Category: Ad Campaigns

Mumbai: Nikon India Private Ltd. unveils the latest edition of its pioneering campaign “Through Her Lens,” an annual digital contest aimed at empowering and elevating the voices of professional and amateur women photographers in India. The contest, now in its third season, serves as a platform for female photographers to flaunt their creative expertise, gain valuable exposure and establish connections with the industry’s top professionals. This initiative enables women to showcase their talent and skillset while breaking gender stereotypes and encouraging more women to join the field of photography.

The theme of this year’s contest is “That’s Me!” and encourages women photographers & videographers to submit one photograph or video that they identify with the most, along with a short description of the image/video and how it reflects their perception of themselves. This contest offers women photographers & videographers a chance to break free from societal expectations, showcase their personalities to the world, and present a true and authentic version of themselves through the art of photography. It serves as a platform for them to exhibit their unique perspective and creativity as visual artists and is poised to enable self-discovery and self-expression.

Commenting on the occasion, Nikon India Private Ltd. managing director Sajjan Kumar said, “At Nikon India, we see a world where the lens of a camera is not just an instrument to capture reality but also a tool to create change. Our newest campaign, “Through Her Lens,” exemplifies our effort to promote diversity and inclusion in the photography industry. We are excited to see the outstanding work that the participants will submit this year and hope this contest inspires and empowers women photographers in India. We believe that through this contest, we shall pave way for the future where the stories are captured, shared and celebrated equally.”

Mumbai: Aditya Birla Health Insurance Company Ltd. (ABHICL), the health insurance joint venture of Aditya Birla Capital Ltd. (ABCL), on Friday unveiled its latest brand campaign “KyaPeecheChhodaHai” to promote the role of health insurance in changing lives of people by empowering them to lead healthier lives.

The campaign encapsulates the importance of how positive health behaviors, such as walking 10,000 steps daily, can help an individual leave health concerns behind.

The uniqueness of this campaign is that it celebrates real ABHICL customers who have successfully managed to change their lifestyle by inculcating the simple habit of walking 10,000 steps regularly and have left behind health related issues.

These customers from across the walks of life, who are at the heart of the TVC and the digital campaign, narrate their stories about how walking 10,000 steps have helped them do away with concerns like mental stress and weight issues, diseases like diabetes, asthma, etc. The essence of the campaign is to spread awareness on the importance of following a disciplined health regime and how ABHI is an active partner in this transformation.

Speaking on this campaign, Aditya Birla Health Insurance CEO Mayank Bathwal said, “At ABHI, our primary focus is to help our customers with cutting-edge, innovative health-first insurance solutions which not only protect them from medical uncertainties but also nudge them to live a health-focused life. We take immense pride in having pioneered this model of health insurance that transcends the boundaries of an indemnity based model by focusing on proactive health-care for our customers.”

Bathwal added, “It is heartening to see our customers as brand ambassadors in our recently launched “KyaPeecheChhodaHai” campaign. For health insurance companies, customer trust is paramount, and to see our customers endorsing us, gives us immense satisfaction. The customers featured in the film belong to different walks of life, however, one thing that unites them is the initiative to bring a change in their lives by walking every day and managing their health proactively. We hope the films will encourage people to prioritise their health by engaging in simple yet effective physical activities such as walking 10,000 steps daily.”

Mumbai: DDB Group Aotearoa and FINCH are behind a global movement designed to highlight and correct the inconsistency of searchable facts that disadvantage sportswomen. The goal of “Correct the Internet” is to highlight and correct inaccuracies in internet search results, making female athletes more visible as a result.

The campaign is the collective work of an international group of like-minded people who saw the need to get behind the cause, championed by Rebecca Sowden, founding partner of “Correct The Internet” and owner of United Nations’ Football for the Goals member Team Heroine – an international sports marketing consultancy.

