Maruti Suzuki earmarked Rs 20-21 crore for Arena campaign phase-2: Shashank Srivastava

Maruti Suzuki ARENA, the flagship brand of Maruti Suzuki recently launched a new campaign, ‘Find Your Match’, featuring actor Varun Dhawan as the brand ambassador. The campaign gives out the message of how today’s generation treats and perceives the car they purchase, not merely as a possession, but as a status and lifestyle symbol, where the car is equated to one’s first date and where one is mesmerised by meeting them the first time (the car in this case) and get to know each other with time, thus the name goes ‘Find Your Match’ equating finding the right car for oneself to finding the right person and denoting love at first sight. It shows how one forms a relationship with their car just like with a human being. The purchase of the car is portrayed as an experience to be cherished forever, sticking true to the brand tagline of Maruti Suzuki which is ‘Way of Life’.  Four new regional festive films are also being launched by the brand as part of the campaign on the occasion of Navaratri, Durga Puja, Dussehra and will be running on OTT, GECs, and digital platforms.

Launched in the year 2017, Maruti Suzuki ARENA is known for providing seamless, digitised, connected car buying experience to the tech savvy, dynamic, and young consumers. Maruti Suzuki ARENA has continuously grown and evolved with its audience with the key focus on offering dynamic value. The showrooms of Maruti Suzuki ARENA are well-equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure and modernised gadgets, allowing the customers to customise and access detailed digital information about the attributes and specifications of the products of Maruti Suzuki. The portfolio of Maruti Suzuki ARENA includes products such as S-PRESSO, Alto K10, Swift, Brezza, Dzire, Ertiga, Celerio, WagonR.

‘Find Your Match’ has been conceptualised and designed to give out the idea that customers can now find not just a car but establish a relationship with Maruti Suzuki ARENA.

In conversation with Adgully, Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing and Sales, Maruti Suzuki India, said, “A car is now not just a function or just fulfilling a functional need, but it is sort of reflecting his or her personality. It is like maximising his or her life in terms of the lifestyle.”

What is the story and concept behind the campaign ‘Find Your Match by Maruti Suzuki Arena? How did the idea come about?

The idea about ‘Find Your Match’ comes from an insight essentially from research with our consumers. What we found was that unlike the earlier consumers, this new consumer looks at the car not just as a possession. It is not just a function or just fulfilling a functional need, but it is sort of reflecting his or her personality. It is like maximising his or her life in terms of the lifestyle, what it tells about his or her personality. So, in that sense, it’s not just about possession, but a relationship. And like any relationship, for example if you have a relationship with a person, you obviously look at some characteristics and you try to find a match with their thinking or that’s how you build relationships. So, it’s about building the relationship with the car.

The car is like a relationship and therefore, we said ARENA is in a great place to find your match, because we have a whole big portfolio of different types of cars catering to different segments of people and you can just find your match of what suits best your personality or your lifestyle and that is why we found this. A great peg to start the campaign, which was ‘Find Your Match. We started it with the 6th anniversary of the ARENA. It was towards the end of August and the campaign has done pretty well. We also used Varun Dhawan as the brand ambassador. He is featured in the ad and it has done very well actually. It has got some very good reviews.

Does the campaign have any specific objective? And what was the reason for collaborating with the actor Varun Dhawan for this campaign?

We wanted to reach out to people. We have 10 products and each product has a separate brand positioning in the ARENA. These products come under the umbrella brand, which is ARENA, and we wanted to establish what the Maruti Suzuki ARENA is. That is why we had a common campaign and the common theme. All these buyers in the ARENA are young guys, who are both the users and the intenders. They are more modern, more experimentative, more tech savvy. They’re largely first time buyers. They are usually professionals or they are in business.

Which creative agency has conceptualised this campaign? What was the brief given to them?

Lowe Lintas is the agency that did this campaign and built an emotional connect with ‘Find Your Match’. ARENA is geographically a very well spread out brand. In the second phase of the campaign during the festive season, the same theme is extended through celebrating the festival. We have come out with 12 ad films, which are specifically meant for different states.

What is the narrative behind the regional festive films launched by Maruti Suzuki?

These 12 ad films are based on celebrating the festivals in different parts of our country – for example, it starts with Onam in August in Kerala, then shifts with the Ganpati festival in Maharashtra, and in Gujarat with the Navratri, and Durga Puja a little later in West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Dussehra in the South states, followed by Diwali, Bhaidooj, then moving on to Christmas in the Eastern part of the country, Lohri in Punjab, and Pongal and Ugadi. Hence, various festivals are spread across from August till March, although the main festive season lasts up till mid-November.

These 12 ad films are based on regional celebrations. They will be in the vernacular media and we have allocated around Rs 20 - 21 crore for this second part of the campaign.

Could you give an estimate of the OOH ad spends by Maruti Suzuki Arena this year during the festive season?

This festive season, the spends on OOH is in the range of Rs 3.5 crore, plus there are specific product ads for OOH that should be between Rs 3.5 crore and Rs 4 crore. So, overall, I think it should be in the range of Rs 4.5 crore or so.