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Purvita Chatterjee

Bajaj hopes its animation campaign building on the Hoodibabaa promise for Caliber will help it add volumes.

TAKING the Hoodibabaa campaign for Bajaj's Caliber 115 cc forward is an animation commercial. Created by Lowe Mumbai, this is the first time that an animation film has been made for the rather `serious' motorcycle category.

According to R. L. Ravichandran, Vice-President (Business Development & Marketing), Bajaj Auto Ltd, "Animation films are possibly seen in children's categories, such as biscuits. Nobody had done animation films for a serious product like motorcycles, so we, along with our agency, decided to try it out for the first time in the motorcycle category."

Continuing with the father-son emotional bond from its previous Hoodibabaa films, the TV commercial shows the father as the hero riding the bike to rescue his son from a lion which has escaped from its cage, managing to save his son and also trap the lion back into its cage.

Added Indraneel Ghosh, Brand Services Director, Lowe, "We have used animation to break through the clutter. The purpose was to leverage pester power to an extent that the child could convince adults into buying the brand."

In fact, Bajaj's Caliber 115cc has always been positioned on the emotional platform and Hoodibabaa was a new term to express the `wow!' qualities of the brand, explains Lowe.

The advertising account moved to Lowe last March with the re-launch of the Caliber 115 cc motorcycle in the form of the Hoodibabaa campaign. Bajaj Auto has been trying to gather prominence in the executive segment of motorcycles with its Caliber 115 cc and Wind 125 cc models. As of now, Hero Honda dominates the segment with a 60 per cent share with brands such as Splendour and Passion.

While the Hoodibabaa phrase has caught on and Bajaj Auto has managed to gather a combined 12 per cent share in the executive segment for both its brands, it believes the new campaign will add more volumes in this segment.

"Through this campaign we want to move a notch above our rivals," says Ravichandran. Besides, it also wants to upgrade the users of low-end bikes (the 100 cc segment) to the executive segment with its superior product-led features such as that of extra mileage and a quick pick-up.

With the executive segment (the Rs 40,000-plus range) being the fastest growing segment in motorcycles today, Bajaj intends spending lavishly on its two brands in this segment. It has already allocated an ad budget of Rs 50 crore.

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