By Malay Desai
From: Ogilvy
A new commercial for the paint brand’s exterior variant shows a couple at their spacious bungalow. As the man settles outdoors with his Tablet, his wife calls him inside to watch a ‘serial’, to which he refuses and says he wants to watch the weather report. As the report plays out on his tablet, the weatherwoman’s predictions of extreme weather – scorching heat, floods and desert storm occur right away, pushing the man right in, next to his wife. ‘Uparwalaapkoapkibiwi ke gusse se bachaleta hai.Aur hum, apke ghar kouparwale ke gusse se.’
Do we Like?
To kick off the New Year with gusto, we needed a campaign which smacked of multimedia usage, catchy copy and a definite amount of recall. No surprises then, that it is the work of Ogilvy, which has made a habit of doing all the above and more. For market leader Asian Paints’ outdoorsy variant, they made this literally breezy campaign.
First about the more recent film – every new Asian Paints TVC carries the weight of legacy with it. It’s the brand that gave us ‘Wah Sunil Babu’ after all, and has thereafter been entertaining with more hilarity – its 2011 film featuring a man who reincarnates as a sparrow to stay in his wonderfully painted neighbour’s house drilled the legacy home quite amazingly, and this latest film’s originality too gets a thumbs up.
When you have Nerolac’s Shah Rukh Khan to compete with, things may seem tougher, but the agency relies upon the old miya-biwi method of storytelling. That the wives command the remote control is a stereotype, but works well in this context. And both the actors being fresh faces ensures the message is the hero.
‘Protection in any weather’ is what Asian Paints is saying here, and the film’s special effects truly dramatize things up for a long message to be powerful in just one minute.
Elsewhere, and we assume it’s only for the web TA, two funny fringe actors from Bollywood star in a separate campaign, for an interior paint variant. One of them tries illogical, bordering-on-stupid stunts at home and fails, before the other mouths funny lines and advices to try the paint at home instead. The films are supported by a cool microsite which carry forward these adventures and further the message.
These, remember, come after what I think was one of the best sponsored TV shows in our history, the ‘Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai’ seasons where each episode would take the viewer into a celebrity’s old home.
Let the brilliance continue!
(To watch this film, look up the ‘AsianPaintsIndia’ channel on YouTube)
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DBS Bank serves good Chilli Paneer
Not starting off the New Year with news of a boo-boo, but the Singapore-based DBS Bank has willingly been putting up ‘chilli paneer’ messages in a brands new campaign on its social channels. Having been silent in India since two decades, the bank has now upped the ante to tell its TA – young affluent Indians of the synergy between the two Asian countries. The campaign is a full-fledged web film, complete with episodes appearing every Friday. The story is about a South Indian art director falling in love with a Singaporean food blogger, and the agency has used multiple digital assets to ensure the films are well received. According to a report, the campaign generated over 1.2 million views across media and 2.5 lakh visitors to the microsite. Sounds delicious, we say.
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Follow these fitness Gods on Twitter
And because it is January and thankfully there are no inane #100happydays trends (remember last year?) to report of, we shall do what newspapers do on New Year Day to fill space. Only difference is that our list is a useful recommendation from this writer’s experience: Celeb nutritionist @RujutaDiwekar curates her tips well, @menshealthindia and @womenshealthind are dedicated handles of publications that plug stories to utilitive health articles; there is also the Bengali siren @bipsluvurself, who, when not promoting horror films talks good fitness gyan. @Mensfitness, an account with over four lakh followers is a must for men needing motivation and lastly, remember the app from India Today ‘Newsflicks’ we spoke of? It has some pretty cool fitness infographics all the time.
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Reddit AMAs –why you must follow in 2015
We had mentioned newsworthy incidents happening in social sharing site Reddit’s ‘AMA’ sessions last year but will repeat for context. Short for ‘Ask Me Anything’, these hangouts by celebrities online are like live chats where good answers and questions get upvoted by users and more importantly, the true nature of the celebrity (or his/her digital advisor) is revealed online. Priyanka Chopra had one last year and was ridiculed for her choice of safe answers – Redditors are perhaps the smartest breed of social media users, although they have their share of trolls too. In 2014, these thought-provoking/entertaining AMAs made news – Tim Berners Lee, Julian Assange, Amy Poehler, and Peter Dinklage. Bill Gates and Stephen King have been here too! Watch out.
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