Mumbai: Healthy snacks brand Omara Dates has onboarded Amitabh Bachchan as a brand ambassador. With this association, Omara Dates, which recently hit stores in India with its range of the finest gourmet Saudi dates, aims to enhance the adoption of this healthy food for daily snacking and gifting.
Their campaign, themed “pyaar bhi, khayaal bhi,” urges people to include care along with their gestures of love.
Speaking of his appointment, Bachchan commented, “Dates have been part of my daily routine and keep me energised throughout the day. Delighted to partner with Omara Dates.”
“Dates have been imported into India for many years and we have become the largest importer in the world with almost 350 thousand metric tonnes landing here from more than 30 countries. However, consumer demand has shifted from the value-priced “dry variety” to the higher-priced “fresh variety.” Consumers are demanding the best quality available. However, there is a vacuum in the market and not many brands can promise to fulfil that. This is where Omara steps in. Our aim is to ensure that every household gets access to this superfood and can enjoy the associated health benefits. With Amitabh Bachchan’s association with Omara, we are confident of creating more awareness for quality dates in the Indian market through him,” said Omara Dates co-founder & director of finance Supreeth MJ (Sandy).
Stressing on the philosophy behind launching the brand, Omara Dates founder & MD Anil Nair mentioned, “We believe that the best things in life are the ones produced by nature and everyone deserves them. With our robust pan-India distribution network through 70 plus distributors, all major retail outlets, airport stores, and all foremost e-commerce platforms including our website, we would be able to make Omara Dates available to everyone who would choose a healthy alternative to their sweet cravings.”
Mumbai: For the mushy lover in me, alphabetically, ‘L’ stands for ‘Love’, then what does ‘S’ stand for? According to the new campaign of Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk, ‘S’ stands for ‘Love’. Some days back, Mondelez India, which is a part of Mondelez International, a multinational confectionery, food holding, beverage and snack company revamped the look and shape of its flagship premium chocolate, ‘Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk’ through an elaborate digital campaign.
The campaign, which has been put in place by Ogilvy India, opens with various renditions of love amongst couples, and shows the progression of how Cadbury Dairy Milk (CDM) Silk as a name has now been revamped to a symbol of love – ‘S for Silk’, how from a letter it now holds the infinity of love (the infinity sign gets converted inversely into the shape of an ‘S’), and how with a new look and shape of the brand, one could indulge in the new language of love.
Ever since its launch in 2010, Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk has continued to cater to the young generation through its personalised innovations and heartfelt messaging. “Over the years, the brand underwent a few rounds of packaging upgrades while remaining largely consistent in terms of brand architecture and personality. But for the first time, Silk is undergoing a bold visual identity upgrade to further strengthen its consumer connect and dial up premiumness,” reveals Mondelez India vice president of marketing Anil Viswanathan.
CDM Silk is undoubtedly one of the leading products from Mondelez’s portfolio. Talking about the market share that the brand CDM Silk holds in the chocolate segment, Viswanathan adds, “CDM Silk virtually created the premium segment in the chocolate category. It currently holds approximately 74 per cent share of the premium segment within the chocolate category (as per MAT 20 Nielsen data).”
The revamped look, co-incidentally, makes it just in time for the festive season
Considering that CDM Silk is one of the most loved brands in the country currently, Mondelez’s detailed research led to the refurbishment of the look and shape of the brand. Viswanathan emphasised, “Over the last decade, Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk has been synonymous with the celebration of young love. The new generation is constantly on the lookout for richer, innovative and fulfilling experiences that make their everyday moments special. And the change in packaging was done to manifest this expectation and the brand’s promise to offer the ultimate premium indulgent experience visually as well.”
The exuberant packaging exhibits vibrant colors to highlight variants along with tempting visuals that signify premium indulgence. Along with this, the refreshed mould designs carry an ‘S’ engraving across every cube of the silk bar as part of its holistic design revamp strategy. “Perfectly embodying the role of CDM Silk as the most special chocolate for all special occasions through design and the proposition for Love’,” points out Viswanathan.
