Mindshare capitalises on YouTube's skip button for Horlicks

YouTube's five-second skip button for ads has been used to highlight Chocolate Horlicks' brand proposition.

For those YouTube users who hate being forced to watch ads, the site's skip ad button on videos is a 'saviour'. Now, a brand has taken over this space to showcase what it can do. Mindshare, the flagship media agency of GroupM, decided to turn the five-second skip button of YouTube to the advantage of GSK Consumer Healthcare's brand Chocolate Horlicks and highlight its brand proposition.

For the latest campaign of Chocolate Horlicks, the agency put up a tag just before a commercial starts streaming on the platform. The tag reads - 'Instant Chocolate Horlicks - Mixes in milk even before you skip this ad'. The TVC, that follows, can be skipped - but not before the message has hit home.

The campaign was conceived as part of the integrated audio-visual strategy for Chocolate Horlicks. Instead of going the conventional way of replicating the TVC on web, Mindshare decided to execute the innovation.

Commenting on the same, Ravi Rao, leader - South Asia, Mindshare says, "We have been working with GSK Consumer Healthcare Division for a while now and understand their need for innovative and unique strategies and campaigns especially in the digital space. Instead of replicating the TVC online, we wanted to leverage the potential of the medium by making it inextricably linked with the message."

Jayant Singh, EVP-marketing, GSK Consumer Healthcare adds, "Horlicks is a brand that that perfectly balances a rich heritage with constant innovation, to ensure we make our consumers do more, feel better and live longer. We are very happy to be the first brand in country to create this innovation in partnership with Mindshare."

Mindshare is a global media and marketing services network with billings in excess of $27.8 billion (source: RECMA). The network consists of 113 offices in 82 countries throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, West Asia, and the Asia-Pacific, each dedicated to forging competitive marketing advantage for businesses and their brands. Mindshare is part of GroupM, which oversees the media investment management sector for WPP, the world's leading communications services group.