How vernacular branded content helped Fortune Edible Oils & Foods boost sales among West Bengal's local communities

Fortune Edible Oils & Foods wanted to make a connection with communities in West Bengal at a cultural level to embed Fortune Kachchi Ghani Mustard Oil in every Bengali kitchen. The brand wanted to tap into a culturally relevant consumption space not tapped by others in the past.

Apart from Durga Puja, a festival marked with huge social gatherings and food consumption, the monsoon season is the most awaited in every Bengali household as Ilish machch or Hilsa fish is available during this period. Hilsa fish is considered as one of the crown jewels of Bengali cuisine and is traditionally cooked in mustard oil. Hence, Fortune Edible Oils & Foods wanted to tell a relatable story and weave in the brand led by Kachchi Ghani Mustard Oil in the story.

The idea was to acknowledge this unbridled love for Hilsa fish, which is so intrinsically intertwined with the onset of monsoon rains in Bengal. It called out monsoon as Ilish Utsav or Hilsa festival to celebrate the queen of fishes, and accentuate its legendary status in the Bengali kitchen.

To strengthen the cultural connect, Fortune chose to go back to the old narrative art from popular in Bengal to deliver the brand message about how Fortune Kachchi Ghani Mustard Oil is the best choice to enjoy the Ilish season.

It used ‘Panchali’ style (a traditional Bengali rhyme usually written to narrate the glorious tales of Gods, kings, etc.) to narrate the story in rhythmic verses and Patachitra (a visual depiction in scrolls of illustrations) to visually depict the story in a scrolling animation to bring the old art form alive with modern art techniques and quirky language.

They observed that Bengalis as a community value tradition over everything else, be it in a culture or in gastronomy.

Building shareability in West Bengal communities

The video amplification strategy was designed to reach maximum people through digital networking effect and use of multi-platform media; complemented with content.

Content for interaction

A string of teaser posts and post video promotions were published, talking about the laziness one feels after having a hearty meal, conversations about fish and likes integral to Bengali culture.

Use of multi-platform media for incremental reach

The teaser posts were followed by promoting the film on social channels such Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. WhatsApp was used as a platform to seed and flame the video in peer-to-peer networks on mobile.

GDN banners were used to drive Bengali audience to the Amazon product page while some banners directed the audience to our Hilsa recipe page on the website.

Fortune even collaborated with some popular influencers Antara Majumdar, Kakali Biswas, Debjani Chatterjee Alam and Monalisa Saha, who narrated the recipe for Hilsa fish dishes in Panchali style.

Media scheduling for impact

The teaser posts went out on August 12, in the peak monsoon season, which was promoted for two days, before the main video was released on Day 3. The videos were released on all social platforms. On Day 4, the brand began Discovery and Placement Ads on YouTube and GDN banners were published too. In the last leg in September, influencers released their Panchali version of Hilsa recipes.

The result

The total video views totalled more than 2.18 million views with an absolute engagement of more than 2.4 million across social channels.

Brand love and audience delight

The regional and vernacular treatment to content led to widespread reactions and comments on social channels. Further, Fortune conversing in vernacular and same style as the engaged user led to more people joining in the conversation.

The audience shared their love for Hilsa fish, sparking off different colloquial conversations with the brand.

Some Facebook users also shared their concerns about the price and availability of Hilsa this season.

Even Bengali men caught up with the conversation, which is primarily a women-heavy brand page.

But the real success was recorded when people expressed love for the product and the brand back.

Impact on sales

The month of August (the campaign month) saw a steep rise in the sales of Fortune Kachchi Ghani Mustard oil (KGMO) in Bengal market, especially in the Kolkata market. From the month of July to the month of August, the brand saw a rise of approximately 400 metric tonnes (mt) and 300mt in the West Bengal and Kolkata markets, respectively.