Guerilla Advertising Is In

The Future Group (Kishore Biyani) has just unveiled a mint-fresh aggressive campaign that has grabbed eyeballs galore, but at the same time made competition squirming in discomfort. The new ad campaign for Future Group's hypermarket chain Big Bazaar screams quite a few cheeky lines; such as: Change Your Lifestyle. Make a smart choice! Formal shirts Rs........ Keep West-aSide. Make a smart choice! T shirts Rs....... Shoppers! Stop. Make a smart choice! It doesn’t take a long time for one to get that Lifestyle Retail, Westside and Shoppers' Stop are the three major competitors for the Future Group. The campaign which was unveiled just last weekend, costs approximately Rs 2 crore-plus, and has been conceptualized by Mudra Communications. As of now, these ads will run only in outdoor and in-store media. The campaign has made the competition very uncomfortable because they somehow feel “the ads make a subtle reference to them”. Lifestyle Retail says that they have had an in-depth look at the impact of this campaign on their own business and that they will initiate an informal conversation with the Future Group on the issue. If need be, they might even approach the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).Shoppers' Stop officials refused to comment on the issue. The Future Group is surprised by this entire hullabaloo. “Since we have not made any references to any competitors, we do not want to make any claim that this will impact/or not impact our competitor's customers. Big Bazaar is a very large format which spans various kinds of audiences. Consumers are already noticing the campaign and first cut response is very encouraging,” Mr Rajan Malhotra, CEO, Big Bazaar, told ET. Big Bazaar maintains that the key idea behind this campaign is to showcase the new summer collection at great pricing that Big Bazaar has just launched.