The new look and shape of CDM Silk, co-incidentally, are timely for the festive season. Talking about whether the move was intended to be this way, Viswanathan clarifies, “Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk is loved by consumers all year round, but it enjoys incremental love, especially during special occasions. However, the timing was aligned from the perspective of our brand plans and goals rather than just targeting the festive season, in the hope of making our consumer’s ‘me’ and ‘we’ moments even more special.”
The creative thought and execution
Having a chat with the creative agency behind the campaign and talking about the new ‘S’ for Love proposition for CDM Silk, Ogilvy India chief creative officers Kainaz Karmakar and Harshad Rajadhyaksha say, “Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk has always been about young, innocent love. The bold new packaging design now has a single letter ‘S’ standing out in gold. We wanted to create a campaign line that not only captures the essence of what Silk stands for but also stays memorable. ‘S’ for Love does that beautifully.”
As we all know, CDM Silk’s brand positioning has always been about love and romance, since its inception and clearly, it continues to be so. Could there be any particular reason behind that? “CDM Silk is a premium chocolate, a special formulation that is more of an experience than just a new taste,” asserts Rajadhyaksha.
Delving further into the creative thought of the campaign, Karmakar says,“’S’ for Love is a campaign that reinstates the relationship CDM Silk has with love. The brand implements every effort to make love special. With ‘S’ for Love, we want every couple to understand that if someone has gifted you a CDM Silk, it is a gesture of love.”
I first saw the new look and shape campaign of CDM Silk on Spotify, and I simply loved it! Karmakar and Rajadhyaksha chime that they equally loved creating the campaign too. Mondelez experiments with various types of media for CDM Silk and talking about the execution of the campaign, they say that the campaign has a digital as well as OOH spectrum. “So apart from the launch of video and outdoors, we have exciting influencer activations and a host of social media engagements coming up.” They add that the campaign also has a phase II with a TVC and a subsequent digital campaign around it that the team is super-excited about. Followed by a high decibel 360-degree marketing campaign which introduced the identity of the brand, the campaign is set to utilise multi-media robustly till the end of 2022.
Strategy forward and innovations
Viswanathan seems well-focused on the way forward for the brand. “We want to stand for the ultimate premium indulgent experience, not just within the category but in our consumer’s world. Thus, our efforts are geared towards continuously turning more and more consumers into CDM Silk lovers – increasing market penetration on the back of elevated brand and product experiences,” he mentions.
Discussing the innovations that one could look forward to about the brand CDM Silk, Viswanathan explains, “With consumer-centricity at its core, Mondelez India believes in empowering consumers with more choice, driven through unique innovations across brands. Thus, over the last decade, the brand has pioneered first-to-market product innovations and introduced new eating experiences in the form of Silk Bubbly Bubblegum, Silk Mousse, Silk Red Velvet Oreo, etc. As the consumer palate continues to evolve with exposure to emerging trends and products, we aim to adapt and accelerate the innovation engine to match the growing expectations.”
I’m all set to dive into the enticing experience of the new CDM Silk, and Viswanathan only avows further on a concluding note, “You will hear more from us on this in the future.”
Mumbai: Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) has launched a one-of-its-kind outdoor campaign, “Floating Showroom in the backwaters of Kerala.” Taking the market closer to its customers with this new initiative, Honda aims to showcase the ease of access and durability that the Activa scooter provides to its loyal customers in India.
Conceptualised by Tribes communication, the new campaign pays homage to Kerala’s iconic character while resonating with the city’s flowing transportation channels via the backwaters.
Beginning its seven-day voyage ahead of the Onam festival from Arookutty, Honda’s Floating Boat showroom covered over 15 locations before anchoring at the scenic shores of Alleppey to celebrate the culture and spirit of the state.
