Chewing gum brand Boomer being advertised after six years. The brand has held on to its famous ‘Boom Boom Boomer’ catchline, but let go of its Boomer Man mascot.
Almost a week back, Mars Wrigley, a leading confectionery company restarted it’s advertising for Boomer, one of the oldest and popular chewing gum brand in India. The brand’s newest campaign involves three TVCs, but their popular mascot ‘Boomer Man’ is absent from the commercials this time. Also the stretchy, Mister Fantastic, like superhero characters from Marvel, the avatar has been taken out from all branding material.
Even though Boomer did no advertising for the past 6 years, it has managed to survive in both the market and the consumer memory. It is definitely one of the flagship brands of Mars Wrigley’s business in India. Boomer still remains on the top spot in the company’s chewing gum portfolio. Boomer in India had to compete with brands like Big Babol (Perfetti), Big Fun (Gum India), and Loco Poco (Candico). The sales were driven by freebies, like collectibles and stickers, apart from advertising. It was not just the aspects of ownership and communication that have undergone a change.
Over the last 25 years of its presence in the market, the product has witnessed many format additions, like liquid-filled gum, a chewing gum tape roll, a gum-jelly combo, and even a chewing gum with a chocolate filling called Gumlairs was launched. Boomer is Mars Wrigley’s most extensively distributed brand in India. Its product is being sold across 1.4 million outlets located in Tier-1 cities to rural areas and across metros. Even though the brand has a strong presence in the South Indian market, the core regions of Boomer has always been the northern and eastern markets. Hence, the brand plans to expand its presence in these two geographies.
The brand targeted children in their ads until 2010. The Boomer Man who comes in the ads, as a superhero saves kids from sticky situations. It was in 2010, Wrigley’s brought about a small shift in the target audience to attract young adults also. Hence in 2014, the brand, for the first time, decided to cast teenagers in its TVC. The company is surprised to find that even today, the brand has very strong equity in the mind of the consumers. It’s because the brand continued to make a distribution, in-store activity, and made the product available for consumers who wanted it.
The latest campaign has been crafted by the DDB Mudra, who has been doing the brand’s advertising since 2007. By keeping the original ‘Boom Boom Boomer’ jingle, the ad films try to bring in nostalgia and talk to those who have grown up with, the brand. Thereby aiming to connect with this generation consumers who aren’t much aware of Boomer, but still find the bubble gum category interesting.
Out of the three, two TVCs place Boomer inside the house. Yogesh Tewari, the marketing director, Mars Wrigley says that traditionally, chewing gum has been an out of the house category. So they want to make chewing gum cool inside the home as well, during different occasions, or times of the day