The problem was first discovered when DDB pitched for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in New Zealand. When researching facts about the world’s top footballers, the team discovered that women held many of football’s records. However, when asking simple, ungendered questions to find these facts, the internet was incorrectly putting men ahead of the statistically superior women in its search results.

FINCH director Lex Hodge says the campaign had been a hugely collaborative process with the team working collectively towards a single goal – correcting the internet to help make sportswomen more visible.

“When this came to me, I was beyond excited. The quest for fairness, and the mana/strength to stand up and speak truth to power is so creatively liberating. There is no hesitation, no politics – the girl in the film just wants the truth. And that is what is so chilling – the place we gather information from just isn’t giving us the facts. It was important to me that through the film we gave the internet a feeling of real presence, power in numbers.”

FINCH produced a highly emotive video to launch the campaign, which was shown at the NZ Football Ferns game against the USA women’s team at Eden Park on 21 January.

Sowden says she is passionate about helping the world recognise all sporting heroes and empower the next generation of sportswomen. “Many of the world’s leading athletes are women. Many of the world’s sporting records are held by women. But when people search online for factual sporting information about athletes, the results favour the sportsmen, even when the sportswomen have greater statistics.”

“Because the internet has learnt our bias, many of its search engine results are inconsistent, often favouring men, and change depending on who is searching. Our goal is to empower the next generation of sportswomen by ensuring that when women are the best in the world, the internet reflects that,” says Sowden.

With its aim to empower women through the power of sport, “Correct The Internet” has also been endorsed by United Nations initiative, Football for the Goals (FFTG), as well as the support of organisations such as Women in Sport Aotearoa (WISPA), Women Sport Australia, and New Zealand Football, and many well-known athletes including English rugby’s Red Roses’ player, Shaunagh Brown, and NZ Football Fern Meikayla Moore.

DDB Group Aotearoa managing director of operations Liz Knox said, “There’s no easy way to correct the inconsistencies in search results. However, if people report these issues using each search engine’s inbuilt feedback function, they can be logged and fixed. The problem is, most people aren’t familiar with the feedback function, and recent design changes on some of the larger search engines make it harder to find.”

“So, we built a tool that makes sending feedback simpler. And our campaign is designed to get a global community of people willing to speak up and take tangible action to reverse some of the gender biases that have been ruling our search engines. Success will see a correction of these search results over time,” Knox said.

A number of partners are supporting the campaign across their channels, with extensive social media, OOH, television, radio and PR activity.

Mumbai: Dabur Amla roped in actor and poet Priya Malik to launch its new campaign, “#StrongHairStrongerYou.” Conceptualised by Schbang, the brand intends to put the focus on the societal labelling that paints women in a negative light.

With the launch of the campaign #StrongHairStrongerYou, Dabur Amla reminds women that their hair is a measure of their strength and not a judgement of their character. It implores viewers to look beyond the stereotypes and opens a healthy dialogue to reinforce the women in their lives positively.

Commenting on the campaign, Dabur GM-marketing, hair care Ankur Kumar said, “Dabur Amla has been a trusted hair oil brand with 80+ years of legacy. It has always been fuelled by a mission to empower women to be confident about themselves, backed by strong and beautiful hair. Through this campaign, we have taken this conversation forward, encouraging women to own and embrace their true selves through strong hair and a strong spirit and not get bogged down by what the outside world might have to say about them.”

Schbang associate vice president Ayush Rathod said, “The role of women in the evolving dynamics of the world, make campaigns like these the need of the hour. Leveraging Dabur Amla’s core value of ‘strength,’ it was a fulfilling experience to extract a meaningful conversation out of it that drives a behavioural shift in the society and empowers the women of today and tomorrow. Lastly, it’s heartening to see a legacy brand like Dabur Amla evolving with time and reinforcing its commanding voice in the hair oil category with Schbang.’’

Mumbai: Following the first TVC film that captured the ‘masaaledar’ banter between a young protagonist and ghost, Kurkure unveiled its second TVC under its ongoing “Halke Mein Lo” campaign to celebrate its youthful new sub-brand, Kurkure Playz.

