Hindustan Lever planning ad blitz to arrive in new avatar  ( May '17,2007, FE)

India’s largest FMCG company Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) is readying an aggressive multi-lingual advertising campaign to tell consumers that its new name is Hindustan Unilever Ltd( HUL). The campaign, created by Lintas India, will begin in a month.

For starters, HLL will be beaming a high-voltage television campaign with the ad line —’Now HLL will be known as HUL—in all regional languages across the nation. “ HLL’s brand new TV campaign features the company’s select brands, along with its new name. Its focus is on regional television channels such as Sun TV and Surya, the company is currently dubbing its campaign in regional languages,” key industry sources told FE.

The current name of the company, Hindustan Lever Limited, was adopted in 1956, consequent to the amalgamation of Hindustan Vanaspati Manufacturing Company Ltd and Lever Brothers India Ltd.

HLL is also designing new office stationery, letterheads and billboards. According to industry analysts, HLL will have a tough time communicating its new name to rural consumers. “The company will be looking at below-the-line activities to familiarise the rural audience with its new name,” added an industry analyst.

HLL has been mulling a name change in step with Unilever’s global strategy for quite some time. Three months ago, it announced its board had cleared the name change , subject to shareholders’ approval. The proposal for the name change will be tabled at the Annual General Meeting of the company on May 18.