Regional TV in Tamil Nadu (India) is popular, so using this medium to promote the brand made good sense. However, while many brands were being integrated in dance shows, singing competitions and reality shows in Tamil Nadu, the entertainment category was over saturated with copycat formats. To build compelling local engagement with scale we had to come up with something new to grab viewers’ attention. Surf Little Big Film Maker concept was truly a refreshing and different experience for the consumer - Ormax research on programme perception showed that 82% of viewers thought that ‘Surf Little Big Film Maker’ was ‘unlike any other show on TV’.

Surf Excel’s ‘Dirt is good’ advertising consists of ‘slice-of-life’ messages communicating how ‘Dirt’ plays a constructive role in childhood developmental experiences. Though the mums of Tamil Nadu had heard of Surf’s ‘Dirt is Good’ message, they were not truly connecting with this philosophy.Since regular brand communication was not convincing mums, we invited the children to help us explain in their own unique and honest way why ‘Dirt is Good’ and more than 12,000 children helped Surf Excel to do just that.

Our objective was to create a shift in brand preference. Standard TV advertising had not worked but this engaging idea did.

-The TV series reached 46% of the target group -Millward Brown dynamic tracking score on ‘Dirt is good’ equity measure improved to 24-TOM awareness measures went up to 24 from 18-The ‘Dirt is Good’ equity score went up by 14%-Mums’ affinity to the brand shot up by 64%-And we inspired 72% of child viewers to become filmmakers when they grow up