Commenting on the success of the campaign, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India managing director, president & CEO Atsushi Ogata said, “We wanted to create an experience for our local audience and narrate a story that would be relatable to them. Through the floating showroom activation, we are delighted that our connection with our consumers has grown stronger. The result achieved so far is a testimony of Honda’s strong customer connect and we are optimistic that this will contribute to building better and more prolonged relations with our audience.”
Noteworthy, the brand campaign registered a record-breaking growth of 41 per cent in online queries and 24 per cent in retail stores, with a combined increase of 33 per cent in brand-related inquiries, the company shared in a statement.
Besides offering attractive schemes & affordable finance options, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India brand displayed offers and schemes on the two-wheelers for the locals.
According to Tribes Communication managing director Gour Gupta, “A brand storytelling has to be creative, compelling and engaging. Through the floating showroom activation, we wanted to create an unprecedented experience for the audience. We are glad to have generated a huge impact on the queries from the customers and are optimistic that the momentum will sustain.”
Mumbai: As the country gears up to celebrate Diwali, Cadbury Celebrations has rolled out a new campaign “#ShopsForShopless” to celebrate the power of communities coming together through technology-enabled solutions. The launch will be supported by a 360-degree communication campaign with amplification across media touchpoints.
The campaign’s goal is to empower and support those who do not own permanent stores.
After promoting local businesses for the last two years that were impacted by the pandemic, the brand has elevated the festive fervour by extending a helping hand to local hawkers. The brand will be leveraging QR code technology through which users can scan a Cadbury Celebrations pack to identify nearby hawkers and the products sold by them. It’s a seamless interface wherein consumers can also promote and set up a virtual shop for their locally known hawkers by adding simple details like vendor name, phone number, and a few product images onto the website. Once registered, anyone can shop for the products via a phone call, SMS, or even a video call. Thus, enabling hawkers to continue their business without the hassle of finding a new spot every day, through their shop on the internet!
Weaving purpose into one more heartwarming campaign, this effort will promote thousands of hawkers across the country.
Speaking about the campaign, Mondelez India vice president of marketing Anil Viswanathan said, “Right from gifting to indulging in sweets, Cadbury Celebrations, over the years, has found its sweet spot across festivities and become an intrinsic part of family celebrations. After our previous “#NotJustCadburyAd,” which was recognised and lauded globally for supporting small business owners, we wanted to take the act of generosity a step further this year. Looking beyond small businesses, we collectively realised how Diwali is an important period for hawkers, but their business is often affected due to having no permanent spot to sell their products. Building on this insight and keeping purpose at the core of our strategy, we conceptualised “#ShopsForShopless,” an effort to give hawkers a permanent virtual store. We hope our latest tech-enabled effort strikes an emotional chord with the audiences, leading them to participate in small acts of generosity for a brighter and sweeter Diwali.”
Ogilvy chief creative officer Sukesh Nayak added, “Diwali is an important period for hawkers, but their business is often affected due to lack of a permanent spot/shop to sell the products. So, building on our generosity platform, this campaign is going beyond small businesses. It is an effort to give hawkers, who have no space, a permanent virtual spot to sell their products. To execute this idea, Ogilvy partnered with DeltaX to develop a tech platform which can help connect buyers to hawkers near them. We hope this tech-enabled solution connects at an emotional level with millions of our customers, making them scan the box to connect with hawkers near them and help make their Diwali sweeter too.”
“As OneWPP, we are attempting something very audacious this year during Diwali. This will be a seamless tech platform to connect buyers to the unorganised retail owners, who we often refer to as hawkers or street vendors in this country. This tech infrastructure will not only make our generosity campaign more inclusive, but with the “#ShopforShopless” campaign it can potentially transform the way we shop in the future,” said Wavemaker India chief client officer & office head – West Shekhar Banerjee.
Mumbai: HP India on Monday announced the launch of its latest range of HP Spectre laptops with a multi-film campaign.
Conceptualised by Lowe Lintas Delhi, the campaign aims to appeal to professionals, both young and experienced, enticing them with the laptops’ intelligent technology and new smart features.
