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Using an Intellectual Property for marketing: Cipla’s Berok Zindagi chapter

#BerokZindagi Cipla campaign

According to Vikas Gupta from Cipla, creating a marketing IP requires consistency & discipline. Social Samosa, speaks to the brand-agency duo as they churn out the 3rd leg of the #BerokZindagi IP.

In a bid to dispel myths surrounding Asthma and the usage of inhalers for its treatment, Cipla Limited first launched ‘Berok Zindagi’ back in 2019, with Priyanka Chopra as the face. As the campaign forayed into its third leg in November 2020, the brand released its new ad film this time featuring Ayushmann Khurrana. 

Narrating the tale of three renowned people across varied streams, Khurrana navigates through their lives sharing how the achievers did not let Asthma stop them. The film includes Michelin Star Chef Vikas Khanna, Arjuna awardee badminton player, Parupalli Kashyap and popular comedian Bharti Singh. 

With #BerokZindagi, the brand has created a marketing IP to deal with the social stigma around the usage of inhalers that Cipla has revived at uniform intervals. We speak with the brand-agency duo to understand the idea behind the marketing IP, its celebrity-first approach, and the way forward.

Berok Zindagi – Making of a Brand IP

With three films under its banner, Berok Zindagi has become a prominent part of the brand’s marketing mix.

Taking us through the journey, Dr. Vikas Gupta, Head – India Business Prescription, Cipla, shares, “With our first celebrity-led campaign we roped in one celebrity who was an asthmatic, we managed to bring about a tangible change in people’s response to asthma by encouraging them to publicly speak about their condition just like our ambassador did.”

“The following year, we decided to change the format of delivering the message by launching a digital piece for #InhalersHaiSahi, with a discussion on facts and myths about asthma lead by a non-asthmatic celebrity. The idea was to take the initiative to discuss asthma as the common-man representative”, he adds.

According to the brand, a non-asthmatic celebrity symbolized every individual who does not suffer from the disease but is concerned about those who do.

The latest campaign featuring Ayushmann, who in the past has cast light on many social stigmas through his movies, was seemingly an obvious choice for the ad film. Along with the actor, the brand included other accomplished & relatable personalities to drive awareness.

 “People relate to them and having influencers from 3 separate fields helps us ensure that a larger cross-section of our audience connects with them”, adds Gupta. 

The brand explains that their influencer strategy is two-fold – one is featuring celebrities who fulfilled their dreams in spite of asthma with the help of inhalers and the second leg of personalities who do not have asthma but lend their voice to the cause.

Objective & Insight

“We endeavor to go beyond the pill and help patients to lead a healthier life”, shares the brand. The public awareness campaign is a continuous effort to address the stigma associated with asthma and its right treatment. Gupta states that the core objectives of this campaign are based on three pillars –

  • To establish Inhalers as the right treatment for asthma, 
  • To increase the adoption of inhalers by busting the myths and 
  • To drive social acceptance for inhalers by addressing social stigma through education.

Brief

Divya from Schbang gives an insight into the creative thought process of the campaign.

Divisha Iyer – Group Solutions Manager at Schbang, shares, “Asthma is the second largest cause of death for Indians, and even though it is easily manageable with inhalers, people don’t accept inhalers as a treatment option, opting for the less effective pills/syrups, instead. Hence, the brief and objective of our campaign were to create awareness for, acceptance of, and adherence to inhalers, the right asthma treatment.”

The creative idea revolved a lot around the fact that a life with asthma holds a lot of promise if only we choose inhalers to manage it well.

Conceptualization & Execution

While shooting Ayushmann campaign continued even during the lockdown process, the agency shared how bringing something to life at this scale, across four cities was challenging, especially when managing logistics, planning, and ultimately putting the film together.

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A post shared by Cipla (@officialcipla)

“However, the one thing that made it all happen was transparent communication with the internal team and with the brand, as well”, highlights Iyer.

More than postproduction processes being new, production processes were extremely fresh to work with. Which included regular COVID-19 tests for the core crew between every schedule with timely sanitization of sets, she adds. During the production of the ad film, the crew counts were kept to a maximum of 20 people on set versus at least 80-100 in the pre-COVID-19 times.

Also read: Inside: Making of Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan – Fundamentals of creating a long-distance campaign

Beyond the IP 

The campaign results last year suggest a considerable impact on both awareness and acceptance of inhalers demonstrated according to the brand. “The awareness levels for inhalers improved by 10% and consideration for inhalers saw an uptick of 5%”, Gupta highlights. 

Social Media Play

As a result of the pandemic, the time people spent online increased drastically. “While this created opportunities for brands to increase their reach or engagement online, creating a campaign that stands out and puts forth the message that we want people to remember was challenging. However, the strategy, communication & execution – all put together was the key to driving change at such time”, says Iyer.  

With a surge of people leveraging digital, the brand plans to take a digital-first approach, on the back of social media platforms and OTT. “The campaign will also be supported by Radio for better geographic connect”, highlights Gupta

Further, as a part of the current chapter of Berok Zindagi, Cipla is creating a helpline to enable patients to receive the right medical advice by locating specialists in the vicinity. Even a lot of doctors are seen supporting the cause on social media and their expert opinion seems to be the key to building credibility to the brand message. 

Last year, Berok Zindagi inspired numerous patients to come forward and speak about how they live unhindered lives because of inhalation therapy. They shared their experiences with asthma and knowledge about the same that gave them the confidence to accept asthma and inhalers, helping build a personal connect with the brand.

“When a consumer is approached in the language, he/she is familiar with, it helps in creating a far better connect with them”, puts forth Gupta. He explains how regional-connect helps in understanding their requirements better, making the brand more relevant to them. 

To do this, the brand seems to have roped in regional actors for the initiative such as Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Raima Sen, and many more.

Way Forward

Gupta highlights that going forward, the brand will want to go more regional and address regional specific challenges when it comes to asthma and inhalers. 

As people continue to embrace the new normal, brands need to be clear on the purpose and unite that with culture. “Creating a marketing IP requires a long-term commitment. It is important to be consistent not only across all touchpoints but over a period of time. The key will be to be true to the cause and consistency in messaging. To ensure the campaign stands the test of time, it is important to stay true to the purpose but evolve with culture”, concludes Gupta.

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from Social Samosa