Bourbon connects with youth and reflects high lifestyle

Sumedha Srivastav - Televisionpoint.com | Bangalore
Bourbon, a biscuit brand from Britannia, has been tantalising the taste buds of kids and elders alike with a chocolate cream between two chocolate biscuits since over five decades now. The flavour and the taste has remained the same over all these years and the only thing that has changed is the way the product is packaged and promoted.

The latest television commercial (TVC) for Bourbon aims to showcase its repositioning and connects with the youth and reflects their lifestyle and attitude. The campaign is conceptualised by McCann Erickson Bangalore and is directed by filmmaker Anurag Basu. Since the communication is directed towards the youth, the brand wanted to stay away from a typical biscuit ad and wanted to do something that would connect with the target audience.

The TVC opens with a girl standing in the corridor, waiting to enter her boyfriends house. Once inside, she realises that the boyfriend has a bunch of friends over, watching a match on TV. The girl takes a seat at the dining table, where she catches sight of a packet of Bourbon. She picks up a biscuit and the first bite gives her an idea - she begins to moan sensually in order to grab the attention of the males around.

With each bite, her moans get louder, while the men eye her with lust. The boyfriend then asks his friends to leave and one of the friends asks what was she eating? The next few shots are about the new packaging and the biscuit.

The couple is next shown sitting on a couch and the girlfriend innocently asks, "Tere dost kyun chale gaye? (Why did your friends leave?)". The film closes on the voice-over 'Bahar se kuch, andar se kuch aur (Something on the outside, something else on the inside).

Shalini Degan, category director, lifestyle and delight, Britannia Industries, says young people get the biggest kick when they maneuver out of tricky situations effortlessly and that is what is shown in the ad.

Anil Thomas, creative director, McCann Erickson, adds, “We are talking to the youth and felt the need to be relevant to them and create an affinity with them. The sensuality was not by design but by default and the situation highlighted in the film needed it.”

Speaking about the campaign idea, Thomas says, "I thought of this situation as it is a classic guy dilemma, it happens in life. However, the twist in this particular story is how the girl responds. Normally, the girl would have thrown a fit and got her boyfriend (who forgot about their date) to throw his friends out."

"The girl played along, and ensured that he did it out of his own accord 'Saap bhi mara, aur lathi bhi na tooti (The snake is killed, also the stick is not broken)'. There were a lot of other scripts with us, this seemed charming. And it is not about sex, it was just a device used. The next film could be a comeback from the guy." Thomas adds.

Anurag Basu says, "When I first read the script I asked, is it a biscuit ad? As it was very different and did not feel like the usual biscuit ads. But for the first time, I got a script that was exciting to work on. It also seemed challenging, more like walking on the tight rope. I wanted to tell them that I don't do commercials, but this story was really funny and witty for me to refuse."

For the brand, the repositioning of the biscuit is not only in the packaging but also in the core target group. While earlier, the brand targeted the entire family, now it specifically wants to focus on the youth. Even the tagline - Bahar se kuch, Andar se kuch aur - reflects the youth's style of dealing with problems, says Thomas.

Bourbon is a Rs 120 crore brand. The brand claims to command a 70 per cent share of the bourbon category, and Bourbon grew by 25 per cent last year. According to industry observers, the chocolate biscuit market forms 4 per cent of the total biscuit category.

The bourbon biscuits market has other players such as ITC, Parle and even local players. The overall chocolate biscuits market, which includes bourbon brands, has players such as Hide 'n' Seek, Hide 'n' Seek Milano, Good Day Chocolate and Pure Magic – which are the brands that Bourbon competes with in the overall chocolate biscuit category.