Our biggest yardstick is if we have done better than last year: Swiggy

As Bengal celebrates Durga Pujo, online food ordering and delivery platform Swiggy released its “Khushir Bhaon Swiggy” campaign, paying homage to the festival's age-old cultural motifs. The campaign has digital, OOH, cinema, print and social media extensions and in-app activation.

The Khushir Bhaon Swiggy film starts with the idols of Goddess Durga and her children – Goddess Lakshmi, Goddess Saraswati, Lord Ganesha and Lord Kartikeya - traversing the streets of Kolkata, accompanied by the personification of their Bahons – vehicle for the Gods and Goddess. The Bahons - the Lion (Bahon for Ma Durga), Swan (Bahon for Goddesses Saraswati), Mouse (Lord Ganesha’s Bahon), Owl (Goddesses Lakshmi’s Bahon) and Peacock (Lord Kartikeya’s Bahon) - are intrigued by the arrival of a new Bahon zipping across the streets of the City of Joy on his motorbike, going door to door with a box on his back at all times of the day. In a bid to get to the truth of the matter, they confront the person to learn he’s a Swiggy delivery partner delivering Luchi and Aloo Dum. The film ends with the Bahons anointing the delivery partner as a “true Bahon.”

The Insight – Sweet Beginnings

Khushir Bahon Swiggy is the second collaboration between Swiggy and Brandmovers, the first being for the 2018 viral Durgo Pujo campaign, ‘Aaschey Bochhor Aabaar Khabo.’ What’s common between 2018 and 2023 is that the brief remained the same – to showcase the cultural relevance of Swiggy as a brand during Durga Pujo, a time of Pet (stomach) Pujo – and making Swiggy an integral part of the festival experience.

A successful Onam campaign earlier this year has the brand excited for Durga Pujo. Says Aparna Giridhar, VP - Marketing, Swiggy, “Our Onam campaign this year was a runaway success. We realised that regional festive occasions provide us with a lot of scope to build deep brand affinity and brand love. Food is such an integral part of Durga Pujo and being able to be present in the mindspace of the consumers at that time when there is high relevance for food ordering is very important.” She continues, “Our idea is to amplify the role that Swiggy has played and continues to play in the consumers' life. Pujo without Swiggy is incomplete and the insight is that Swiggy delivers Joy to the City of Joy every day and it is even more joyful during the time of Pujo.”

Says Brandmovers’ Senior Creative Director Adrijaa Sanyal, who scripted and directed the film, “The ‘Bahons’ are the vehicles that carry Ma Durga and her children down to earth every year. The Bahons carry our joy, our gods and goddesses, and in a similar way, the Swiggy delivery partners carry joy on their backs delivering food door to door. The parallels between the Bahons and the Swiggy delivery partners was spot on and anyone growing up celebrating Pujo will understand the significance.” She adds, “This was an unconventional idea and when we pitched the idea to Swiggy they understood the uniqueness of the concept. From the beginning of the film to the end, we never lose sight of the brand and the narrative that the Swiggy delivery person is the new entrant in the community of Bahons as they too are the carriers of happiness…..Much credit has to be given to the brand as they were open to this idea and allowed us to explore. Anyone who sees the campaign can relate to what we were trying to say and that is a win from a creative perspective.

With many brands using an opportunity such as Pujo to connect with fans, out-of-the-box thinking and tugging at consumers’ heartstrings can aid brands in standing out from the clutter. Another challenge for the brand was to delicately ensure the mythological representations didn’t alienate people. The brand’s execution has tried to safeguard this by retaining the essence of mythology in its modern take.

A Taste of Success

Typically, Swiggy’s orders almost double during Pujo and the brand has “sky-high plans” to have the best-ever Pujo this year. Says Giridhar, “Our biggest yardstick if we have done better than last year or not and whether our orders-per-day (OPDs) is higher than last year or better than our projections. Being culturally relevant is important as almost everyone is going to be thinking about ordering during Pujo. If anyone's thinking of ordering in, they should be Swiggying it in, that’s our objective. We aim to more than double the orders, if nothing else, and gain share. That would be icing on the cake.”

The campaign has received positive feedback not just from consumers but also from influencers and restaurant partners. Since its release, the Khushir Bhaon Swiggy film has seen more than 3.4 million views on YouTube.