Disruptive Innovation To Be A Lot More Experimentative: Saumya Rathor

Think potato chips, and Lay’s is what comes to your mind. And it is homecoming time for ace cricketer and former captain of the Indian cricket team, MS Dhoni as he makes a comeback to the PepsiCo family for a second stint of brand ambassadorship, and this time around it is for Lay’s – he stars in their latest campaign – 'No Lay's, No Game’.

Lay's has introduced the international 'No Lay's No Game' campaign to the Indian audience, which is globally acclaimed for its association with sports tournaments. 

On the sidelines of this campaign and getting Dhoni back on board, BW Marketing World had an exclusive interaction with Saumya Rathor, Category Lead – Potato Chips, PepsiCo India wherein she spilled the beans about the Dhoni’s association with Lay’s, the marketing strategy for the brand, its limited edition packs, and more.

Edited excerpts:

Going a little in hindsight, as we all know, PepsiCo's 11-year association with Dhoni ended in 2016, and it has been revived again now with this association after seven years. What is the reason for bringing him back on board?

I think we've always been a big Dhoni fan. And that's the reason that we had such a long association with him earlier in the past as well.

But having said that, I feel that sometimes it's all about finding the right celebrity and the brand philosophy fit. And this time the campaign that we have is just an amalgamation of what Dhoni really stands for and what the brand really stands for. 

I think Dhoni is like an emotion and he has given joy to so many of us at multiple points during his career. And I think the brand is also now picking up this whole space of joy. And I felt that there's no one better than Dhoni to really bring alive what we really want to talk about, as well as what he really brings to the table.

In his previous association with Pepsi, Dhoni has had the tagline of ‘Change the Game’ to the current tagline of the campaign, ‘No Lay's, No Game’. How has the transition for both Lay's and Dhoni been? 

I feel that ‘Change The Game’ was a campaign that was done on Pepsi and I think I have the good opportunity of leading both the brands in my career.

I feel ‘Change The Game’ was a very challenger point of view that Pepsi had really taken out at that point of was, and I think Pepsi is the quintessential challenger. So I think that campaign did really well for the brand at that point of time. 

The Lay's campaign is slightly different. Lay's is a brand which is a lot about warmth and joy and family coming together, friends coming together and really celebrating that moment. And I feel that this campaign is more in sync with what the brand really wants to talk about, which is that all your moments or the core memories that you create are the memories that are created with Lay's.

And ‘No Lay's No Game’ essentially is just talking about the fact that if you don't have Lay's, how can you enjoy a game or anything, right? 

About the client brief that you gave to the agency and the creative thought that went behind putting this campaign in place - what was the thought behind it? 

Firstly, for us the ‘No Lay’s, No Game’ is a global campaign that has starred people like Messi. It starred people like Thierry Henry and of course it had been done from a point of view of soccer or football. We felt that we have a very good insight, and that campaign has done really well for us - we felt a unique opportunity for us to really pick up a template and give a cricket spin to it, given the fact that India is a cricket obsessed country. I always say this, that cricket is religion, cricketers are gods in the country, right? And Dhoni is the perfect example for that. There's no one bigger than Dhoni in India right now. So we are extremely excited to give a nuanced cultural cricket connotation to the campaign.

And I think as an organisation, we genuinely believe in global might and local fight. And I think it's the perfect amalgamation of those two things for us. 

The cricket fervour never seems to end in India - we all are aware of that. How does Lay's view this as a marketing opportunity for building up this brand on the sports platform? And what about future collaborations with cricket and even other sports events? Are you just limiting yourself to cricket or you're looking at other sports, and how do you see this evolving? Taking back Dhoni as a sports brand ambassador for Lay's is a big step for you. 

I'm going to answer it in two parts. The first one is about this whole euphoria that's there in the country. And I think as marketers really important for us to be riding on the emotions that consumers are feeling at a certain point of time. Right? But having said that, it is also a moment which has also got a lot of clutter. Everyone is going to kind of capitalise on that. So for us, it's really important from a Lay's point of view that whatever we do kind of breaks that clutter and we are noticed. And I think this campaign is going to be one of the most disruptive campaigns on air and on digital right now. Because I feel that it's a very different take which is more linked to the ethos of the brand. For us, it's really important to do content which is unskippable. And it can be at any moment of time. And of course, our endeavour with this campaign is also to do that. 

