Cadbury Fuse is a perfect fit for Tata Mumbai Marathon: Nitin Saini, Mondelez India

Cadbury Fuse has come on board as the Official Snacking Partner of the Tata Mumbai Marathon, this is Fuse’s first integration with Asia’s biggest mass participation sporting event. The newly appointed Vice President of Marketing of Mondelez India, Nitin Saini talks about the association, about 5 Star’s latest campaign and more.

Is this Mondelez's first partnership with the Tata Mumbai Marathon?

For Fuse, it would be the first partnership as the official snacking partner at Tata Mumbai Marathon, but Fuse has done events partnerships with other sporting events in the past like IPL, EPL etc. So, sports is not new for Fuse.

For two years, there was a pandemic-induced dark cloud on the events industry. Do you think the Tata Mumbai Marathon is going to break the jinx and bring events back into the advertisers’ consideration set?

I certainly hope so. I'm told that the participation this year is the highest ever. So, that just tells you, just how much energy and excitement there is around this event is. So, hopefully, there will be no roadblocks from here on, and it comes back year after year. I am really excited about how the event goes.

What are your expectations, what do you hope to achieve from this particular partnership?

For us, we feel like there's a really good synergy between the event and what Cadbury Fuse is all about. Cadbury Fuse brings in the deliciousness of Cadbury chocolate with the goodness of protein because it's loaded with peanuts and almonds and which gives you 10% of your daily requirement of protein. I think it's a great combination. And that's exactly what distance runners look for, snacking solutions that can give them taste as well as goodness. I feel that there's a perfect fit here. So, through associations like these, we want to get into the consideration set of long-distance runners and ensure that they include Fuse in their lifestyle wherein it goes on to become an indispensable partner for runners. So, this hopefully will be a step in that direction.

We have always associated Cadbury with sinful eating through all the happy occasions, how does it transform into a healthy sporting snack for sportsmen?

That is where the portfolio comes in. So, Fuse Fit is actually just that and it brings in the taste of Cadbury along with the goodness of protein. That is exactly the kind of snacking solution a runner would look for. So, we've got the right fit over there.

And what are the different ways by which you're promoting this association?

Brand Cadbury Fuse will be carried as the Event’s ‘Official Snacking Partner’ across all media worldwide with snacking stations on the route. Multiple branding elements will be activated on the race day of each Event and at the Expo in each city. Mondelez India will also get an opportunity to register their team/staff and invitees and secure confirmed entries up to 100 running places, across all relevant race categories for participation at each event.

This comes at the back of the company’s employee well-being policy. You will also see a co-branded promotion campaign across TV, Print, Radio, Digital and Social media in addition to influencer engagement. We are seeding run groups in up to 26 cities in India and also setting up motivational zones for direct interactions with the runners

Very recently you launched the 5 Star ratings campaign where you changed the 5 Star logo to make sure it looks like the ratings section across apps etc, while you have come up with very innovative ways of integrating it across the board, will you also use it during the Tata Mumbai Marathon in some way?

We have used it in too many places by now, in fact in the last month and a half we plastered 5 Star probably across all the places you can imagine. However, the Tata Mumbai Marathon will be centred around Fuse.

Are we also going to see a TVC for the 5 Star campaign or are you really not spending anything on making an ad or buying media for it as you have claimed in the digital video?

No, there won’t be a TVC. It was an activation supported by that video. And look, these days the lines are blurring between a digital video and a TV video. And in the end, it's about whether people are viewing it or not.