As brands increasingly look beyond traditional advertising to create meaningful consumer experiences, Britannia is betting on interactive storytelling to drive both engagement and social impact.

The brand recently launched an anti-bullying campaign, ‘Tiger Hero Hunt’, for its Britannia Tiger Krunch. Conceptualised by VML, the campaign unfolds through a TVC, QR-enabled packaging, a WhatsApp-based interactive storytelling experience, AI-generated personalised comic strips, a collaboration with Champak magazine, and on-ground school outreach programmes, creating a connected journey that encourages children to recognise and respond to bullying.

We caught up with Archana Balaraman, general manager - marketing, Britannia, to discuss the insight behind the campaign, the decision to use interactive storytelling over conventional advertising, and how the brand is leveraging technology to make purpose-led marketing more engaging for young audiences.

Edited excerpts:

Britannia has looked to build campaigns rooted in cultural insight. How do you identify cultural moments that can genuinely drive business outcomes?

The starting point is always understanding what is already shaping consumer behaviour, whether that's emerging habits, conversations or broader cultural shifts. The focus is on identifying moments when there is a natural synergy between what people care about and what the brand can meaningfully contribute.

Every idea begins with a genuine consumer or product insight. From there, the effort is to bring that insight to life through experiences that people want to engage with, and that feel authentic to the brand. Cultural relevance is strongest when communication fits naturally within people's lives and conversations.

Communication rooted in real insights and meaningful participation helps keep brands contemporary, relatable and connected with newer generations of consumers.

What was the insight behind the 'Tiger Hero Hunt' campaign? What led to the belief that children would engage with a serious issue through a gamified storytelling format?

Bullying is often not limited to obvious incidents. It can appear in everyday interactions and sometimes goes unnoticed until its impact is already felt. One of the key insights was that young consumers often understand situations better through stories rather than being given direct instructions.

'Tiger Hero Hunt' was designed around this understanding. Instead of approaching the subject through awareness messages alone, we created an interactive experience where young consumers move through different situations, decide how they would respond, and become part of the narrative. This format keeps the participation more engaging, while the storytelling encourages learning in a way that feels natural and age-appropriate.

How do you ensure purpose-led campaigns remain authentic and don’t come across as opportunistic?

We stay rooted in what the brand already stands for. Tiger Krunch has spoken about courage and confidence in kids for years, so raising awareness about bullying is a continuation of that. The campaign is really about encouraging kids and parents to recognise these moments, and we see ourselves as doing our bit to encourage that in a way that feels accessible and age-appropriate.

To ensure we approached the subject responsibly, the team invested significant time in conversations with teachers, children, parents, and child psychologists to better understand the nuances of bullying and its impact. These interactions helped shape the campaign and ensured that the messaging was relevant, age-appropriate, and grounded in real experiences.

How do you balance cultural relevance for younger consumers with heritage appeal?

The trust and familiarity that consumers associate with our brands remain important, and that foundation doesn't change. What continues to evolve is how consumers engage with brands, particularly younger audiences who are looking for more interactive and immersive experiences.

Our approach is to retain the core values that consumers associate with our brands while delivering fresh consistency in the way we engage with them. Whether through digital experiences, partnerships, packaging innovations or new formats, the objective is to stay relevant to today's consumers.

Tiger Hero Hunt is one example of this approach, using an interactive format to engage young consumers around an important issue in a way that felt relevant and relatable to them.

How is Britannia approaching premium offerings while still maintaining mass accessibility?

Consumer preferences today are becoming increasingly diverse, with demand growing across both value and premium segments. Our approach is to serve both needs through a strong and diversified portfolio. We continue to invest in premium offerings that cater to evolving tastes and occasions, while also ensuring that our products remain accessible across price points. Smaller trial packs play an important role in democratising premium experiences and encouraging consumers to explore newer offerings. This enables us to cater to a wide range of consumer preferences, occasions and consumption needs across segments.

What are the KPIs you are looking at to measure the effectiveness of this campaign?

The objective of the Tiger Hero Hunt campaign is to drive greater awareness and understanding around bullying in a format that feels engaging and relatable for kids and parents alike. We want to encourage conversations and help young consumers identify and respond to such situations with confidence and empathy.

The response to the campaign has been encouraging, with over two lakh young consumers engaging with the experience and close to 50,000 receiving their personalised comic strips so far, reflecting strong participation and engagement. More importantly, this active participation suggests that the initiative is helping bring greater attention to the everyday situations and behaviours the campaign seeks to raise awareness about.                            

Most FMCG campaigns still rely heavily on video. Why did you choose a WhatsApp-led interactive experience instead?

Bullying is a subject that often requires conversation and reflection rather than one-way communication. We wanted to create an experience that encouraged young consumers to engage with different situations, think about how they might respond, and become active participants in the journey.

WhatsApp was a natural choice because it enabled that interaction in a simple and accessible way. Through interactive storytelling, they could move through different situations, make choices and engage with the experience in a more immersive way. The platform is also widely used and easily accessible, making it easier for them to participate in the campaign journey.

Any creative challenges while crafting this campaign?

A lot of thought went into making the experience engaging and relatable for children. We wanted to find the right balance between addressing an important issue and ensuring the experience remained engaging.

The stories were built around everyday situations, and the interactive journey was designed to be simple, intuitive and easy to participate in. The objective was to create an experience that young consumers would genuinely enjoy while helping them recognise and navigate situations they may encounter in everyday life.

The campaign spans packaging, WhatsApp, AI-generated comics, TVCs and Champak. How do you maintain narrative consistency across so many touchpoints?

The campaign was designed as a connected journey, with every touchpoint building on the same core message: helping children recognise bullying, navigate real-life situations and take positive action. Consistency was maintained through a unified narrative, with the Tiger mascot acting as a familiar guide and connecting element across platforms.

Packaging was the first point of interaction, introducing children to the campaign and directing them to the WhatsApp experience. WhatsApp served as the heart of the campaign, where they could move through stories, make choices and engage with different scenarios. The AI-generated comics added a layer of personalisation by featuring young consumers within the stories themselves, making the experience more immersive and helping them see how their choices could shape different outcomes. The association with Champak extended the campaign into a familiar storytelling platform, giving young readers another way to engage with the message through characters and narratives they already enjoy.

The TVC helped build awareness and introduce the campaign to a wider audience, while school outreach programmes took the conversation directly to children through interactive activities and discussions. Across every touchpoint, the underlying message remained consistent, ensuring that young consumers encountered the same idea in different ways throughout the campaign journey.