Hot beverage brand Horlicks is to make a return to TV for the first time in 20 years.
The brand is to launch a new month-long campaign via targeted ad platform AdSmart from Sky. The campaign will be targeted at Sky and Virgin households across the north west.
The 30-second spot, ‘Horlicks – not just a bedtime thing’, was created by Manchester-based creative agency Doodledo and was designed to “challenge the perception of Horlicks as a bedtime drink”, said Horlicks maker Aimia Foods.
It would instead position the malted beverage “as a way to make everyday a bit more ‘stress-free’”, it added.
The campaign, which has a go-live date of 19 February, depicts individuals appearing as though they are “preparing for bedtime” but are instead being comforted by Horlicks in everyday situations.
The campaign would be supported by a communications plan including PR, influencer marketing and digital advertising, with plans to roll it out nationally later this year, Aimia Foods said.
The return of Horlicks to TV would help the brand increase “front-of-mind awareness and purchase consideration” among its target audience, brand manager Rebekha White said.
The campaign’s message was “designed to drive frequency of purchase by demonstrating the ways Horlicks can add comfort to consumers’ everyday lives”, she added.
Horlicks was acquired by Aimia Foods from GlaxoSmithKline in April 2018.
To mark the brand’s 150th anniversary last year, the manufacturer brought back its long-discontinued chewable tablets.
Horlicks tablets originally launched in the 1930s and were supplied to British and American troops during the Second World War as energy-boosting treats.
The reissued tablets rolled into B&M stores in December in modernised tins (rsp: £1.75/20 tablets).
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