Milky way

MooShake, a milk offering from the Odisha-based Milk Mantra, has rolled out a digital and offline campaign to connect with children and parents on the functional health benefits of the product.

Milk Mantra's campaign for MooShake is based on the insight that though milk has been around for centuries, very little innovation has happened around it. The Youtube video, conceptualised and executed by Milk Mantra's agency, Merry Men, featuring SuperMoo, the brand's mascot, is an inspirational story about how drinking milk alone for years, never helped Moo achieve his dream of becoming SuperMoo, but the MooShake loaded with Curcumin (found in turmeric) did the trick.

MooShake contains curcumin, a turmeric extract known for its anti-inflammatory, blood purifying and immunity boosting properties combined with high levels of anti-oxidants. "It is an amalgamation of ancient ayurvedic wisdom and modern product development science and processing technology, making it a real superfood," says Srikumar Misra, founder and managing director, Milk Mantra.

The campaign was recently rolled out across Bangalore (the launch market) on social media and offline. A teaser video that told the story of an ordinary 'Moo' who desperately wants to become Sooper was launched on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, generating buzz for #milkjustgotsooper. Around the same time, ads appeared in leading regional and English dailies like Vijay Karnataka and Times of India, Bangalore. Outdoor advertising included hoardings, bus shelters, extensive bus and auto branding. Radio was also a part of the mix.

On Twitter, brand mascot SooperMoo started sending quirky personalised tweets to Bangaloreans and influencers, catching them completely off guard. Mall activation through a 'Fly with SooperMoo' engagement, product sampling and in-store promotions were carried out in the city's leading malls including, Forum, Mantri and Orion. As a result, a day before the launch #milkjustgotsooper was trending at the first position in Bangalore.

The communication is poised to engage with the children and parents on the brand's functional health benefits. In the coming months MooShake will be launched in more Indian cities, as it plans to scale up rapidly.

Kartik Mani, founder and chief insurgent, Merry Men informs us that the biggest design challenge was to ensure that whilst they communicated the key ingredient Curcumin, consumers were not put off by the idea of a milkshake with 'Haldi'. Hence the branding, packaging and all pieces of communication were hugely inspired by comic and pop art, which helped in bringing to life the core proposition - 'Milk Just Got Sooper'.

"We were looking for something that communicated the Sooper qualities of MooShake whilst staying in the fun and quirky zone," says Mani. Speaking about his experience working on this campaign, he adds, "Although we have done many integrated campaigns previously, MooShake launch was truly an important one for us because it involved the whole gamut, from branding and packaging to online and offline communication. We are quite satisfied with what we have achieved."

Available in four flavours - Slurpy Mango, Peachy Strawberry, Oh So Chocolatee and Nutty Badam - MooShake is less sweet and has a thicker 'mouth feel'. The 160ml pack size priced at Rs. 25 could be just right for travel or school lunches.

The milkshake category is currently pegged at Rs 1,500 crore and is growing at a CAGR of 20 per cent. However, product innovation has not been able to match the needs of the consumer. MooShake was launched after extensive research with an intention to fill this gap.

Milk Mantra was set up in 2009 to create a pure and healthy dairy product brand in India, whilst creating sustainable impact amongst network farmers - especially in Odisha. Milk Mantra has dairy processing plants in Gop and Sambalpur, Odisha. Apart from the flagship brand, the product range includes Milky Moo milk, dahi, probiotic dahi, paneer, lassi and buttermilk.

Sooper loved?

Praful Akali, founder-director Medulla Communications says he loved the campaign, the fact that it doesn't communicate health in a "fuddy-duddy, boring manner" as is usually the case. "It connects in the right ways with both children and their moms without getting blindsided by the lure of television. Most importantly, it stays true to the basic product idea of a super-milk or a milk+ product", adds Akali.

Appreciating the basic product idea and the focused launch he points out that the campaign uses social media very well to bring alive conversations on a new category. "Full marks to the client for such focused thinking. Brands must realise that television is no longer the only way to reach audiences, and when the audience is SEC AB children in a metro like Bangalore, it would be rather inefficient", he states.

However, Akali maintains that there could have been more innovations on mobile gaming and advertising, particularly for a Bangalore audience. He also feels that the launch has certainly established MooShake as a milk+ product but the video becomes a little weak on the exact health benefits. "Immunity, heart, and anti-inflammatory benefits are mentioned but just not brought alive. Not sure if they're the right health benefits to connect with children or mothers. Even the other creatives shared on social media stop short of talking about the health benefits - it's almost like the agency was a little afraid of over-stepping on this", he says.