Kurkure & Lay's kick off their festive season campaign, Features Akshay Kumar & Ranbir Kapoor as brand ambassadors

Ahead of the upcoming festive season, Kurkure and LAY’S have launched two unique campaigns. The campaigns promote an initiative with Airtel offering a special digital experience for all its prepaid customers. Ringing in the festive season, every customer would get upto 2 GB of Airtel Data with the purchase of LAY’S, Kurkure, Uncle Chipps and Doritos *packs. Special TVC’s featuring Kurkure’s brand ambassador Akshay Kumar and LAY’S brand ambassador Ranbir Kapoor were launched promoting the initiative.

Data is most important today and people across generations are spending more hours indoors than ever before. Whether it is remote working, content streaming, gaming, e-learning or e-shopping, everyone is relying on data to stay connected. For the quarter ended June 30th, 2020, average mobile data consumption per user on Airtel’s network increased to 16.3 GB, an increase of 40% over last year.   

The Kurkure film opens with Akshay Kumar announcing to his family, that he will be preparing snacks while asking his brother to open the video of a recipe. The family takes a moment to digest the information while Akshay’s brother sadly informs everyone that the data pack has finished. Their father happily adds “Waise bhi Kurkure hain na”. Akshay quickly munches one Kurkure and says “Ab toh poora dinner main banaunga”. The family is shocked while Akshay tells them that there is upto 2GB Airtel data free with Kurkure. He then tells his brother to look for a thai curry recipe and the film closes with Akshay asking his brother to cut the vegetables well, while munching Kurkure.

LAY’S film opens with Ranbir Kapoor solving a puzzle in his home and he receives a video call from his friend. Ranbir’s friend mentions how he is tired of eating khichadi and would want to learn Ranbir’s recipe for Biryani. Ranbir promptly asks his friend to write down the recipe and starts by saying “Sabe Pehle, Ek packet LAY’S le” the friend is shocked and says “Biryani mein LAY’S?”. Ranbir then tells his friend that with every pack of LAY’S one can get free *data and all he needs to do is, go online and search for the recipe. The film closes with Ranbir’s friend saying, “Ab Biryani bhi pakaunga, aur video call pe tujhe bhi”.

Sharing his thoughts, Kurkure Brand Ambassador Akshay Kumar said, “Data has played a key role in helping us stay connected with our family and friends over these past few months. I am glad that consumers across India will continue to have a seamless connect with their loved ones through the special initiative by Kurkure, ensuring that they don’t have to miss out on any of their chatpata, fun family moments.” 

Sharing his excitement, LAY’S Brand Ambassador Ranbir Kapoor said, “Meeting friends and loved ones has become tougher. In this situation, the special initiative by LAY'S is a perfect companion to help people find moments of joy and togetherness.  Having always resonated deeply with LAY’S, I enjoyed shooting for the LAY'S new brand film - a fun, playful and entertaining conversation between friends as they celebrate their connection.”

Shashwat Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer, Bharti Airtel said: “At Airtel, we are obsessed about offering our customers the best network experience. We are thrilled to partner with PepsiCo India to help all their customers experience our award winning 4G data services. This also gives us the opportunity to reward our loyal customers with complimentary data and unlock a world of digital experiences on Airtel Thanks when they buy their favourite packet of snack.”

Senthil Kumar, Chief Creative Officer, Wunderman Thompson, India said, “Kurkure has always been an integral part of the Indian family, celebrating the quirks and quibbles that keep it together. Lay’s is all about the jokes, pranks, winks, and nods that help friends stay friends. One thing that’s common between them - connections. And nothing helps you connect like data. Whether you do it with a friend over a long-distance video call, or with your dad, while binge-watching an entire season on Netflix over the weekend, is entirely up to you. Which is why Kurkure and LAY’S are offering something you can never have enough of (besides the snacks mentioned above) – up to 2GB of free data with every pack.” 

Expressing his thoughts on the campaign, Dilen Gandhi, Senior Director and Category Head – Foods, PepsiCo India said, “The ‘new normal’ has catapulted everyone into a more digital world than ever before. At PepsiCo India, as part of our digital first approach, we follow evolving digital trends and develop matching strategies. Our insights showed us that consumers are enjoying our products and seeking convenience while working and watching content at home. The special initiative with Airtel is therefore is perfect fit that will further compliment in-home experience of consumers. With festive season kicking in, the initiative, truly emphasize the importance of staying connected with friends and family.”

To avail the benefit, consumers can simply check the free data voucher code printed inside the snack pack and go to Airtel Thanks app - ‘My Coupons’ section and enter the voucher to claim the data offering. Once the user has availed their code, the data can be redeemed immediately or at a later date of convenience and requirement till January 31st, 2021. Once redeemed, the data will remain available for three days in the customer’s Airtel account. The offer can be availed up to 3 times on a unique mobile number. Consumers can avail the benefit on Rs 10 and Rs 20 SKUs of LAY’S, Kurkure, Uncle Chipps and Doritos across the country – 1 GB data for Rs. 10 packs and 2 GB data for Rs. 20 packs.

The integrated campaign brings this idea alive as developed by the WPP team at Mindshare, VML and Wunderman Thompson.