How to create an ageless brand campaign? Sylvester daCunha had the answer in Amul Girl’s Utterly Butterly Delicious campaign for Amul Butter.

“He used a mix of unique creatives, selection of media and consistency,” said RS Sodhi, dairy veteran and former MD of Amul (Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd), expressing grief over daCunha’s demise on Tuesday night in Mumbai.

The founder of advertising and branding consultant firm daCunha Communications in Mumbai, Sylvester daCunha had first engaged with Amul in 1960s for Amul Butter brand.

Making of Brand Amul

daCunha showcased that the purpose of advertising is to create a brand that benefits its owners. “In Amul’s case, it was farmers. In the 1960s, making the Amul brand was the toughest task as Polson Dairy was already strong. daCunha very conveniently created a brand in Hindi that everyone could relate with - Amul, without spending big money,” Sodhi told businessline.

daCunha, Sodhi recalled, believed in effective yet economical brand building and thus he created an age-less campaign having a top-of-the-mind recall value ‘Utterly Butterly Delicious’.

The father of the white revolution, Verghese Kurien did acknowledge the contribution of daCunha and his colleagues in building the Amul butter brand. In 1966, Amul butter was lagging behind in Mumbai (then Bombay) market despite leading elsewhere in the country. The Amul account was handed over to Advertising and Sales Promotion Company (ASP), where daCunha was working with Eustace Fernandes and Usha Katrak. ASP was given a task to “dislodge Polson from its ‘premier brand’ position in Bombay.”

“The image of the Amul girl went down so well with consumers that very soon it became synonymous with Amul,” Kurien noted in his autobiography ‘I too had a dream’.

Amul topical: From post to social media

Sodhi recalls, “My first interaction with Sylvester was 43 years back, when in the 1980s he was among the few experts who came to IRMA to share their experience and learning with students.” But regular interactions started happening from 1993, when Sodhi was made group product manager with responsibility for advertising.

“In those days, he used to send creatives via post. Unlike now, when we have two-three creatives a week, there used to be three or sometimes four creatives in a month. Once they reach us, we would get a painter to paint it on the hoardings from the posters. It would be ready by the next morning. In Jaipur, there was only one hoarding with Amul topical near Maharaja College,” said Sodhi.

The creatives led by the iconic Amul girl in a dotted polka dishing out a witticism on current topics, have grown wider with time from outdoor hoardings to print, television and now to digital and social media.

“In the advertising industry, everyone wants to leave their stamp on the brand. This makes it difficult to keep the campaign intact for decades. Sylvester retired about 15 years ago, but Amul and his team continued with the legacy without any change and we have the world’s longest campaign in Amul,” he added.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW