MUMBAI: When Nestlé faced its biggest ever PR crisis in India, the recall of Maggi noodles, the company was determined not to "play safe" marketing the brand when it finally arrived back on the shelves, and instead tackled the trust issue head on.

Chandrasekhar Radhakrishnan, Senior VP / Head of Communications and E-Commerce for Nestlé South Asia, revealed the philosophy behind the relaunch: "Brands shouldn't always look at playing safe while advertising. Communications that try to be safe can go flat and may be even uninspiring."

Nestlé India suffered a full blown brand crisis when its Maggi noodle brand was banned in India for several months in 2015. The brand, which was one of India's most trusted, accounted for about a quarter of Nestlé's Indian revenue, but it required a fundamental strategic rethink.

(For more, including insights into the changing priorities of Indian youth, read Warc's exclusive report: How Nestlé re-launched Maggi, KitKat and Nescafé in India.)

Like many other FMCG brands in India, Nestlé tapped the power of omni-channel marketing to both sustain goodwill for the brand during the recall, and rebuild the Maggi brand following the crisis.

Nestlé actively marketed the Maggi brand even while it was off the shelves, using its absence as a point of engagement with loyal customers.

The brand created a series of short films under the campaign #WeMissYouToo, which kept the emotional connection with consumers alive as court battles dragged on.

Once the new Maggi stocks were cleared by food testing labs, Nestlé started its re-launch campaign where mothers were the protagonists.

Through videos, they shared stories of their association of Maggi and their trust in the brand as well as how relieved they were that the labs had declared Maggi safe.

For more on how India's FMCG brands are using omni-channel marketing and big data to grow brand engagement, further insights are available from Warc.

Data sourced from Warc