After 14 years of Salman Khan, Dixcy Scott turns to cricket for endorsements

The brand’s new ads feature cricketing celebrities Ravi Shastri, Mohammed Siraj, and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Here’s why.

Dixcy Scott, an underwear brand from the house of Modenik, a manufacturing company based out of Bengaluru, has unveiled new ad films that feature cricketing celebrities including commentator Ravi Shastri, bowler Mohammed Siraj, and batsman Yashasvi Jaiswal. 

The new campaign titled Body Ki Bhasha, has been conceptualised and created by TBWA India. In a series of three ad films, Siraj, Jaiswal, and Shastri are seen repping the new mantra for the brand, translated roughly to The Body’s Language, denoting how quality innerwear can affect the overall confidence of a person.

While the new ad films are an extension of the brand’s 2022 campaign Body ki language, it is a move away from their long-standing partnership with Bollywood superstar Salman Khan. After 14 years of collaboration with the actor, the brand has pivoted to cricket for its campaigning. And there is a reason for it.

As per Shekhar Tewari, who is the chief executive officer of Modenik Lifestyle, the idea was to onboard celebrities that were relevant to the brand’s core target group, which are men within the 18-45 years age group. 

“Two things that excite our TG are Bollywood and cricket. Since every other brand in our segment has a Bollywood celebrity, there is a looming risk of misappropriation. So, we wanted to find faces that would be more relevant for the younger generation,” he says.

Furthermore, the brand is also trying to carve a new narrative in the mix of routine, age-old tropes of machoism and sensual depictions that have riddled the category for decades. The plan is to focus more on utility, as per Tewari. 

“Typically, underwear ads carry brawny undertones, or they evoke a sense of sex appeal where women drool over men in underwear. Everybody has been using this tangent. We did some research with the FutureBrands Group and decided to launch a whole new proposition, body ki bhasha. Underwear is something you wear for 12 to 14 hours a day. A well-fitted, comfortable underwear has a lot to do with your body posture, and therefore confidence.”

Interestingly, the brand unveiled the campaign right before the playoffs of the IPL. Given that the campaign features popular cricketing celebrities, why not launch the campaign at the start of the tournament? 

Tewari answers, “Ideally, we would have wanted to roll out the campaign at the start of the IPL, but we had some challenges in mounting all of the elements together. We have a two-year contract with the celebrities and there are more cricketing events coming our way such as the T20 World Cup.”

The brand did advertise on JioCinema during the playoffs of the IPL which concluded on May 26. Moreover, Tewari also points out that the brand is aiming to leverage the election fever that has gripped the nation this year. 

He says, “There are a couple of things that are different this year. Elections are a mega thing in India. Our huge markets in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and West Bengal, are also poised for an eventful election this year. So, the election day coverages, the poll day coverages, the result day and the exit polls will all be in our media mix.”

For the T20 World Cup, the brand will debut with the India versus Pakistan match scheduled for June 9. The media mix for the World Cup is going to be a mix of television and digital.

“We’re opting for SD sports channels for television along with a humongous amount of general entertainment channels (GECs). Besides that, we’ll also be on digital. It is roughly going to be a 1200 to 1600 gross rating point (GRP) campaign.”

Modenik also houses Enamor, a lingerie brand, and is the official licensee of Levi’s in India.

As per Tewari, the marketing requisites for Enamor are drastically different from that of Dixcy, since the former is a premium brand while the latter is a tier-2 and beyond type of brand. 

“The TG is very different. So, on the backend, everything is very different. The marketing team, the product design and development team, logistics and support functions are all different. For Enamor, our price point and positioning make it more suitable for Metros and the top 50 towns of the country. So, the choice of media and the treatment changes as well. For instance, with Enamor, we don’t do television. We are more skewed towards digital and out-of-home advertising.”

Speaking on the expansion strategy of Dixcy Scott, Tewari opines that there are key markets in the south that the brand aims to explore. “These are going to be focus markets for us. Three of the four southern states are among the largest consumer states in the country. Historically, however, since there has been an overuse of Bollywood celebrities within this category, the brands missed out on non-Hindi speaking states.”