The Hindu Business Line : Off the beaten track

With the soundtrack of the music video blasting off Bose speakers from 5 a.m., a bunch of teenagers doing their little cheerleading gigs and screaming "Oooooh Aaaaah India, Aaaaah Yaaaaa India!" untiringly till seven when the train finally pulled out of Safdarjung station, the Blue Billion Express' journey from Delhi to Jaipur, flagged off by Rajiv Bakshi, Chairman, PepsiCo India, was all set to be a much talked about event. After all it had superstar Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra on board along with a 100 journalists and more than 100 contest winners headed to cheer the Indian cricket team at the ICC Champions Trophy match of October 15.

Khan and co-star Chopra, less than a week before the release of their movie Don, did get a lot of media coverage; more than the Cricket Museum on board that had photographs, an ICC Champion's trophy and Sachin Tendulkar's bat among the memorabilia. But where was Pepsi headed with the Blue Billion Express, and its Blue Billion Campaign?

"Oooooh Aaaaah India, Aaaaah Yaaaaa India! was a chant for the country and not for Pepsi," said Punita Lal, Executive Director (Marketing), PepsiCo India. It's not about Pepsi, nor about them the Bollywood stars, reiterated Shah Rukh Khan. "You don't see the Pepsi bottle on the train because it was about the fans," he said. "For cricket fans in this country, the game is a religion. We are just, in a humble manner, enabling them to exhibit their passion," says Vipul Prakash, Executive Vice-President (Marketing-Cola), PepsiCo India. "And no one has yet spoken to the fans," he added.

It started with an album composed by Vishal Shekhar, produced with Sony BMG, a video featuring testimonials from the usual Bollywood suspects, and even Saurav Ganguly, and shot by Abhinay Deo. (It is rumoured that Deo, believed to be the hottest ad filmmaker today, was booked for two whole months.) The bluebillion.com Web site, offering a host of cricket merchandise, has till date registered more than 2.15 lakh unique visitors and more than 11 lakh clicks. Then there was the train, dramatically wrapped in blue, sporting the images of the Indian cricket team. And there was Shah Rukh, swearing by "Rahul and his boys."

"But trust me," says Bruce Matchett, National Executive Creative Director, JWT, the agency behind it campaign, "Hiring a train isn't that expensive; 360-degree advertising doesn't have to be expensive, it's got to be smart rather than big."

Pepsi's presence in the campaign hasn't really been a watershed, but the brand has refrained from showcasing its products. And that, insists the cola giant, has nothing to do with the pesticide controversy. "Work on this campaign started in February, in April we approved the script and in June we shot it. It's just a coincidence that the controversy broke out in August," says Prakash. "It was nice ammunition to have, though," says Matchett; much more intelligent than using filmstars/ brand ambassadors in the usual way — making them swear by the products they are paid to sell. "This was a nice campaign on the boil, and it showed that Pepsi also played a responsible role as a corporate citizen," says Matchett.

The chant has caught on. "The idea was to ignite a nation, give it a united voice, a passion leading up to the World Cup next year," says Matchett, promising the campaign won't lose steam by then.

Pepsi, point out those in the business, was never about the FMCG product; it was about an attitude, a lifestyle. And that's what its sometimes cheeky advertising has always sold. (Everyone remembers the brilliant `Nothing Official About It' campaign that Pepsi ran, during the 1996 Cricket World Cup, sabotaging official sponsor Coke's advantage.) The `billion' in the campaign just cashes in on the resurgent nationalism popular these days. And why not, says Matchett, " `Billion' is no longer an embarrassing number, either on a political or economic scale. And wouldn't it be hard to sell a "400 Million Express?" he asks.

Some campaigns, like this one, says Matchett, go beyond awards. Matchett, who also took the Blue Billion Express, says he knew the campaign had worked when he walked into a lift in Jaipur hotel and the operator stared long at the white man wearing the colours of the Indian cricket team, before saying "Oooooh Aaaaah India, Aaaaah Yaaaaa India!" "It brought tears to my eyes. Even a normal guy outside advertising got what it was all about," says Matchett.

Pepsi is one of sponsors of the upcoming cricketing events for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 in West Indies, and campaign designers promise they'll better a `Shah Rukh Khan on a Blue Billion Express' by then!

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