“Wanted to build brand awareness and drive cultural relevance at the point of sale”: Ashish Mishra, ACKO Insurance

The insurance company has launched a unique Ganesh idol adoption drive in Mumbai to bring ‘Bappa’ back home from the junkyards.

Mumbai is known for the grand way it celebrates the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi. Every year, the city celebrates its beloved Lord Ganesh in many forms like ‘Mumbai Cha Raja’, ‘Lalbaug Cha Raja’ and ‘Andheri Cha Raja’. This year, ACKO General Insurance decided to give an interesting twist to the celebrations by launching a unique idol adoption drive in the city.

The insurance company has observed that Mumbai isn’t just famous for its grand festivities, but also its junkyards and the rotting cars in there. According to the ad film, the number of cars rotting in these junkyards is much more than what can be seen on the roads of the city. The campaign is built on the insight of how thousands of Ganesh idols are left behind in these discarded cars.

ACKO’s idol adoption drive brings these Ganesh idols back home in a new avatar. For this initiative, the brand partnered with Kambli Arts, a Mumbai-based organisation famous for designing idols, sculptures and murals. The organisation was responsible for giving the discarded idols a new l.

Many families tend to buy new cars during this auspicious festival. And, the first thing they do after buying one is to put Ganesh idols inside it. By tying up with various car dealers throughout the city, ACKO gave car owners an opportunity to adopt these renewed Ganesh idols.

Speaking to afaqs! about this campaign, Ashish Mishra, executive vice president - marketing, ACKO, says, “Our idea was born out of an observation. Every Indian has a Ganesh idol in their vehicle, 365 days a year. But what happens to these idols when people change their cars, or abandon their old cars for newer ones?”

The scrapyards show a very different picture of Ganesh idols, which led to the ‘Dashboard cha raja’ (king of the car’s dashboard) campaign.

Being culturally relevant and creating a connection with the local market was ACKO’s key objective. Leo Burnett Orchard, the agency that conceptualised this campaign, reveals that the insight was to use the opportunity of Ganesh Chaturthi to start a new conversation - to keep the brand at the centre, and connect it to the culture and lives of people.

Explaining the marketing objective behind the campaign, Mishra mentions, “With ‘Dashboard cha raja’, we wanted to build brand awareness and drive cultural relevance specifically at the point of sale, or moment of purchase for consumers. It is at the showroom or dealership, where one purchases a car as well as insurance.”

The initiative was specifically designed for Mumbai, because Ganesh Chaturthi is synonymous with the city. ACKO partnered with four dealerships and many others were also quite keen on associating with the company.

Mishra says, “While Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated across India, its grandest form is witnessed in Mumbai. This is why our plan was to be specific to the city. For now, this activity was limited to Mumbai. But seeing the response, we will definitely look to scale it to other cities next year.”

Due to COVID pandemic restrictions within the city, it was a bit challenging for the brand to execute this campaign, as it covers various scrapyards, workshops of artisans and dealerships. The brand’s team had to logistically plan the entire activation to ensure all elements fell into place.

The campaign is designed primarily for social media. The brand is using its social media handles - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, to amplify the campaign.