Oct 21, 2008

Mktg - Nivea,MTV bring out the sportsperson in you

Chhavi Tyagi

A few office goers and college students in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru didn't know what was in store for them when they left for work and studies, respectively. While they were busy chasing deadlines, Nivea and MTV brought on a surprise for them.

The on-ground campaign, called Nivea MTV What's Your Sport!, is designed to remind people about the fun element missing in their lives. The campaign was launched in the second week of October and will go on till November 15, covering 20 offices, 10 colleges and two local malls in each of the three cities.

Aditya Swamy, senior vice-president, Viacom Brand Solutions, Viacom18, says in an official communiqué, "While the common perception is that MTV is a teen brand, we do engage the young adult demo as well. These people are looking at ways to destress their action packed days and relive the carefree years gone by. Nivea MTV What's Your Sport! brings the madness of MTV right back into their daily lives, while reinforcing Nivea Sports Deo's positioning of giving consumers the confidence to do just about anything."

The activity engages the participants in inventive and fun games, such as File Lifting, Hurdle Race, Tie It Up or Wheel Prix. In Wheel Prix, for instance, participants are required to wheel their partners through the curviest race path at work on office chairs. In Tie It Up, the shoelaces of the participants were tied together for a race. These games, Swamy says, had the participants screaming for more.

Through the campaign, Nivea is looking to promote a new deodorant, Nivea Deodorant Sport, targeted at men. MTV hopes to have a larger brand connect with its target audience.

Swamy tells afaqs!, "Apart from the obvious objective of reinforcing our brands amongst our target audience, we believe that the young professionals of today are looking to break free from their stressful working environments. When a normal day involves typing on computers for hours on end, the one hour with Nivea MTV What's Your Sport! gave them much needed relief and helped in destressing their day."

Soma Ghosh, marketing director, Nivea, says, "We all have jam-packed schedules and hardly any time to do any sports. Amongst all this hectic running around, we need to find an element of sport in our daily activities. Building on this core thought, Nivea Deodorant Sport positioned itself on the concept, ‘Every Day is a Sport’. Nivea Deodorant brought alive this concept through a TV commercial and on-ground activation, which let men experience the sports they do during the course of their daily routine."

Some of the offices where Nivea and MTV teams have already created their magical effect include media agencies such as Group M. Realising the push the activity gave to the employees, Viacom18 didn't want to leave its own network channels behind. So, the campaign was also run in the offices of Colors and CNN-IBN.

Apart from the gaming activities, participants were also asked to sample Nivea’s new deodorant. The winning teams were given Nivea gift hampers.

Taking the campaign on television, Viacom Brand Solutions is also asking MTV viewers to email whacky video clips of the activities that can be played as a sport to Whatsyoursport@gmail.com. The sport that qualifies as the best entry will be played exclusively on MTV.

Viacom Brand Solutions is the marketing and business development arm of Viacom18, which represents the network's combined portfolio of assets in India – currently MTV, VH1, Nick, Studio18 and their digital media properties.

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