The new HP Spectre comes loaded with intelligent AI-powered features, such as gesture control, auto framing, and glam cam. Lowe Lintas creates entertaining situations through the new films to highlight these three key features. Each film highlights how the end user benefits from these smart features in a relevant yet appealing manner.
Talking about the campaign, HP India chief marketing officer Prashant Jain said, “The AI-based features of the new HP Spectre line-up are designed to help you thrive in today’s hybrid world. The campaign brings to life three truly unique features. We hope to inspire everyone to “Be Your Best You” as you navigate seamlessly across the hybrid environment.”
The films show an interplay between two start-up business partners who are poles apart but are always looking to create the best version of themselves. The situations involve conversations between the two characters – Ravi (Rahul Bose) and Kunal (Ishaan Khatter) – with simple interactions that ease into a technical benefit for a reveal at the end of each of the films. The conversations revolve around a senior, experienced businessman and a young, tech-friendly entrepreneur who introduces a smarter way of making perfect presentations using the HP Spectre.
The sarcastic and witty banter between the characters, which leads to each feature reveal, keeps the films light, special, and yet slightly professional. Despite the light-hearted tone of the films, it remains aspirational and premium to draw in the right target audience of professionals. In a never-seen-before pairing, Ishaan Khatter and Rahul Bose fit the roles perfectly with their sense of humour and comic timing.
Sharing more sights about the campaign, Lowe Lintas regional creative officer Vasudha Misra said, “Sometimes all it takes is going back to basics. Make the product the focal point of the communication. And that is just what we did. To this mix, Sidhant Mago added characters that are steeped in modern folklore – startup founders. And finally, the casting took these films to the next level.”
The integrated campaign is now live across social media and offline media with an extension of the same message across different platforms.
Mumbai: As the writer of this story, I don’t know if the recent “#StopTheBeautyTest” campaign by Dove is just blown out of proportion or it isn’t. Dove, HUL’s soap brand, has been in India since the 1990s and one of HUL’s other products, Glow & Lovely (previously Fair & Glow) – a skin-lightening cream, has been around in the country since 1975. So, my question is, has the fair skin obsession been fiercely propagated in India by one of the largest FMCG giants, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), or “#StopTheBeautyTest”? Or is the existence of both the brands at varied timings in the country, just a point to be brushed aside? Time and again when this tug of war between beauty and calibre has occurred, it has only led me to ask more and deeper questions. This time, I spoke to industry veterans who have pondered on the points about the creative and strategy of this campaign which has been conceptualised and executed by Ogilvy.
He was the first person I called to review this campaign, simply because on my LinkedIn, apart from HUL CEO & managing director Sanjiv Mehta, he was the first person whose post dared to speak something which not many could lend an ear to. Bang In The Middle (BITM) co-founder and chief strategy officer, Naresh Gupta says, “I think it’s very dishonest on the part of HUL to do a campaign like this. That’s where the whole issue is. I understand that you have a brand to sell and nobody has the right to tell you to not sell the brand. But when they try to take this righteous approach – the whole righteousness is wrong, because, from the business perspective, this is not what they’re doing when they’re selling Axe and Glow & Lovely. They’re doing something different – they’re prying on all the insecurities a person has when they’re selling Glow & Lovely and Axe.”
He further continues to ask – who are these people who would move to buy Dove? “They are actually at one point of time buying Glow & Lovely or are on Axe. So, you made money off them at some stage of life, and now you are continuing to make money off them at another stage of life. The other problem is the way the whole campaign has been executed – it is not executed with a positive tone of voice, which is the deeper issue. My concern is that the campaign should have been executed with a much more positive tone of voice,” he explains.
Even though many root for HUL’s hypocrisy, on the other hand, FCB India executive creative director Sumitra Sengupta likes the brand’s (Dove’s) work in bits but still feels that it doesn’t strike that spark. “After speaking to the urban target group for so long, I think Dove decided to address the masses. Yes, it’s written beautifully, is fabulously shot, and imparts information emotionally, but doesn’t create magic.”
