After a 5.3 percent decline in sales, Indian laundry brand Active Wheel wanted to raise brand awareness by reconnecting with Indian consumers and delivering the message that the product had changed its formula. Active Wheel knew that in many areas of India the cost of mobile communication was high, which often meant that families had to prioritize household necessities over communicating with loved ones. This led Active Wheel to develop the "Lo Kar Lo Baat" (Let's Talk) campaign, a mobile service which offered couples a free three-minute mobile phone conversation. One of the most successful campaigns in the history of the brand, Lo Kar Lo Baat connected 16 million people in India, increased brand awareness, and raised company sales.
Objective and Context:
In the latter half of 2014, sales of Indian laundry brand Active Wheel declined by 5.3 percent. In 2015, Active Wheel's objective was to reconnect with Indian housewives, to deliver the message that the product had changed its formula, and to regain top-of-mind awareness in a noisy and crowded category.
Target Audience:
The target audience of the campaign were those of lower socio-economic status from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand. In these areas, the cost of mobile communication was high, and often meant that families had to prioritize household necessities over communicating with loved ones.
Creative Strategy:
The idea was to build brand awareness and put a smile on customers' faces by giving them easy and free mobile phone access.
Active Wheel consumers were based in geographies with little or no access to traditional media apart from mobile phones. Active Wheel used this limited media access to its benefit by creating Lo Kar Lo Baat (Let's Talk), a mobile service which offered people a free three-minute mobile phone conversation.
Overall Campaign Execution:
The Lo Kar Lo Baat campaign was advertised through a toll-free phone number on Active Wheel's packaging. Once dialed, a pre-recorded message from actor Salman Khan would act as the customer's personal telephone operator, connecting them to their loved one.
To make sure that Lo Kar Lo Baat was accessible to everyone, there was no required purchase, registration, or code redemption. In total, Active Wheel distributed 10 million packs in the key Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand markets.
Mobile Execution:
With the help of a specially-created voice recognition software, all callers needed to do once they reached the pre-recorded message was read out the phone number they wanted to call, and they would be connected. While the connection was happening, a 30-second ad for Active Wheel's new formula would play on both ends of the call.
The voice recognition software was developed to recognize 19 different Indian dialects, making it user friendly for the semi-urban population with limited literacy levels.
Lo Kar Lo Baat was one of the most successful campaigns in the history of Active Wheel. It connected 16 million people in India, and consumers used the service even six months after campaign packs were sold out. Even though Lo Kar Lo Baat packs only appeared on shelves for three months, the line continued to receive 200,000 calls per day. The campaign drove a 145 percent increase in top-of-mind awareness and 14.5 percent growth in sales volume.
