Indiantelevision.com Team

(25 September 2007 4:00 pm)

MUMBAI: With the festive season approaching, paint companies are in overdrive to promote their range of products.

ICI Dulux is one of them, which is giving its Velvet touch range of paints a marketing push in the lead up to Diwali, Dussehra.

The marketing campaign features Karan Johar and actress Kareena Kapoor in a TVC which has been planted in the prime time slot from 9pm to 10pm across 14 channels. To give it extra mileage, it was launched at the time of culmination of several of the major reality / talent hunt shows on TV.

According to ICI Paints marketing manager Rajat Johri, about 90 per cent of ad spends for ICI Dulux's velvet touch range of paints is currently devoted to advertising on television.

"Both Karan Johar and Kareena Kapoor stand high on style and credibility, according to our research and we wanted to build a style credential around the same," says Johri. "Through our new campaign, we want to give patrons a good reason to switch from standard to premium quality paints. The Velvet touch range of paints is a formidable choice for consumers, who seeing the end of the monsoon season begin evaluating a suitable paint for their homes."

Johri says that sales shoot up about 50 to 70 per cent in the month before Diwali and 40 per cent of their total volumes is sold in this period. "The TVCs that go on air in the run-up to this period serve as a sort of an appetizer for people to sample them," he says.

"In todays TV media scenario where viewership is so fragmented it is very important that we identify all possible contact points with the target audience, the road block will help us to achieve that," says Optimum Media Solutions' group head Eeshita Ghosh.

In a category like paint, where the purchase decision is guided by dealer push, the endeavor is to generate interest and awareness among the end users, so that they actively participate in the paint selection process. This campaign hopes to do the same, she says.

The ICI Dulux spots come as the first ad in all the breaks. The 90-sec TVC featuring the two stars was also launched with a buzz focusing on programming on the same time slot. The TVC was produced by Dino Morea owned Clockwork Films and was directed Tarun Mansukhani, who has assisted Karan Johar in his earlier films.