Savsol's Mohd Kamran Siddiqui on brand revamp, partnering with Sidharth Malhotra and more

Savsol Lubricants, a flagship brand of Savita Oil Technologies, recently announced a partnership with Bollywood actor Sidharth Malhotra, who will be associated with the company as its brand ambassador. The collaboration with Sidharth also marks Savsol’s journey in lubricants and engine oils, as it unveils Ester Fluid technology under the brand name Savsol Ester 5. Under this alliance, Sidharth will be featured in digital, print and TV campaigns for Savsol, highlighting its diverse product range.

Mohd Kamran Siddiqui, VP Marketing, Savita Oil Technologies Ltd discusses the rationale behind the brand's revamp, partnering with a celerity, collaborating with FCB Interface, and more.

What led to Savsol's brand revamp? Why did the brand choose to partner with Sidharth Malhotra?

Our Research and development was working on this technology for some time and it’s a advanced and robust technology used in lubrication applications where failure is not an option like jet engines. So to bring this cutting else technology in our new range of products and to communicate it effectively to the consumers and influencers alike with a distinctive campaign made us realize the need of the brand revamp as we also wanted to elevate the current brand stature to the next level and do that by having maximum reach and impact in short time.

As we know, India has a high population of youth and we wanted to resonate with the aspirations and attitude of today’s youth, so somebody who has synergies with brand values was a key consideration and perfect fit to be our brand ambassador and we are very happy to announce that Sidharth Malhotra who is a youth icon, loves biking and driving cars and has a passion to excel in his field mirror Savsol’s commitment to delivering superior products and driving experience to its consumers and category influencers like dealers and mechanics.

Take me through the behind-the-scenes and making of the campaign. Who was the creative agency? How did the entire process pan out? What were some of the key learnings here?

As we were coming with a complete brand revamp and a cutting edge technology backed range, We had the challenge of coming up with a campaign which reflects the brands personality and values in true sense. So we came up with a sharp brief and defined our target profile clearly. Today’s youth aspires to bring prosperity to the family and a sense of fulfillment for self for being a self-made success. Taking the aspirations of youth we wanted to create a campaign which could communicate our technology backed benefits effortlessly and be distinctive in the category.

Taking that forward we shot our films with Sidharth Malhotra based on our campaign idea of “ Ab Kaun Rokega”.

FCB Interface is our creative partners in this journey and we co-created the complete Brand Values, Look and feel and brought alive the campaign idea of “Ab Kaun Rokega” which reflects the brands attitude and elevates the status of the brand. As a brand and agency team, it’s been a fulfilling experience working together. The learning is that passionate teams deliver distinctive campaigns which challenge the norm of communication in the category and in most times it pays off.

Can you share some interesting market trends and consumer insights you are observing currently? What's the crux of Savsol's advertising and marketing strategies for this year?

In our category, commoditization is creeping up in the category and hence the importance of distinctive communication & innovation in disseminating the message to consumers and influencers is perhaps the way to create mind space for your brand with consumers/influencers. Crux for now lies in amplification of our campaign “Ab Kaun Rokega” with consumers and Trade (i.e. Dealers and Mechanics).

What's your media mix?

This is a influencer driven category i.e. mechanics and dealers hold prominence in driving consumer choice, so importance of BTL will continue to be of paramount importance but needs to be complimented with ATL by Young Challenger Brands who are out there to create the required awareness/consideration for the brand. Nett, it will be a combination of ATL and BTL but will be skewed towards BTL due to role of influencers in the value chain.

Take me through Savsol's growth trajectory. What's Savsol's market share?

Savsol as a brand has been operational for past 17 years and has grown and acquired the stature of being a key challenger Indian brand in the marketplace. We have some very good OEM partnerships on the B2B side of business and in last few years our Lubricants division is growing much faster than the category growth rate. We intend to accelerate the volume growth in B2C side of business going forward.

Our estimates are that we currently may have a 2.5 percent market share in the Automotive retail segment.

How is Savsol planning to grow and evolve?

Superior Understanding of Consumers and Influencer’s, Bringing Cutting Technology within the reach of everyday commuters and empowering the engines of ambitious young India and communicating it with distinctive campaigns will guide us to grow and evolve. You will see a far more confident, bold and action oriented brand going forward.