Marketing Matters: How Himalaya got young Indians to party smart

Time of India

3 days ago

When legacy brands enter new-age categories, the challenge is not only to gain market visibility but also to establish relevance. Himalaya's PartySmart, a pill designed to prevent hangovers, is a classic example of this. The brand, which targets an underexplored category in India, drove significant spikes in engagement and sales through a celebrity-led campaign and smart media planning.
Mrugank Desai, Head of Media, Search, and Content Marketing at
Schbang
, shares insights into the making of the "Party Hai Toh PartySmart" campaign and the creative bets taken to make it a cultural moment.
The big idea
Desai told ET Brand Equity that the brief was to maximize awareness and reach for PartySmart's brand film, which featured Bollywood actor Aditya Roy Kapur. The agency also had to position PartySmart as the go-to solution for
hangover prevention
. The campaign was executed without using TV and focused on six key urban markets: Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, and Chennai. The target audience was young adults (21–35, SEC AB).
According to Desai, the idea stemmed from the relatable insight: 'Don't let the party kill your vibe the next day.' The campaign name, "Party Hai Toh PartySmart," was created to embed the product into social behavior while making it aspirational and youth-centric.
Key strategies executed
Schbang activated the campaign on platforms where the target group consumes content before and after partying, such as
Instagram
, YouTube, OTT, and Q-commerce apps. This established contextual relevance for the brand.
The agency used a 1:50 hero film and five short edits to create relevance for different scenarios (e.g., "vibe kill," "Monday blues," "consumption moment"). This is how the asset diversification was planned.
They focused on nightlife hotspots in top metros using geofencing and hyperlocal ads.
The campaign used
micro-influencers
and content creators to reflect real-life hangover moments with a humorous spin.
PartySmart was listed on Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart with enhanced search visibility, banners, and in-app ads timed around weekends.
The results
Total impressions: 92+ million (99%+ of the planned 93.2M)
YouTube hero film VTR: 38%
Instagram Reels engagement rate: Above 4%
Geofencing engagement: A CTR of 0.9%, with strong footfall during weekends
Q-commerce placements: A notable spike in search visibility and category awareness during November and December.
Brand keyword spike: A 120% increase in the top two brand keywords, with the average monthly search volume rising from 4,500 to 8,800.
E-commerce sales spike: A 120% increase.
Social growth: Gained 35,000+ YouTube subscribers and 6,500+ Instagram followers.
Brand awareness: Increased from 22% to 46%, as per a third-party research report.
Tips for cracking a new category
According to Desai, education is key. "Being a preventive product, many users first needed to understand 'why' PartySmart matters; storytelling and scenario-led edits helped address that," he says.
He also believes cultural timing drives uptake. Spikes were seen closer to weekends and festive periods, and aligning media bursts with these windows drove disproportionate returns. Desai adds that creators who spoke from personal experience or used humor created stronger relatability than traditional brand messaging.
To generate category penetration through marketing sophistication, it's important to have platform-specific asset planning. A mix of storytelling formats (long, short, static) across platforms ensures the brand message is conveyed effectively despite varying attention spans.
It is also crucial for brands entering new territories to maximize performance and brand layering. "We didn't just run awareness but added performance channels like Q-commerce and geofencing to bring consumers closer to purchase," Desai notes.
He concludes that brands need to target the right user moments and maintain quirks to stand out, especially in a new category.