The film opens with the family enjoying teatime in the front yard of their bungalow when there’s a sudden disturbance on the radio playing next to them. That’s when they look up to find a spaceship hovering over the lawn amid dark clouds with strong winds. Two larger-than-life aliens appear with a plan to abduct the family, beckoning the protagonist to get on the ship right away. While spooked at first, a bite of Kurkure Playz Pastax transforms the youngster’s fear into a take-it-easy “Halke Mein Lo” attitude, leading him to make witty wisecracks and diffusing an intimidating situation into a laughing riot.

Commenting on the TVC, Leo Burnett national creative director Vikram Pandey (Spiky) said, “This is the second film for the new Kurkure Playz campaign, and it continues the light-hearted quirky tonality set by the first film with our “Halke Mein Lo” proposition. In this film we find the protagonist’s family facing an alien invasion, but they manage to put off their abduction by stalling the aliens. We hope that the audiences will enjoy this film as much as the first one.”

Speaking on the campaign, Kurkure said associate director and brand lead Neha Prasad, “Aimed at the gen-z audience, our campaign encourages the Indian youth to take it easy in the face of daily hiccups through a proposition that is refreshing yet colloquial – “Halke Mein Lo.” Our first film received an overwhelmingly positive response for its unique storytelling format. This propelled us to bring forth the second TVC that we hope will once again keep everyone entertained in true Kurkure style!”

Adding another playful twist to the campaign, Kurkure collaborated with popular actress and social media sensation, Niti Taylor, for a ‘halka’ prank. The actress shared an image of a supposed alien sighting on her Instagram story, leaving fans curious about her encounter! But upon disclosing her collaboration with Kurkure Playz Pastax, fans were relieved that it was just a harmless prank!

Kurkure Playz comes in two product offerings – the widely popular and successful Kurkure Playz Puffcorn and the all-new Kurkure Playz Pastax. While Kurkure Playz Puffcorn has a distinct shape with a light texture and comes in cheese flavour, Kurkure Playz Pastax has a creamy, herb and onion flavour in a pasta-shaped bite. Kurkure Playz Puffcorn is available at Rs 5, Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50 and Kurkure Playz Pastax at Rs 5, Rs 10, and Rs 20 at leading retail and e-commerce platforms across the country.

Mumbai: The Times of India presents an epic film to celebrate the invisible thread that binds us all as one in spite of our diverse differences. The ektara that binds a billion voices into one song The Idea of India represented by the thread of light that embraces our differences and elevates our unity in diversity. The idea of the seamless thread that has held us all together as one nation over the 75 years of our Independence.

Created by Wunderman Thompson India, the campaign is live across national news media, social media and various digital platforms. “#WhatMakesUsOne” campaign has a unique hashtag that invites every Indian to participate and celebrate The Idea of India in their own way.  

Commenting on the campaign, TOI & Languages brand director Kaustuv Chatterjee said, “Over the past decades, India has made rapid strides in various sectors, and this has fuelled a sense of pride in the nation’s growing stature in the world. In this context, TOI’s new initiative, “#WhatMakesUsOne,” focuses on the numerous unifying threads that comprise our Idea of India. Despite our diversity and multiculturalism, the threads that unite us also drive our growth in the world today. Just look at what’s happening in space-tech, defence, IT, sports or our cultural influence across the world. We hope this initiative will spark conversations and connections around “What Makes Us One,” as we prepare to celebrate our 74th year of becoming a republic.”

Wunderman Thompson India chief creative & film director Senthil Kumar said, “India was an idea long before it became a free nation. It was a song from a thousand years ago. It was the spirit of thousands of freedom fighters. It was written in blood by the thousands who laid down their lives for our freedom. It was the same thread of unity in diversity, adversity, and festivity. It is the same thread that continues to bind us as one nation, in spite of our diverse differences. It is the invisible ektara that stirs our souls and ignites our hearts. This binding thread of tolerance and inclusivity is represented as the thread of light cinematically and metaphorically in the powerful Times of India narrative form.”