The second is that it's important for any brand to constantly know the passion points that the brand wants to touch. And this is a very massive passion point for the youngsters of India. And it's also something that transcends demographics, so everyone will sit and watch a game together.

For us, we definitely want to have a long term view of it. It's not something that we are thinking of it from a very tactical perspective. It's a very strategic platform for us and we are going to constantly develop it in the years to come.

I think the insight generally is that it is about celebrating things together. It's all about when you have Lay's. It's part of your core memory always. So for us, of course, cricket is a passion point, but I'm not going to eliminate any of the other sports because I feel that as a brand, our brand is so inclusive. Our brand is eaten by everyone. Our brand is something that you kind of grow up with. It's not a brand that is exclusively only for a set of people. I think we are very inclusive and I think inclusivity is not only from a consumer perspective, but even from a marketing campaign perspective. I think we keep our arms open for anything. It's all about the idea. If we get a great idea, why not? Because I feel that we would definitely push the envelope from that angle.

Where are your ad spends for Lay’s being pumped in for this quarter and especially seeing the ongoing festive season, where are you spending heavily – digital or traditional media? Even OOH is suddenly topping the media charts, what do you feel about that?

I do feel one thing - that we are very excited about the upcoming festive season. I think the mood of the nation is very optimistic and I can feel that even basis the consumers shopping behaviour, etc. And I think we really want to capitalize on this momentum that we are seeing in October, November, December, and our endeavour is to definitely be top of mind. So if consumers want to pick up a chip, we want to be the chip that they pick up.

All our investment is kind of skewed towards ensuring that our awareness is going to be really maximised during October, November, December period. And we really want to be a part of all consumer shopping baskets. 

Having said that, I feel that our media approach is always going to be very omni media strategy. So we will have TV, digital, social, we'll also have a lot of the quick commerce because I feel a big segment of India right now is actually shopping online and we want to kind of capitalise that. So our spends are going to kind of transcend all these mediums for us.

We definitely have a digital first strategy; we think digital first. And of course, TV really helps us get the high impact and high reach from that medium. But, it's going to be a good mix of the two. 

About OOH, I feel that in many ways, brands have kind of revived outdoor. In so many ways, they're just kind of coming out with cheeky messages and getting billboards out there.

I feel that whatever we do has to have some amount of scale to it, and I don't want to do something simply because the other brands are doing it. I want to use a particular medium because I feel that my story comes out the best in that medium. And there'll always be that seduction. Because I think marketing is very seductive. There are brands doing different things, and you kind of feel like you don't want to miss out on that. You want to do this. But I feel that we have to do it in a very authentic and credible way and not because everyone's doing it and we have to do it. 

I think I'm a brand which espouses joy, and that I totally believe in JOMO instead of FOMO. I think a brand should be individualistic, and have a character and personality of its own. Because otherwise you're going to be at the blind side of consumers. Consumers will be like, “I've seen this”, and I've seen so many brands do it. But I feel that it has to be very authentic. 

And the other thing with outdoor is that you put up one outdoor, then you amplify it on social. So I feel that then you're just doing things from a fad perspective as opposed to really feeling that it's critical. But having said that, I feel that I'm no one here to pass judgment on what brands are doing, but I just feel that for our brand and our campaign, it has to really merit an outdoor, and then we're going to do absolutely.

We've already covered nine months of this year, and we are just three months away from the New Year. So what kind of a marketing strategy have you put in place for Lay’s this year - for the remaining three months? 

I think for us, it's really important to build the relevance of the potato chips category. So for us, it could be really about taking a step ahead when it comes to our marketing campaigns, the insights behind the marketing campaigns. We'll be going to the limit when it comes to product because product is our core competency. Lay’s is the OG chip, and we need to constantly keep getting better at that. And of course, I think there's a huge trend amongst consumers about experimentation.

So we would definitely be pushing the envelope when it comes to innovations or the kind of product propositions that we can showcase to our consumers. So I feel that in the next six months, you're going to be seeing a lot of action from the house of Lay's, and the action is going to cover all the gamuts of marketing. Like I mentioned, from a proposition perspective, product perspective, from a packaging perspective. So we're really going to be pushing the needle there. 

