Background: Maruti Suzuki launching India's 1st compact SUV
India's leading auto manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki was launching something that would disrupt the auto market. A compact SUV called the Ertiga. A 7 seater, at a killer price and signature Maruti service support, etc. The mother brand stood for value-for-money and in a very competitive auto market which was seeing a spate of launches [2012-13], Maruti needed to get young, get cool and get share of mind fast given the younger skew of target consumers now.
The Plan: Hijack a Bollywood Feature Film!
Internationally, there had been a lot of films themed around cars, but nothing in India. Barring a Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Taarzan the Wonder Car... no Herbie, no Bumblebee. And while placements of cars may have happened, nothing at scale that created impact had been done. There entered this incredible opportunity of a full-fledged feature film!
Mere Dad ki Maruti
The Youth Films division of Yash Raj Films, Y-Films was developing a feature around a lost car. Originally Mere Dad ki Car, the opportunity for placement was seamless. While the other contenders included Mercedes - which had too many approval loops from international, there were the media innovation mavericks at Volkswagen with Polo [the film would have been Mere Papa ki Polo], but Maruti finally outbid them all and also presented the best thematic fit given how the brand has been almost generic to the category of first/ small cars. Both a pro and a con. While the concern was that this behemoth may take forever to make a decision due to its systems, protocols, the company moved surprisingly fast. Given a decision of this magnitude, nature especially. There were multiple meetings, pitches, but eventually, they fully bought into the vision and decided to punt on it. Full marks to their Media Director/ Marketing Lead, Sunila Dhar, and then COO Marketing & Sales, Mayank Pareek who championed and short-circuited this within their system to make it happen.
The Placement & Integrations
The film told the story of a boy, who sneaks out his stingy dad's fancy new Maruti Suzuki Ertiga to impress the college hottie. And then loses the car! The car is a gift for his sister who's about to get married in 4 days which ups the personal stakes. And along the way he encounters strange characters galore; from a gang of car thieves, a don, a car rental run by geriatric jatts, an enthusiastic salesman, crazy relatives and more. The Ertiga made its way into multiple scenes, songs, dialogues, dramatic plot points. And Maruti made its way into the title besides the theme and the core fabric of the film itself. Without for a moment feeling that it's a long advertisement, given how smartly it was done. For most marketers, consumers, it was a revelation that the film was funded by Maruti to a large extent.
The fun and loveable family was shown as being hardcore Maruti loyalists, establishing the strong emotional connect. The Ertiga was placed as the object of desire for the young leads making it aspirational and cool. With a soundtrack that featured everyone from Honey Singh & Mika, to Panjabi MC and Diljit Dosanjh, the songs featured the car in lyrics and videos. A hilarious scene at the showroom with a test drive brought in all the key features so seamlessly that it even surprised the makers! And a shocker of a climax where multiple Marutis make an entry, made it extremely memorable.
The Reach: 100 million+ eyeballs and counting!
The film opened in 45+ cities [which covered all of the Ertiga's priority markets] across 700+ screens. It premiered with multiple repeats across the Sony TV Network on Sony, Sab, Set Max besides DTH, in-flight, digital, PPV. In fact, it became pretty much the Jurassic Park of Star Movies/ Nayak of SetMax running every week on the network adding up to massive reach. The 360-degree marketing campaign for the film delivered over 24,000 spots on TV. Songs featuring the car in the lyrics and video ran on 20+ music channels besides playing out in ganpati visarjans, at performances in award shows and through integrations across mainstream GEC shows, awards, radio, events, digital, PR continued as part of the build-up to the release. Partner brands came in to further promote the film and in turn the brand, including Red Bull with a special song/ video by Nucleya, P&G's Car Freshener AmbiPur with TV promos, Integriti apparel with promotions on ground at stores and on TV. Radio Mirchi flipped their traffic updates by Maruti to have the title song of the film as its sting. And social media had memes, dad-son gifs, gags doing the rounds. Car loan companies were using the film's title to sell their policies!
Dheyr Saara PR aur Pyaar
The earned media on the film was enormous. There was media coverage across dailies nationally, with 100% carriage of the brand name - talking about the performances, the humor, the songs, the actors and the car - clocking upwards of INR 100 million+. There were reviews, of the film, the music and the film made its way into every year end list of Top 10 films to watch.
Rumors of a sequel on the release of the film further fuelled stories. The coverage continued for weeks pre and post release. And later when the marketing tie-in was revealed, the business media/ pink papers went into overdrive covering the one of a kind innovation!
A year into the release, the CEO of Infosys, Vishal Sikka was featured on the front page of Economic Times talking about how his favorite film that he'd watched 3 to 4 times with his son was Mere Dad ki Maruti!
Business Impact: 30% spike in test drives!
The most powerful barometer in the auto business for evaluating marketing campaigns, is test drives. Whether it converted to footfalls to showrooms, did people check out the car physically? Mere Dad ki Maruti drove up test drives for the Ertiga by 30%, outstripping even Maruti's own expectations. This could be directly attributed to the film as there was no other thematic advertising running around the promotional and release window of the feature film. There were huge lifts in likability for the Ertiga, and in spontaneous recall for 3 of the key features for the car that Maruti wanted to plug as differentiators. The trade and showrooms were buzzing. And the market was on fire wondering how was this done. With every media agency talking about how to replicate this for their client. 30-second TVCs suddenly felt so last season.
Final Takeaways...
India's leading auto manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki was launching something that would disrupt the auto market. A compact SUV called the Ertiga. A 7 seater, at a killer price and signature Maruti service support, etc. The mother brand stood for value-for-money and in a very competitive auto market which was seeing a spate of launches [2012-13], Maruti needed to get young, get cool and get share of mind fast given the younger skew of target consumers now.The Plan: Hijack a Bollywood Feature Film!
