Case Study: How PIPO foods used moment marketing for its IPL campaign | #casestudy

PIPO foods combined humorous content with elements of moment marketing during IPL, in a bid to establish the popcorn brand as the go-to snack. The campaign garnered 10mn+ impressions.

This case study explores how PIPO Popcorn league campaign combined moment marketing with influencer outreach during IPL, to enable the brand to create recall and engagement.

Category Introduction

According to industry estimates, the organized and branded popcorn category in India is currently worth INR 350 crores. The popcorn industry has shown staggering growth in the recent times. The growing share of popcorn in the snacks category can be attributed to the fact that it is available across various formats, including Ready to Eat (RTE) and Ready to Cook (RTC).

Brand Introduction 

PIPO is a homegrown Indian brand from Modi Naturals. It is known for its range of RTC Popcorns including the all-time favourite Classic Salted & Butter Popcorns which come in both instant and Microwave format.  PIPO also has a range of flavoured Popcorns called Mix’in range. These Popcorn comes with a seasoning sachet inside the pack known as ‘Taste Bombs”.

PIPO wants to establish itself as a brand with which youth can relate themselves to, thus establishing itself as fun & quirky brand. It also wants to create awareness about the brand’s core idea by reaching the masses through various digital & conventional means & tools.

PIPO Foods IPL Campaign – Summary

IPL is one of the biggest events in the country today which enjoys huge viewership among the younger audiences in the age group of 18-30 years., which is also the core audience of PIPO popcorn.

PIPO launched its ambush marketing campaign “PIPO Popcorn League” during IPL 2022 to build awareness about the brand and establish PIPO as a preferred snacking brand while watching cricket at home.

PIPO used social media as the primary platform to engage with its audience around the conversations and events that unfolded during the series with an additional layer of humour and fun built into the campaign to deliver the message home. Pipo used doodles as a creative expression to drive higher engagement.

Problem Statement/Objective 

The brand was trying to achieve 2 objectives: 

• Create Brand Awareness among the core audience of 16-30 years, Male/Female
• Establish Pipo popcorn as a preferred at-home snack during sports viewership

Brief

The brand wanted to reach out to the younger audience who are deeply invested in the game of cricket in a format that appeals to them most and drives greater engagement. The idea was to not just establish popcorn as a preferred snack while watching the game but also to build PIPO as a fun and quirky brand that the younger audience can relate to.

Creative Idea

Moment marketing campaign which included making doodles or cartoon versions of some of the key moments that happened during the IPL season. It also included roping in a famous Instagram influencer Shubham Gaur who used his existing IP i.e., reviewing the ongoing matches in a funny way and speaking in the style of Shoaib Akhtar.

• Create a weekly series of fun Instagram & Facebook posts.
• Video series with Shubham Gaur “Popcorn with Pindi Express”

Challenges

Since PIPO’s campaign was all about capturing the right moment and publishing it on its social media channels, the timing needed to be perfect so that the essence of the moment does not get diluted & it is ensured that content creates the right impact on the audience. 

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Execution 

The campaign was executed in the form of social media posts/videos on Facebook and Instagram. 

• Doodles – Captured some of the key moments in the form of cartoons from the ongoing matches while adding a satirical & humorous touch to it.

• Influencer Marketing – Roping in Instagram influencer Shubham Gaur to create a 3-part video reel series “Popcorn with Pindi Express” wherein he would go on to review the ongoing matches in the style of Shoaib Akhtar.

Results 

• The campaign delivered a reach of 10 million+ impressions
• Engagement – More than 7 million engagements happened in the form of likes, share & comments on these contents. 

Mukesh Ghuraiya, Chief Marketing Officer said “IPL is one of the key sporting events in India and we wanted to leverage this occasion to engage with our consumers and drive home our brand messaging.

Our campaign strategy was simple, create good content, in a format that’s most appealing to our audience and build conversations around it.

We were extremely happy to learn that people were sharing our doodles and branded content among their friends on social media. It’s a great validation of our efforts and one of the best performance metrics.”

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