Lay’s is obviously very up-to- date with regard to launching new flavours. How are you looking at amping up the experience bit for consumers, apart from launching new offerings, or a new product, under the Lay’s banner? 

For us, I think the flavour development would always be a really core part of what we do. Because fundamentally, people buy us because they love the taste of our products. And they feel that they get flavours that are not provided by anybody else in the market. So I think that's going to be a key tent pole for us always. We're going to never compromise on that. We need to give superior products to our consumers.

We need to give superior flavours to them. For us, experience from innovation perspective is always going to be critical. But experiences from other aspects also matters, like how can they engage with packs a lot more, because I feel that pack engagement is also a big lever for Lay’s. I always say that our packs are our biggest equity drivers. People just recognise our packs so well, and that's a core distinctive asset that we have.

So I feel like we're going to be pushing experiences through the pack for the consumers. And I think we've already started to do that a little bit through some of limited edition designs that we are kind of taking out for consumers. So we want to kind of keep pulsating the category with excitement, both from a product perspective as well as from a pack perspective.

And of course, from a marketing point of view, we're going to constantly try to see that what is the new thing that we can really leverage to communicate our story to consumers. 

Could you share something more about the limited edition packs?

Lay’s Magic Masala is a huge love of the nation. And because it's India's Magic Masala, we said that we should celebrate India, really - because I feel that we've had an amazing year as a country. We've had a lot of wins. Like, this whole Chandrayaan thing was fantastic.

So this was an attempt, where we tried to figure out, is there a way in which you could encapsulate what India is about on a pack? So we've done these limited edition packs, which talk about all the amazing things that are happening in India, whether it's digitisation, whether it is advancements from a farming perspective, whether it's advancements from a technology perspective. And of course, India has got a lot to do with Bollywood and with cricket. So we have those elements on the pack.

I hope the consumers really like it because we've spent a lot of time designing it with our in-house design team.

What kind of trends and innovations are expected to disrupt the snack food category?

I think the disruptions would come from two fronts. One, the disruption is going to come from a perspective of the flavours, right? Because I think while we have a specific set of classic flavours, which everyone really loves, but I feel that with consumers getting exposed to so many different types of culture and so many different types of cuisine, I think it'll be very interesting to see what all can we pack on a chip. And I think we have a very interesting innovation coming up, which is going to kind of address that. So I feel that flavours and formats are going to be a key part of innovation that's going to be one bucket.

And the other thing is, I feel that that's a vector that we are kind of exploring, because I feel that the first bucket that I was talking about was incremental innovation. Incremental in the sense that you're changing a flavour or you're trying to give a new kind of an experience to consumers. So that's going to very incremental innovation for us. But the other bucket is disruptive innovation. So can we think beyond certain category established codes of potato chips and see if we can push that envelope a little bit and see whether consumers give us that acceptance. So I think this second one, which is the more disruptive innovation, is going to be a lot more experimentative, and we'd have to see how that kind of goes, because I think when it comes to food, food is very personal and everyone has very strong palates and very strong preferences. 

So I feel that that's going to be something that is going to be wait and watch for us. But the first bucket, which is all about incremental innovation, whether it's like flavours or flavour buckets, I think that's going to be exciting enough for mass consumers.

I feel that for us, it will definitely be about how do you kind of disrupt yourself. I'm a big believer of that. I feel that we should not wait for other people to disrupt us, but we should keep disrupting ourselves. And when I mean ourselves, I'm talking about the brands, and philosophically about ourselves as well. I think that it's really important for us to continue to do that. And of course, these things take time, and these things also take a lot of organisational appetite.

Lay’s has been synonymous with big celebrities when it comes to brand associations. How do you plan to leverage each of them, your brand ambassadors, as part of the execution? 

I feel that as a country, we love our celebrities. And I feel Indians have a huge heart as well. We love different types of celebrities. So I feel Lay’s will always have a universe of stars, but each star has a role for us. I feel that Lay’s in itself has a lot of innovations as well.

So Lay’s is like a mothership. It has so many different brands, and it's about finding the right fit into a celeb and really kind of exploding that. 

So I think every celeb has a role in our family, like the way the innovation has a role in our portfolio. And it's going to be an exciting time, and hopefully, as the year goes by, you'll be able to see the way this kind of manifests itself.