Wunderman Thompson, Delhi sr. VP & managing partner Joy Chauhan added, “The Idea of India is a campaign that makes you pause and yet again fall in love with our magical nation. What makes us one is a question with over a billion answers. Its depth is unseen and uncharted. Today, with our potential and the will to lead this world, the Idea of India has never looked brighter. It was an opportune time to celebrate our diversity and “#WhatMakesUsOne.” We are proud to partner the iconic Times of India in this celebration.”

The thread of light travels across the country from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Mumbai to Meghalaya at the speed of light, cinematically and metaphorically capturing a day in the life of India in split seconds through the medium of timelapse.

Over a thousand forms of the same thread of light adorn temples, churches, mosques, gurudwaras, monasteries, monuments and statues across India. Giant serial light forms highlight multiple religions and multiple regions, transforming the same thread of light through all our gods, angels, leaders, idols and stars to illuminate our villages, towns and cities.

Time travels with the same thread of light through trains, trucks, boats, rickshaws and seamless transitions from one location to another at the speed of light.

The Idea of India illuminated by the thread of light that binds all of India as one family, connecting the dots between our differences and uniting the collective soul of our country, blurring the boundaries between multiple religions, regions, cultures, languages, and festivals, and dissolving all our differences at the speed of light.

The visual thread for this film is the festival of lights captured by hundreds of cinematographers, drone photographers, and timelapse content creators across the country, from Navaratri lights in October to Diwali lights in November, Christmas lights in December, and Sankranti lights in January.

The musical thread of the invisible ektara elevates our ekta and binds the speeches of our inspiring leaders into one national narrative, delivering the timeline of India through song and speech, powered by the voices of Mahatma Gandhi, Subash Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Indira Gandhi, AB Vajpayee and Narendra Modi. All the voices in our head that set fire to our imagination with the Idea of India.

India is a melting pot of multiple cultures and multiple languages where people of all religions live together in harmony. The Times of India welcomes everyone in the world to come and grow with it as one family. Vasudhaiva Kutumbhakam. The whole world is one family.

Mumbai: Reverie Language Technologies, a leader in Indian language localisation and user engagement technology solutions, has released a video campaign which highlights the difficulties faced by most Indians while banking online due to language barriers. Due to the dominance of English on the internet, there is a grave digital divide between those who can and cannot navigate online services easily. Through their state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technology, Reverie is making financial services accessible to Indian language speakers in all 22 official languages.

The dilemma of digital, yet native languages first customer is captured through the video:

The video delineates the disarming difference between the ease with which an English speaker can use online services like chatbots and digital channels and the tribulations a non-English speaker faces while trying to use automated services. Nine out of 10 Indians find it difficult to use banking products in English, alienating them and causing them to resort to using cash and more traditional means to handle their finances. The banker in the video story personifies a banking/fintech app, website or an integrated bot.

End to end, contextual language localisation is a must to replicate the branch banking experience. Trust is the most important component in banking, and to truly achieve inclusive growth, native languages must be imbibed into Internet banking solutions to make navigation easier and seamless with no dependency on English. Three pillars comprise of a Digital Bharat – first, the channel of access, which are smartphones/ smart feature phones, second, the pervasiveness and affordability of data and lastly, languages. The first two have been achieved, and now banks, companies and regulatory bodies must ensure language localisation as well to empower the unbanked to bank digitally.

“Banking solutions must be designed for citizens’ language choices first, rather than replicated from the English first interface. Forget local languages; very few banks fulfil the three-language policy in the country, making online banking cumbersome for people who don’t understand English. Our aim is to get people to access the internet intuitively by easing the transition process, and ensuring that banking augments their aspirations, rather than serve as an obstacle to it. Our technology trains voice and chatbots to equip them for natural human understanding, which allows them to understand direct instructions rather than go through multiple automated suggestions. We appeal that language as a choice should be integral to the mandatory know your customer (KYC) process,” said Reverie Language Technologies co-founder and CTO Vivekananda Pani.