Some people recognise that Dove, over the years, has been a trailblazer, breaking beauty conventions and stereotypes and Dentsu Creative chief strategy officer Sumeer Mathur is one of them. This campaign is phase two of an earlier campaign that focused on how women are judged at the time of seeking a life partner. The communication seems to be taking the same position forward. “If anything, it’s more of the same and not entirely new or fresh,” he feels.
Business strategist and PepsiCo India, Motorola & HP Asia former marketing head Lloyd Mathias finds this campaign interesting and in line with Dove’s core proposition that beauty is not defined by shape, size or colour – it’s authentic and all about self-esteem and confidence.
“Dove’s current campaign “#StopTheBeautyTest” tries to counter the prevalent stereotypes about beauty that are reinforced early on from darker skin tones to body shaming. It is a hard-hitting campaign bringing to the fore the trauma many young girls go through in India,” he adds.
Elucidating on the hype and buzz that this ad has created on social media Lloyd explained that the debate is a clear indication that the campaign strikes a chord, which is good for the brand that plays a niche in the soap market. Besides the activism, it inspires and drives consideration which is hugely positive for the brand.
Talk about being regressive!
Along with MediaMonks chief content officer, an ex-Ogilvy, an ex-MullenLowe Lintas Azazul Haque many others strongly believe that “#StopTheBeautyTest” is a very elite way of looking at Indian society. It feels like a conversation that happens in high society about how suppressed and regressive our society is. Brands like Dove should inspire women to celebrate real beauty instead of questioning society for suppressing a certain gender.
A lot of people watching this ad feel that for a brand like Dove which has always stood for true beauty, and has done some commendable work in the past, Azazul thinks that “#StopTheBeautyTest” lacks a deep-rooted insight.
Naresh firmly stands his ground when he says that the current Indian president Droupadi Murmu doesn’t fit the beauty bill, the way any brand would want to fit the beauty bill – but she has climbed to the top position in the country and you can’t get a more inspirational woman to look up to than her. “So if you look at it that way, society is moving somewhere else, and the brand is stuck somewhere else. This is just dated thinking and execution. And we, advertising people, live in our echo chamber, thinking this is what happens and this is what doesn’t happen,” he asserts.
Several also feel that the campaign puts Indian society in a poor light by portraying it as regressive even now, which, to be true, isn’t the fact. “To a certain extent, it is true that in Indian society few parents still believe that looking beautiful is a parameter of success. But this ad makes it look like most Indians are stuck in this conservative, parochial mindset. Also, it makes the women, the mother, the family- the villain,” says Azazul.
Sumeer understands that we seem to live in a world where it’s good to have an opinion and even better to be outraged. “It’s great if a certain section of society feels that we have moved on from judging girls on the beauty parameter and this no longer holds relevance for them. However, it would be interesting to know what the masses think about this ad – right now the criticism seems to come from the progressive English-speaking digital urban classes,” he explains.
He has a different stance on this and goes on to add that he thinks many girls even in urban India would find this communication relevant, the fact that teenage girls face unfair scrutiny and feel overwhelming anxiety about their body and looks is a global phenomenon that is well documented by psychologists. Young men seem to be developing similar issues these days in many social pockets.
“Would husbands get the idea of beating their wives because they saw “Darlings”? Similarly, it would be regressive if it ended in ambiguity on what Dove believes in and that’s not the case, it’s not promoting beauty tests. Merely calling out a social evil does not mean you are propagating it. Could it have been executed with more positivity, would that have worked better at getting people to sit up and notice the issue? Usually, when a brand takes on social evil, its communication needs to hold a mirror to society. On a normal day most brand communication is sun-shiny,” he reveals.
