In an exclusive interaction with Storyboard18, Vedansh Kumar – Head of Brand Marketing – boAt Lifestyle about why boAt chose to partner with Ranveer Singh. Kumar says, “But here’s the thing, when you’ve got a celebrity, push their limits, push your brand’s comfort zone, and most definitely push the audience’s expectations.”
Edited excerpts
Why Ranveer Singh? Is it because he is a trend or does he actually offer meaning?
There are a handful of celebrities that feel like a natural fit for a particular brand. Ranveer Singh is one of those for boAt. He’s energetic, versatile and most importantly, an audiophile. When Aman, our co-founder, and him met for the first time, there was a deep appreciation he had for the brand’s vision and journey. Hence our partnership goes beyond traditional ones and involves having him as a strategic investor as well.
What consumer trends and marketing insights did boat leverage during the making of the campaign?
boAt enjoys a high SOV during Shark Tank and we wanted to leverage this opportunity to create a compounding effect. There wasn’t a better moment for us to launch RS as an investor & boAthead, and also use this momentum to introduce the world to Nirvana by boAt. Nirvana by boAt has been engineered and designed for a premium audio experience. Consumers with higher-disposable incomes are searching for an elevated product experience and we wanted to be the first preference in their upgrade journey.
How is boAt innovating and evolving itself? How is it differentiating itself from its competition?
Each department within the company has two simple mandates – keep innovating & work customer-backwards. This often allows us to be the first at a lot of things in the industry. Whether it’s being the first Indian brand to offer personalisation on audio products, first to manufacture 4cr plus MKI (Make in India) products or the first to partner with trending movies & creators in the marketing space.
How is boAt leveraging AI?
We’ve had our tryst with AI before it became the hottest buzzword in town. We were one of the first few brands to turn our brand ambassador Hardik Pandya into an AI chatbot that could assist people in their purchase journey. It was also showcased as a case-study at the Cannes Lions Festival.
And now AI is seamlessly integrated into our daily workflows. Our content, design & D2C teams are leveraging AI internally to optimize performance across their respective domains. During the cricket world cup we were also the first Indian brand to release an AI-generated music video composed & sung by Vishal Dadlani. We believe great things happen when creativity and tech come together and we are excited to see how the usage of AI evolves with time.
How are you using marketing and advertising to target the Gen Zs?
Unlike most brands, we aren’t looking to speak to just one audience set. Our audience is diverse and we have multiple marketing efforts trying to engage with our varying audience. As an anecdote, our collaboration with iShowSpeed & Archie’s spoke to GenZ while our Ranveer campaign aims to appeal to a slightly older audience.
With each product launch & partnership, we try to strike a chord with a possibly different audience set. Hiring also becomes key to achieving all of the above. Equal representation within the org keeps us honest during our marketing efforts.