Humko Big Idea Mangta

The art of copywriting was never about fancy vocabulary and convoluted sentences designed to impress. And that was myth was busted decades ago! To be honest, it came about totally by chance; but when it did, it not only made an overnight success of a new brand, it also blew an agency office into the big league and, most contextually from the perspective of this case-study, gave rise to an entirely new communication style.

Binnie’s potato chips were launched in the late eighties, albeit without much of the fanfare you’d expect with new launches today. The reasons for the muted launch were plain and simple. The branded potato chips category was barely there – just two organized players at the time, lost in a sea of grey market non-brands. The category itself was minuscule, and brand loyalty zero. People were still raised on proper home-cooked meals; fast food wasn’t really a thing; and disposable income, which wasn’t all that great, was rarely disposed of on impulse snacks.

High Stakes, Big Gamble.

However, the financial outlay for such a brand was significant. A plant was commissioned, machinery brought in, and a distribution network set up. Frankly the stakes were high and the company knew it was taking a gamble. The only way was to change how consumers perceived the category and thus expand the category itself.

But there was no differentiator. Branded or not, a chip was a chip was a chip. No use trying to project the brand as better or tastier – or any other brand attributes that would have worked today. A brand image had to be created unconventionally and somehow become the unexpected differentiator.

The company kicked the problem over to its communication agency – the fledgling Delhi office of one of the big guns, Mudra Communications. It was a small office, with barely a handful of staff. But they embraced the challenge and set about confronting it in real earnest.

Market Insights

Mudra Delhi began with market research. It threw up results that were insightful, without being eye-opening. Not surprisingly, they discovered that children, teenagers and young adults were the most frequent consumers – the 18-25 bracket even more so, accounting for almost half the purchases. Presumably children were dependent on their parents to make the actual purchase and, at a time when snacks or fast foods weren’t such a rage, that kind of negated them as a primary target audience.

The more insightful part of the study revealed, from an advertising perspective, that children idolized role models older than them, while teenagers and young adults picked their heroes from their own age bracket. At least the voice and tone of the campaign was clear.

The question now was how to deliver it. The usual suspect routes emerged… Emotional? Mother-child, maybe boy-girl relationships! Quality comparison? Our chips are better, crisper and tastier! One by one they got eliminated. What remained was ‘fun’.

But fun as a concept was too broad-based. Maybe serious messages could be lensed through a fun prism. Like a chef doing a testimonial in a silly sing-song sort of way. Or slice of life? Different ways to consume Binnie’s chips – fun situations, complete with a nonsensical jingle. Everything seemed either ‘trying too hard’ or just plain silly. Nothing that stood out to be noticed.

Eureka Moment

In desperation the agency herded its entire advertising staff of twelve persons into the conference room for a last-ditch brainstorm. It was make or break time. The hours crawled by, but no breakthrough… until in the course of discussion, an art director causally said in response to a question: “Humko Binnie’s mangta”.

Perhaps he was a Bombay import into Delhi, because that wasn’t the pristine North Indian Hindi, rather the mishmash of Bombay streetspeak that had come to be known as Bambaiya Hindi – and grammar be damned! But in that mangled lingo lay the key to unlock this latest problem.

The innocent phrase went in ad verbatim to become the backbone and platform of the entire campaign. It set up the meter for the perfect jingle too, allowing it to take a dig at the meagre competition: “Humko yeh nahin mangta, humko who nahin mangta, humko aur koi chips nahin mangta… Humko Binnie’s mangta!”

Worked Like a Charm

The palpable excitement of having unlocked the puzzle was briefly tempered by the worry that this being Bambaiya Hindi, it would work in Bombay, but definitely not in other regions – not the North, and definitely not the South, inimical as it was to anything remotely Hindi. But they needn’t have worried. The reverse actually happened. The campaign wasn’t as hot in Bombay – for the locals it was nothing extraordinary, it was everyday talk; ironically, in all other centres it was humorous and exotic… not least because Bombay lingo had already been popularized in Hindi cinema.

There was still the client to convince! But even that went through like a breeze. The agency always credited the client for being brave enough to go down this untested route. The client approved the campaign within mere seconds of presentation!

And so, Mudra put finishing touches to its ad campaign, then let loose at absolute prime time – airing on the two most-watch programmes. It caught on fast, and spread even faster. The agency didn’t stop there. To generate more excitement they did a promo that gave the first 200 people who called in and said “Humko Binnie’s mangta” free Binnie’s packs. Well beyond midnight and all the way into dawn, the calls kept coming in!

The choice of music was perfectly calibrated too. The temptation to score the lyrics to the most popular Bollywood hit of the day was eschewed and instead a lesser-known song was chosen so that it would not overpower the lyrics and hence the brand. It worked like a charm. After a while, it was as if the song was made for Binnie’s and not the other way around.

Achieved the Incredible

The Binnie’s campaign achieved the unthinkable along several parameters. Within six months the brand had cornered off a third of the market share. Not just that, it opened up the category itself, leading the way to the rage that branded chips would become in years to come. Most of all, it gave rise to a new concept in Indian advertising – eclectic, nonsensical, but essentially poor grammatical construction. Something that went on to resonate sufficiently with the general public.

 For the agency, Mudra – or in fact its small Delhi office – it was the jackpot that converted them from a side outfit to a mega player in its own right. The year following its Binnie’s success, Mudra Delhi’s billings surged ten times, year on year.

And yeah, the nonsensical lingo became part of the agency’s culture. “Humko artworks mangta”, “humko release order mangta” became entrenched in its lighthearted agency banter.

Humko next case study mangta? As always watch this space for the next installment in our Marketing Folklore Series.