Lloyd, too, doesn’t consider the campaign to be regressive at all, as it shows a mirror to deeply prevalent social mores, thus bringing them to the fore. “Highlighting social issues will always raise controversies and bring out polarising views but these are inescapable in these times where social media enables everyone to have a view and air it freely. Smart brands harness this to their advantage,” he explains.
Naresh has believed for a very long time that the advertising guys are out of touch with reality. The world has moved on and the progression has happened to a very large extent. But the advertising folk have gone back on their appeals – they haven’t moved forward.
“15-16 years ago the advertising appeals were much more progressive. Agencies have been doing far more progressive work – ‘Daag Acche Hai’ (the tagline and brand campaign line for HUL’s detergent brand – Surf Excel) comes from the same company – that is so much progress. But when you do this “#StopTheBeautyTest,” it is not progression, it’s regression. And this is what has happened in advertising for the last 10 years – we have only gone back in time, we have not moved forward,” debates Naresh.
For business and brand strategist and Harish Bijoor Inc founder Harish Bijoor, the “#StopTheBeautyTest” campaign is unnecessary today. “It is so yesterday! I do believe society has moved on. Reminding it of what it did in the past is an unnecessary stoking of the issue and the pot,” he says.
Compared to the fabulously progressive work Dove has done with its other social experiments, Sumitra does find this ad to be regressive. She added, “It sets up the problem beautifully, but doesn’t provide a solution. And I think ‘Dove says… stop the beauty test’ sounds a trifle arrogant.”
HUL’s hypocrisy or just plain marketing?
With HUL Dove’s “#StopTheBeautyTest” campaign on one end, and its Glow & Lovely and Axe products’ advertising on the other, is this HUL’s hypocrisy or just plain demands of the various products in their portfolio? Every single time, when ads for fairness creams are rolled out, and on the other hand much is spoken about calibre outshining outward beauty, one tends to think that how farce could all this conversation get. Well, ad people, Sumitra and Azazul feel that HUL is doing justice to all its brands.
“Various brands of HUL stand for various points of view. So one can stand for artificial, outer beauty while the other celebrates real beauty. I don’t see a clash there,” clarifies Azazul.
Additionally, Sumeer points out, “If you see their actions, across its portfolio Unilever is moving towards more inclusivity, they have dropped ‘normal’ from some 200 beauty products, all these brands (Axe, Glow and Lovely) have moved on to a more progressive, modern worldview. I feel brands and people must be encouraged to evolve, pillorying attempts to evolve serves no purpose, it works against the agenda of change and inclusivity.”
Naresh, on the contrary, discussing the print execution of this campaign feels that through this campaign, Dove is giving a sense that teachers evaluate students, giving them marks on the way they look, which is blatant cheating. “They are being provocative, that’s the correct thing to do. But it can’t be a mark sheet because, in reality, there is no mark sheet. If a teacher says something like this to a student and if the student complains, the teacher gets sacked,” he says.
He goes on to add that if HUL has done the research, they should have put the research out in the public domain, mentioning clearly that this is what they have heard from their research and this is why the campaign is happening – that also they are not doing. He is of the thought that the brand is just trying to be clever.
Lloyd, speaking from a business and brand point of view, elaborates, “Multi-brand and multi-category businesses will always face the criticism of seeming hypocritical as they have different positionings for their various offerings.”
He strongly believes that in this case the criticism is justified as while Dove walks the higher ground of inner-beauty, there’s little doubt that HUL’s Glow & Lovely, panders to skin lightening. This is a fundamental contradiction.
On a concluding note, Sumeer discusses that there isn’t a monolith India – different people are on a different scale in terms of attitudes and concerns, and there is always a trend and a pushback against every topic on social media, as it allows everyone to express and share their opinion. It’s hard to gauge where the critical mass of opinion is.
“Keep your brand audience in mind, if it matters to them it matters to the brand, that’s a good north star to have,” he signs off.
Mumbai: Lemma, a leading programmatic digital out of home platform, recently enabled the Renault Kiger campaign at airports with Yahoo as the demand side platform.
