A look at Britannia's first online-only ad for Good Day...

We spoke to Ali Harris Shere, VP, Marketing, Britannia Industries about the effort.

Britannia Good Day, the biscuit brand, on the occasion of World Smiles Day (October 6), released a new digital campaign - A day in the life of a Royal Indian Guard. The film has been conceptualised by JWT Bengaluru, directed by Vijay Prabhakaran and produced by Radhika Produces Films. The video was uploaded by the brand to its YouTube page and has garnered more than a million views with over three million views on its Facebook page.

Digital ad by Britannia Good Day - A day in the life of a Royal Indian GuardIn June this year, during an interview for Marketers' Special Issue - afaqs! Reporter magazine, Ali Harris Shere, VP, Marketing, Britannia Industries had mentioned, "TV remains our lead medium as it provides the largest reach in the most cost-efficient manner. However, our spends on digital are on the rise and we will continue to grow investments in this medium disproportionately. Digital generates consumer response faster than TV does."

Ali Harris ShereThis happens to be Britannia's first ever digital film. We asked Shere the reason behind launching the digital film now and if TVCs are for reach, then what role does digital play for the brand? He says,"TV will remain our main medium and for a very long time, it is also going to remain our lead medium. But all of us do understand that digital is growing and it can be the medium of the future. There are certain thoughts and concepts to work with when relating to the slightly evolved consumers who are also there on digital. And for a very profound thought, like we have in our current film, which is digital only, we are going to make some digital films that would be on TV as well. And since its digital, it is a long format film and wanted to tell a beautiful story well, however, long format content is not efficient on TV, as far as I'm concerned."

He adds, "Digital is for reach and frequency and yes, in digital the frequency is limited, but it is sharper. If you want to target a certain profile of consumers, I think digital helps you do that kind of sharp targeting better than TV does because of social media and various profiles available."

The brand's target audience is the consumer from a metro. This particular film is for SEC A and B, male and female, from urban areas and certain towns and classes.

Talking about the objective of the film, Shere says, "We were looking to make a beautiful film which completes the objective of conveying the message of the brand and inspiring people to smile more. The second objective was to tell a story in a very entertaining manner; to tell a story from the eyes of a royal guard who understands the importance of a smile and wants to smile himself. We thought the story can't be told in 30 seconds because there was a thought we wanted to bring out in an effective manner and therefore, a long format film; hence digital."

The philosophy of Good Day is that the world will be a better place if people just smile more. The journey to that 'smile' started with a campaign featuring Deepika Padukone, the brand ambassador, which ran about 12 months ago but is still on TV.

He adds, "As a brand we also believe in leveraging fixed and fluid moments to contextualise this brand message. There are certain days in a year which are fixed like Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day, Eid, Diwali etc and it could be any of those which gives an opportunity to contextualise our brand in that fluid moment. October 6 was World Smiles Day and we thought that it was a fixed moment that will sit beautifully into the philosophy of our brand. So we thought we can amplify the brand's message on World Smiles Day. That was the genesis of this campaign."

The brand plans to allocate 10-12 percent of its total media spends towards digital in the next one year.

Adding about how different a digital brief is compared to that of a TVC, Shere says, "When we give a TVC brief, we know it's going to be one-way communication and so we want to be very efficient and effective in conveying the message in the shortest duration possible. The length that you have to change in digital is what we need to understand and what will a consumer's reaction be to the content you are putting out. But we also need to get a reaction from the consumer in the form of an engagement. That's the difference."

We asked our experts if the brand is doing enough to leverage its 'smile equity'.

Ankita Pande

Sunila KarirAnkita Pande, head of strategy, iProspect India, says, "Yet another heart-warming ad from Britannia! A film that not only captivates you with its touching narrative but also effectively communicates the core message of #SmileMoreForAGoodDay, driving emotional connect and brand salience through one beautifully crafted message."

Sunila Karir, founder and creative partner, Boing!, a Mumbai based creative agency, says, "I haven't seen the brand using the 'smile equity' much elsewhere, but nevertheless, the earlier TVC is so widely seen that by now, the brand has become synonymous with the words 'Smile and have a good day'. The communication is sharp and spot on!"

This is the brand's first digital-only campaign. For a TV-led product like this one, it's a bold move. Does the ad cut it? What's the take on the effort - both idea and execution?

Pande says, "A bold move indeed! With iconic brands like Britannia taking a digital-only approach, the disruption that digital has brought about is accentuated. A story with all the right ingredients, that pulls at your heartstrings and highlighting the value of a simple gesture capable of brightening up lives - an upward curve of your lips!"

Karir says, "I think it's executed beautifully. It has a high 'viral' or 'repeat watch' value, which is so important for the internet. The story of this 'underrated hero' rings well and kudos to the direction as well as writing team who managed to eke out realistic performances in this 'slice of life' film. I watched it right till the end to know more about this hero who we often pass over in our adventures."

She adds, "The script, in the end, has landed beautifully on the brand premise. Advertising is not always about showing brand consumption, it's more about generating a feeling; recreating a memory associated with its consumption. And if, without showing the brand overtly within the communication, you manage to do that, you have succeeded. It's happened in this case."

Client: Britannia Good Day

Chief Creative Officer: Senthil Kumar

Executive Creative Director: Priya Shivakumar

Branch Head (JWT, Bangalore): Kishore Tadepalli

Creative Team: Pradeep Ravindran, Ashwin Lingan, Shashank Deekonda

Servicing Team: Vigyan Verma, Sandeep Mathummal, Anusua Dutta, Kirti Verma

Director: Vijay Prabhakaran

Production House: Radhika Produces Films

Music Director: Karan Kulkarni