Capturing the spirit of “Athithi Devo Bhav,” just getting the customers to the digital frontier is not enough, it’s important that they experience empowerment through democratisation of India’s financial custodians, be it core banking or platform led financial inclusion efforts.

Reverie Language Technologies works with major enterprises and government organisations by retaining the essence and nuance of all 22 official Indian languages across industries, especially for banking and financial services.

Mumbai: Wunderman Thompson Kolkata announced the release of a film series for Exide Sunday, a recent offering from Exide Industries Ltd. The series showcases how easily people can switch to a sustainable way of living and make every day as easy & tension-free as Sundays.

The execution demanded simplicity & relatability, which is very beautifully executed through three real-life situations & lighthearted humour to make the film memorable. The fourth film is set in a family context, where the audio track adds to the whole humour angle. It demonstrates the various stages that one goes through while adopting solar and how consumers can do it araam se  .. with a smooth yet sticky tune making this refrain stand out. The campaign will be anchored in the digital space and extended on the ground through events and executions.

“We at WT Kolkata are thrilled to partner with Exide Industries to launch Exide Sunday. We are sure that this memorable campaign will be a wonderful launch pad for Exide Sunday,” commented Wunderman Thompson Kolkata SVP and managing partner Vijay Jacob.

Wunderman Thompson Kolkata VP & Senior ECD Arjun Mukherjee added, “When a solar solution provider has an interesting name like ‘Exide Sunday,’ we made sure to play up the branding with a series of fun, easy films that drive in the ‘everyday becomes a Sunday’ feeling along with the promise of a hassle free experience. The idea was to make the branding stick and the concept stick out.”

Directed by Vibhu Puri, the Exide Sunday series of films by Wunderman Thompson were released in mid-January 2023 across digital & social media.

Mumbai: One of India’s largest and most admired multinational federations of companies, The Mahindra Group has refurbished the messaging around its corporate purpose ‘Rise’. The refreshed ‘Rise’ calls for a more equal world, future readiness, and value creation, while continuing to drive positive change in the lives of people and communities.

While the group’s time-tested ideals and values remain unchanged, the ‘communication pillars’ of Rise have been contemporised to make it more relevant for the times we live in today.

Commenting on the refreshed purpose, Mahindra Group chief customer and brand officer Asha Kharga, says, “The messaging is an outcome of the actions that we have taken within our business over more than a decade. Our intention is to be a global ESG leader through our businesses – be it through our foray into EVs, net zero residential buildings or our solar business. By refreshing the Rise messaging, we have given a contemporary voice to a 77-year-old legacy of values. We believe that every business needs to be relevant to the citizens of the future because they are the consumers of the future. You cannot have a healthy business without a healthy planet. Rise will continue to be the North Star for us to work towards creating a better planet for the citizens of the future”.

The origin of the Rise philosophy comes from the 1945 print ad, released by Mahindra, on the brink of India’s independence. It mentioned no product or service. Instead, it listed fundamental principles with which the company would operate. The principles laid out then still form the bedrock of the Mahindra Group’s purpose, “Rise.”

To bring alive the refreshed philosophy, the company has rolled out a communication campaign across print and broadcast media over the next few weeks. The message is conveyed through this hard-hitting communication that Ogilvy India has helped put together and which is relevant to every viewer.

Speaking about the film, Ogilvy India Chief Creative Officers Kainaz Karmakar & Harshad Rajadhyaksha say, “It was inspiring to immerse ourselves in brand Mahindra. The more we understood their beliefs, the easier it was to create this communication. The kids in the film are the future consumers. They are the citizens of the future and we’re lucky because this generation is keenly interested in the ethics of what they consume. They are aware and vocal. Together We Rise’, is not just a piece of advertising, it is the most assured way to succeed in the years to come.”