The campaign, planned by Omnicom media group, aims to raise awareness for the Renault Kiger model through targeted exposure on DOOH screens at India’s busiest airports.
Lemma’s integration with Yahoo enabled OMG to buy and implement DOOH seamlessly as a part of their digital campaign, reaching millions of multi-city audiences through a single touch point with optimal budget utilisation.
The campaign utilised audience insights, strategic ad rendering tools & ad placements to coincide with peak foot traffic to guarantee maximum exposure to the intended demographics.
Commenting on the campaign, Lemme founder & CEO Gulab Patil said, “The benefit of programmatic DOOH is that it seamlessly integrates into the digital ecosystem, making it easier for marketers to implement programmatic DOOH via multiple integrated platforms. As the demand for new and emerging media grows, stakeholders must adapt quickly and provide agencies with solutions that help them execute omni-digital strategies effectively and efficiently through DSP integrations.
He added, “This campaign executed in collaboration with Yahoo DSP demonstrates DOOH’s responsiveness in prioritising campaigns based on audience movement and other key variables, making every exposure accountable and delivering optimal reach & visibility.”
“The Renault Kiger campaign’s extension from digital to DOOH demonstrates the importance of increasing audience reach by targeting specific ‘real world’ contexts, which is easily enabled by Yahoo’s omnichannel DSP,” said Yahoo global head of DOOH Stephanie Gutnik.
“Airports offer the dwell time and audience attention that helped Renault Kiger’s content drive meaningful and measurable results,” he added.
Mumbai: JKCement WallMaxX has unveiled the new phase of its “#AndarSeSundar” campaign ahead of the festive season. The latest campaign recognises the hard work and selfless dedication of the painting community, who are nothing short of superheroes when it comes to transforming our homes and making them holiday-ready.
The campaign is conceptualised by Kandid Kanvas & Social Cloud, while the production house is Bombay Film Company.
Since the festive period is one of the peak seasons for home renovations, our painter partners have their schedules clogged and even have to devote extra hours to make sure that there is no hindrance in the plans of the homeowners. While they are busy meeting their duties, there are times when they are unable to make it to their homes for the festival celebration with their families.
The campaign highlights and appreciates the gesture of donning hats and recognises the efforts of all the nameless painters who make our homes “#AndarSeSundar,” especially during the festivals. The campaign was conceived based on findings from recent market research, which revealed that 62 per cent of painters leave their families to work in the city. The research also revealed that only 49 per cent of them get the opportunity to visit their hometown more than two times a year! Most of them prioritise lighting up someone else’s home during the festivals and, in return, go back to an empty abode far away from their families.
The key intent of the campaign was to recognise and appreciate the real heroes behind the beauty of our festivities, the painters, who sacrifice their family time to make our homes “#AndarSeSundar.” Through this campaign, JKCement WallMaxX wants to ignite the real festive spirit in society, which at large includes inclusivity for all in the celebrations and happiness.
The film showcases an emotional story that defines how empathy and humanity can make anyone’s festival ‘sundar.’ It tells the story of a painter who found it almost impossible to go home to his daughter for Diwali celebrations as he had to honour his commitment made to a young couple who were celebrating their ‘Pehli Diwali.’ The twist in the tale happens when the young couple makes sure that he reaches his village on time to celebrate Diwali with his family. The campaign film has touched millions of hearts and has garnered a viewership of four million within three days of its launch.
Speaking on the campaign, White Cement Business head-branding Indranil Lahiri said, “We feel the insight-driven campaign is more impactful, especially when it addresses an issue. The inception of the campaign happened when we discovered that a lot of our influencers (painters) expect something beyond financial gains from the homeowners who avail of their services. That something is nothing but the recognition of their hard work and acknowledgement of the fact that they have to let go of their festive celebrations in order to make the homeowner’s abode festive-ready. “#AndarSeSundar 2.0″ is our humble initiative to thank the painters, who give up on their special moments for us to create cherishing memories during the festivities and to encourage others to follow the path of kindness to make this world a better place.”
