Biryani has long been a go-to and beloved dish for Indians, cherished for its rich flavours and cultural significance. On 7th July 2024, DAAWAT celebrated this culinary masterpiece with the 3rd edition of the World Biryani Day. The event was accompanied by a Gen-AI campaign, and a concert featuring popular actor, writer and singer Piyush Mishra, creating a platform for biryani lovers to come together and celebrate. In an exclusive interaction, K Ganapathy Subramanian, Vice President & Head of Marketing at LT Foods shared the details of this year's campaign, its rationale, and the innovative use of AI-enabled personalisation that made it unique.
Shifting Brand Perception
In its third edition, the brand has developed a Gen-AI-based personalised campaign where anyone could feature in a DAAWAT TVC alongside celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, blending tradition with innovation through the power of AI. Sharing thoughts on why World Biryani Day has become a significant celebration for DAAWAT, Subramanian asserts "We went with this objective of instituting a day - where people can come together to celebrate a certain occasion and in their own manner. I'm not restrictive. I'm not asking people to only cook. I'm asking people to enjoy some joy by creating and sharing. Some enjoy consuming. I am not holding it by being categoric about providing a platform my interest in it is providing this ecosystem and providing for a product that people love so much to make their own."
This inclusive approach has propelled DAAWAT World Biryani Day from a niche celebration to a widely anticipated event. Subramanian notes, "Over the last two years, what's happened is we've scaled up from being one of those people who had a while thought and the puppet across to now becoming a movement in itself. People look forward to an occasion. In the first year, we started with just retail the second year we started with the end consumers. All these exist and all touch points and all stakeholders are part of it. Our collaborations have been bigger this year, the footprint has been bigger and it was not restrictive, it went beyond channels of business to channels of entertainment. We collaborated with Fever for a music concert with Piyush Misha and had many on-ground activations, where we purposefully reached out to end consumers, moving into their households, and bringing alive do what we did as biryani Champions League last year."
The Role of Technology
A significant aspect of this year's campaign is the incorporation of Generative AI, a move that Subramanian believes sets DAAWAT apart. "This year, we've taken advantage of AI and rather than just using AI to come up with a campaign, we've gone ahead and personalised it more than any other brand. I don't know if there is anyone else, who is an essential food brand anywhere in the world, I haven't come across anyone telling me of a brand to manage to do this in a way we have managed to deploy the power of AI, quite deftly."
The campaign's innovative use of AI has allowed DAAWAT to achieve a new level of personalisation. Subramanian explains, "Technology today has enabled us to use it to build scale as well as be personalisation at the same level. We built a communication around it so that we can give the seamless experience to every individual who chooses to be part of this and, frankly speaking, extend it to every biryani lover."
Talking about the response to the third edition of the DAAWAT World Biryani Day, he shares that the reception globally has been overwhelmingly positive and says, “It's only been a day and there are still numbers to come in but I can still tell you there has been a fantastic response from our partners in Australia and the Middle East. I am yet to get information from Europe, but even there, collaborations across the country have been bigger than ever. People have gone ahead and joined our ecosystem, and to the extent that made it so big that even our competitors in our category couldn’t stop from participating. Honestly speaking, DAAWAT World Biryani Day is not closely held or restrictive, it is an entity built over 2 years and is true to its initiation days - something which is For Biryani, By Biryani and to be enjoyed with Biryani.”
Celebrating the Future
Looking ahead, Subramanian sees a significant role for AI and other emerging technologies in brand marketing. He predicts, "What exactly constitutes a brand will not change but the emphasis will change on what people will identify with. Today, it's a game of values, it's a game of what you know, and what you intend to be. Technology has enabled consumers to share those expectations. In the future, very rapidly the values around which your brand stands for, will start defining what sort of consumers will go with your brand and identify with your brand."
He concludes, “Brands which provide for that comfort will be successful brands, and all of this facilitation has to be built on technology because that keeps communication going to-way and faster."
