Consumer still has high affinity towards TV, says Maarten Geraets of Nestle India

Digital is undoubtedly influencing brands with its ever-growing engagement and sharp targeting capabilities, but television is still being considered unbeatable when it comes to larger reach, impact and recognition. Perhaps this was the reason Nestle India took to television in a big way for its latest content initiative ‘Maggi Kitchen Journeys’.

“While time spent on internet is increasing, the consumer still has high affinity towards TV. Hence, we felt it was necessary to share the inspirational stories on television, which for our ‘Kitchen Idols’ as well is a huge recognition,” said Maarten Geraets, General Manager, Foods, Nestlé India.

Maggi Kitchen Journeys, conceptualised by Zenith, is telecast on Zee TV and Living Foodz, and also comes to life on digital with adapted content suited for the various social media platforms.

Explaining the media strategy for the initiative, Geraets said, “Maggi Kitchen Journeys is a multi-touchpoint communication platform. Both TV and digital media play an equally important role in the media mix for this initiative. Our media mix reflects the consumer’s media consumption behaviour and is always directed to achieve effectiveness and efficiency.”

“Brands are our most critical assets and our investments on brand building are based on the marketing objectives we wish to achieve for the brands. Our belief is that the return on brand building investment is correlated to the message and hence we have a relentless focus on driving creative excellence,” he added.

Nestle devised a 360-degree content strategy around Maggi Kitchen Journeys and a big part of it is the content developed toupgrade skillsof women to start their food dream, i.e, courses on the website maggi.in. Apart from the courses, a lot of recipe information and videos are also being made available to enable people to improve their culinary skills.

The importance of content marketing for Nestle is evident for the fact that Maggi relied on consumers’ stories while attempting a comeback after a brief troubled period. Besides, the instant noodles brand has been using content to engage with its consumers by printing select stories on its packaging.

“We believe that by leveraging great content across various platforms, and partnering with various stakeholders in the ecosystem, we can bring out the role of Maggi in the consumer's life in an impactful and emotional manner,” said Geraets. “As far as the campaign ‘Maggi Kitchen journeys’ is concerned, the idea is deep-rooted in the brand’s belief that cooking does not stop in the saucepan. The simple act of cooking does not just make us more curious, creative and empathetic, it also teaches us independence, resourcefulness and awareness. Maggi aims to drive advocacy on this thought, supported through multiple initiatives.”