Kansai Nerolac, a paint and coatings company based in India, has taken its most advanced product outside the Earth’s atmosphere as part of a marketing action that turns a technical promise into a tangible demonstration. The company has launched a stratospheric balloon up to 86,000 feet high – more than 26 kilometers – with a structure covered in its Excel Everlast exterior paint, subjecting it to extreme conditions of temperature, ultraviolet radiation and atmospheric pressure.
At that altitude, where temperatures can drop below -64ºC and solar radiation affects without filtering, most materials suffer severe degradation. However, according to the brand, the surface treated with its paint returned intact, with no visible damage. The action, developed by Ulka under the concept “#OutofThisWorld”, moves the product test outside the controlled environment of the laboratory.
“Taking it to the stratosphere was the only scenario consistent with a product with that level of demand”
“Excel Everlast has always represented a painting that does not give up”said Ramkrishna Naik, Chief Marketing Officer at Kansai Nerolac. “Taking it to the stratosphere was the only scenario consistent with a product with that level of demand”. For his part, Rakesh Menon, Chief Creative Experience Officer at Ulka, points out that the key lay in authenticity: “If a painting can survive space, it can withstand any environment on Earth. The important thing was to do it for real.”
The use of the stratosphere as an advertising stage is inevitably reminiscent of one of the most iconic actions in the recent history of marketing: Felix Baumgartner’s jump promoted by Red Bull in 2012, which became a global communication phenomenon.
With this reference, Kansai Nerolac transfers this imaginary of extreme challenge to the field of everyday products, elevating a functional category like painting to a more aspirational territory.
More info: Out of this world
