New brand ambassadors

We signed Indian hockey captain Sardar Singh and Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt as new brand ambassadors.

Rural branding

We strengthened our brand through multiple initiatives, strategic MoUs and loan melas, resulting in enhanced rural retail penetration.

Regional branding

For the first time, Hero signed a regional celebrity (Allu Arjun) as brand ambassador for one of its prominent brands (Glamour) in the deluxe segment. Allu Arjun has a good fan following in southern states and is a well-known face in the rest of the country. A region specific campaign helped Hero to further strengthen its brand in the southern and eastern regions.

Encouraging sports

We promote various sports, including cricket, soccer, hockey and golf. Here is how we undertook various initiatives as a part of our commitment during the year in review:

Soccer

We signed a three-year deal to be the title sponsor of the Indian Super League – the first-of-its-kind franchise-based football league India, called the ‘Hero Indian Super League’. The Indian Super League is an initiative to promote soccer in the country. As the title sponsor, we will bring the much needed professionalism and promote the game at the grassroots to help identify and promote local talent.

We signed a three-year deal with the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to be the title sponsors for the Federation Cup and
the I-League.

Golf

We entered into a first-of-its-kind top-level global association with golf, as the title sponsor of the World Challenge tournament hosted by the Tiger Woods Foundation at the Isleworth Golf & Country Club at Orlando. The marquee event will be called ‘Hero World Challenge’. This title sponsorship reflects our objective to showcase the Hero brand globally. Tiger Woods was the tournament host.

We have brought in Tiger Woods as our global corporate partner. His fan following and charisma span geographies, age groups, languages and nationalities. We have lined up exciting campaigns to build on the core values of Hero in our global markets and Tiger is going to play an integral role in these initiatives.

Cricket

We had a long association with cricket for more than two decades in various capacities – as one of the Global Partners of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and as team sponsors of Delhi Daredevils and later of Mumbai Indians teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Marquee campaigns

‘Zidd’ campaign

At Hero, we do not wait for the future to arrive, we make it happen. It is our spirit, our passion, our ‘Zidd’. We rolled out a campaign to communicate this to the world. It showcased our culture, where resilience meets with obsession for technology, which is our driving force. This unwavering spirit and commitment has a huge positive impact on consumer’s life with relevant benefits like mileage, power, performance, quality, safety and reliability. The campaign reinforced our credentials in technology and innovation, which keeps it ahead of times.

‘Kheench Le’ campaign

We re-engineered 100cc engines to extract more mileage from every drop of fuel and offer more torque and power. Our upbeat and celebratory film showcased how consumers were enjoying the benefit of a better mileage.

Karizma ZMR campaign

The Karizma campaign is a story about a man’s incredible journey, who puts his dream above all. He chooses his strongest companion – Karizma ZMR and continues his journey through the toughest of terrains to capture the ‘Northern Lights’. For the first time an Indian two-wheeler commercial was shot on a glacier in Iceland. The sheer grit and grandeur of the ad truly befitted the stature of the brand Karizma.

Xtreme campaign

We rolled out our new ‘Xtreme’, hosting a series of new features and refreshed styling. The launch of Xtreme was supported by a 360-degree brand campaign, which created excitement around the brand, bringing the nation’s youth closer to it.

Maestro campaign

The Maestro campaign celebrated the fun-filled duality in a boy’s personality. It brought alive the contrasting behaviour of boys during the day, compared to their night life. It provided a playful stage to showcase the refreshing Maestro.