To perfectly encapsulate the essence of the film, JKCement WallMaxX came up with a song to resonate with the mood of the audience at every stage of the film. The music was composed by ‘Indian Ocean,’ a group of master musicians who through their music have always stood up for humanity, empathy, and virtue.
Mumbai:Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) has launched a new campaign “Scooter Bole Toh Activa” for its legendary scooter. The new campaign consists of a captivating song with sing-along lyrics. It shows how Activa has become a household name over the last two decades.
Conceptualised by Hakuhodo Wyng (a unit of Hakuhodo International India), the campaign highlights the nation’s cultural diversity and richness with many languages, regions, and ethnicities of India and the role of Activa in people’s lives—especially the youth. It emphasises how we vary in other aspects of life, but when it comes to defining a scooter, Activa runs synonymously with everyone.
The main film of the campaign has lyrics with words from many regional languages, making it truly diverse, just like this country. “Conceptualising this campaign was a unique experience—the creative idea was hidden in the brief itself, but to dig it up and to shape it into a full-fledged campaign was a challenge our team took up successfully,” said Hakuhodo Wyng managing partner & creative head Shobhit Mathur.
He further added, “HMSI wanted to show how Activa has been such an integral part of Indian lives that it has become synonymous with the word, ‘Scooter’. So we gave the campaign a very Indian feel – a diverse lifestyle yet similar values, and a common love for Activa!”
The campaign has been shot all over the country to show how diverse the customer base for Activa is. Talking about the same, Hakuhodo Wyng senior business partner Saptarshi Sengupta said, “We have covered a very vast spectrum in terms of diversity to do justice to the love Indians have shown for Activa over the years. We have included people from multiple regions and age groups – especially the youth with their many life moments.”
Mumbai: redBus has launched its first digital-first brand campaign, with its brand ambassador Allu Arjun, ahead of the festive season. The brand aims to present itself at the heart of intercity bus travel, amid the upcoming festive occasions and holidays.
As part of the campaign, the world’s largest online bus ticketing platform has rolled out two ad-films with Allu in the lead and delivering the message of bringing your loved ones and dreams closer with redBus.
redBus undertook extensive research across 15 cities by reaching out to hundreds of people from different walks of life to identify the emotional and cultural anchors that it needed to create the theme for the campaign.
Directed by Trivikram Srinivas, the brand has unveiled two 45-second and 30-second ad films. The films depict slice-of-life situations like a logistics manager at a storage facility or a mother-daughter duo running a small eatery.
The first film depicts a helpless father who misses out on the joys of being a part of his infant child’s formative months. As he dreads the prospect of chasing a bus to get home, even to see his child take the first steps, a red bus arrives on the scene and pulls up to drop off a very special passenger. The father is awestruck as Allu Arjun alights from the bus and treads a red carpet towards him with a swagger befitting the actor. Allu comforts the anguished father in a breeze with his cinematic charisma, as he speaks of the benefits of booking a bus ticket on redBus, which could help improve the time the man spends with his family.
In a similar construct, the second film comprises a mother-daughter duo managing a small eatery. The hardworking daughter is also very talented, making her mother proud, who now wishes to see her enrol at a college in the city for higher studies. The daughter is apprehensive as her mother would have to manage the weekend rush at the eatery all alone while she spends valuable time in queues to obtain a bus ticket for the trip. The same red bus arrives here too, with the swashbuckling Allu Arjun strolling up to the two to defuse their tension by asserting a list of benefits that come along with booking a bus ticket on redBus. Allu finishes both the films with a powerful tone, exclaiming—”redBus: Apno ko, sapno ko, kareeb laye.”
The narrative of the films thus implies redBus’ strong bond with its customers by being culturally relevant to ‘Bharat’ as well as having a strong connection with individual emotions and aspirations through extremely relatable storytelling.