Internationally, there had been a lot of films themed around cars, but nothing in India. Barring a Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Taarzan the Wonder Car... no Herbie, no Bumblebee. And while placements of cars may have happened, nothing at scale that created impact had been done. There entered this incredible opportunity of a full-fledged feature film!
Mere Dad ki Maruti
The Youth Films division of Yash Raj Films, Y-Films was developing a feature around a lost car. Originally Mere Dad ki Car, the opportunity for placement was seamless. While the other contenders included Mercedes - which had too many approval loops from international, there were the media innovation mavericks at Volkswagen with Polo [the film would have been Mere Papa ki Polo], but Maruti finally outbid them all and also presented the best thematic fit given how the brand has been almost generic to the category of first/ small cars. Both a pro and a con. While the concern was that this behemoth may take forever to make a decision due to its systems, protocols, the company moved surprisingly fast. Given a decision of this magnitude, nature especially. There were multiple meetings, pitches, but eventually, they fully bought into the vision and decided to punt on it. Full marks to their Media Director/ Marketing Lead, Sunila Dhar, and then COO Marketing & Sales, Mayank Pareek who championed and short-circuited this within their system to make it happen.
The Placement & Integrations
The fun and loveable family was shown as being hardcore Maruti loyalists, establishing the strong emotional connect. The Ertiga was placed as the object of desire for the young leads making it aspirational and cool. With a soundtrack that featured everyone from Honey Singh & Mika, to Panjabi MC and Diljit Dosanjh, the songs featured the car in lyrics and videos. A hilarious scene at the showroom with a test drive brought in all the key features so seamlessly that it even surprised the makers! And a shocker of a climax where multiple Marutis make an entry, made it extremely memorable.The Reach: 100 million+ eyeballs and counting!
The film opened in 45+ cities [which covered all of the Ertiga's priority markets] across 700+ screens. It premiered with multiple repeats across the Sony TV Network on Sony, Sab, Set Max besides DTH, in-flight, digital, PPV. In fact, it became pretty much the Jurassic Park of Star Movies/ Nayak of SetMax running every week on the network adding up to massive reach. The 360-degree marketing campaign for the film delivered over 24,000 spots on TV. Songs featuring the car in the lyrics and video ran on 20+ music channels besides playing out in ganpati visarjans, at performances in award shows and through integrations across mainstream GEC shows, awards, radio, events, digital, PR continued as part of the build-up to the release. Partner brands came in to further promote the film and in turn the brand, including Red Bull with a special song/ video by Nucleya, P&G's Car Freshener AmbiPur with TV promos, Integriti apparel with promotions on ground at stores and on TV. Radio Mirchi flipped their traffic updates by Maruti to have the title song of the film as its sting. And social media had memes, dad-son gifs, gags doing the rounds. Car loan companies were using the film's title to sell their policies!
Dheyr Saara PR aur Pyaar
The earned media on the film was enormous. There was media coverage across dailies nationally, with 100% carriage of the brand name - talking about the performances, the humor, the songs, the actors and the car - clocking upwards of INR 100 million+. There were reviews, of the film, the music and the film made its way into every year end list of Top 10 films to watch. 
Rumors of a sequel on the release of the film further fuelled stories. The coverage continued for weeks pre and post release. And later when the marketing tie-in was revealed, the business media/ pink papers went into overdrive covering the one of a kind innovation! 
A year into the release, the CEO of Infosys, Vishal Sikka was featured on the front page of Economic Times talking about how his favorite film that he'd watched 3 to 4 times with his son was Mere Dad ki Maruti!Business Impact: 30% spike in test drives!
The most powerful barometer in the auto business for evaluating marketing campaigns, is test drives. Whether it converted to footfalls to showrooms, did people check out the car physically? Mere Dad ki Maruti drove up test drives for the Ertiga by 30%, outstripping even Maruti's own expectations. This could be directly attributed to the film as there was no other thematic advertising running around the promotional and release window of the feature film. There were huge lifts in likability for the Ertiga, and in spontaneous recall for 3 of the key features for the car that Maruti wanted to plug as differentiators. The trade and showrooms were buzzing. And the market was on fire wondering how was this done. With every media agency talking about how to replicate this for their client. 30-second TVCs suddenly felt so last season.
Final Takeaways...
- Innovate or Die... sounds like a cliche, but so critical today. Not for success, but survival. Irrespective of how jaded your category maybe. We often hear in companies/ or categories like financial services which have lot of restrictions, "Humaare yahaan aise nahi hota!" #Suicidal. What worked is that no one saw this coming, especially from a brand like Maruti [considered conservative] and at this scale.
- Trust your creative partners... once you've outlined your objectives, done a deep orientation with your team and are buying into the vision with the right creative partners, then go all in! Don't play watchdog. Tricky especially given the long tail for a feature - 6 months minimum Vs. a 30 second TVC that would turn around in 4 weeks tops. Monitor but don't breathe down their neck. Give them the elbow room to do what they do best and that they need to do to deliver back to you!
- Back it up... if you've sponsored an IPL team, you need to leverage that association/ spend as much talking about it/ promoting it as you did on the sponsorship itself. Else it will be a jungle mein mor wala situation. Maruti didn't pull it's punches. They leveraged their massive service, retail network to promote both the film and the car. Creating renewed excitement. CDs went in as part of welcome kits, ticket giveaways for sales, consumers, contests. Pulling out existing airtime on TV, radio and more came into the mix.
The Ertiga became one of the most talked about car launches in the industry for a long time. And certainly a very isspeshal case study.
Last but not least... call us, if you wish to create a case study of your own. We're on isspeshalstratcon@gmail.com.
