a huge demand for biscuits. So we had to prioritise our SKUs to improve production efficiency. Since there are more processes involved in manufacturing cream biscuits, it is not really efficient. It requires twice the amount of time as needed to produce the same quantity of the other cookies. So first we increased production of those products whose efficiency is higher and then the spare capacity was deployed for the less efficient products. Though there was a demand, we could not supply enough,” he adds.

The Hide & Seek brand has different offerings targeting a variety of audiences. This includes cookies, choco rolls, black bourbon and creme sandwiches. Both the Hide & Seek cookies and the Creme Sandwich range are priced the same- a 100 g package costs Rs 30.