Housing.com - Parr ... se Perfect

Due to OTT platforms, it has become difficult to come across advertisements. There are a few ones seen when playing YouTube videos, but most of them are easy to ignore. You can simply switch the tab or do something else and come back to the screen when the ad is over. 

However, yesterday was different. The occasion was India vs South Africa T20 match and all of us were hooked on to Hotstar live. No way to pause, forward the match and there you go... we were served with a plethora of advertisements. Some made us notice them, some got simply ignored, but a couple of them made some impression. 

TVC by housing.com was one such ad. I noticed it for the message it is conveying. 

A young couple is looking for their house and comes across a spacious flat which both of them like about. Both of them almost decide to finalize the house and the lady goes on justifying the purchase. 

"When the new flyover is ready, my parent's house would be just 20 mins away"

And it hits the man, clearly visible on his face and then he starts finding reasons to look for more houses and introduces housing.com's app suggesting they have thousands of properties. 

While housing.com's claim may be correct, the reason that they have used to look for options, in my opinion, gives out wrong reasons, especially on the impressionable minds. Just because your in-laws are going to be closer, you don't look for a different house. 

Typically, the TVCs are released with some theme and I was looking for the same with Housing.com. There indeed is a series of this tagline - "Parr ... se perfect" comprising about 7 to 10 different ads on this basic concept. You can find all the ads in this playlist.

If you go through each of them, I was kinda happy with the overall messaging, except for the one I mentioned above. This kind of negativity is uncalled for and I usually get pushed away from the brand.

Guess what, it is super-easy to convert the above ad to a perfect one blending with the rest of the messaging. Comment and tell me how would you change it?

Women are not a property

Recently came across the ad campaign by MagicBricks.com stating some Mr. Rajan is so spoilt for options after visiting MagicBricks that everywhere he goes asks for more options.

Shamelessly, magicbricks goes on and also uses the same logic with girls, when he is visiting some family for "vadhu-pariksha". He asks the father of the girl, if he gets more options for the girls!!

First of all, "vadhu-pariksha" is a good enough humiliation for the girls who had to pass through that experience. On top of that, this Mr. Rajan makes a fun of those girls by comparing them to property and asking for more options.

I really wonder how did this TVC was approved and aired!!

Sorry, I am not posting the Video this time as I really don't want it to be circulated.

Bande Achhe Hai

This TVC starts with a shot near a boat. A family is trying to get on to a boat by walking on wooden board. Looking at the wooden board the Dad stops everyone on the shore, gets on the board, tests it by standing on it, pressing it down. When he is confident, he calls his family to walk on the board and get onto the boat.

The husband is getting ready for the office. His towel is lying on the floor. Wife notices it and bends down to pick it up with utter helplessness on her face. Husband quickly closes the open drawer which his wife could have hit while picking up. Wife doesn't even realize it.

Another husband is sitting in a taxi. His wife comes with husband's wallet. You can lip read "Sorry" from Husband and Wife's no-reaction except for "Bye". Taxi starts and immediately Husband asks driver to wait. He is looking up towards the building. In a moment, light goes on in an apartment. With the comfort feeling that Wife has reached the flat safely, Husband asks the driver to start.

Senior citizens. Wife is sitting on the chair, reading a book, cup of tea on the table. But the Sun rays are kind of distracting. She is holding her hand in such a fashion that she doesn't get the glare. Husband walks in to join her for tea. Sits down only to realize that the Sunrays need to be blocked. He just moves a bit so that his shadow covers Wife's face. Objective achieved!!

Family of three (Husband, Wife and a child) are sitting on railway platform, waiting for the train. Husband and Wife are almost sleepy, whereas the kid is playing some video game. He suddenly starts running towards the platform, only to realize that his father had hold the buckle of kid's pant ensuring the kid doesn't wander.

Father of a adorable girl is visiting the school principle along with the daughter. Both are walking side-by-side. Somehow, daughter's shoes are filled with mud making the floor dirty. Father realizes it and fears that the principle would be unhappy. He just switches the sides so as to pretend that the dirty marks on the floor are because of him and not because of daughter!!

Newly wed couple, about leave the marriage hall. The bride is crying with the thought of leaving her family. The car starts. The groom consoles the bride with just a touch. 

Couple walking on the road. Wife is on the outer side of the road. Suddenly husband changes the side so as to ensure that if the vehicle hits, his wife doesn't meet with the accident.

Each of these incidents underline that men do care, even though they don't talk about it. All those are nice little actions. If someone asks a man how does he care for his family, he wouldn't even recall these actions. You'll find him struggling to answer. But this TVC would change it forever!!

I am sure you would have observed it everywhere. Now that it is picturised, even the females would acknowledge this and many more such actions.

The TVC is created by Lowe Lintas for ICICIPrulife with tag line:

ज़ो ज़िम्मेदारी निभाते है, जताते नहीं ॥ 

Lyrics, by Swanand Kirkire, are beautiful too.

Lifebuoy se haath dhoye kya?

Today's ad is not a TVC, but it is a clever way of marketing, very opportunistic and very very innovative. 

Every one knows that as I write this, Mahakumbh mela is being held in Allahabad where millions of pilgrims have gathered to bathe in the sacred river of Ganga. The sheer number (80 million people expected in 2013 kumbh at Allahabad) represents huge challenge for the government to manage this event. While the government and security agencies were busy ensuring the organization and safety of the visitors, it was obvious that every business will try to cash on this readily available audience in every possible manner. The hoardings, banners, pamphlates etc are age old techniques, but still employed in this Kumbh. 

However, there was some innovation too. The creative agency Ogilvy thought differently. Instead of rushing for the ad space at the hoardings and banners, their creative team came up with idea of reminding the consumers about the product at the most appropriate time. Now, that is a task. How could you find out what is the right time for pitching the product for such a large number of folks? How do you ensure that you get the eyeballs? And how do you make an impact? For a product like Lifebuoy, the team found the answers very cleverly.

The Ogilvy team put up an idea to stamp every roti that was to be served in the Kumbh area with a message:

लाइफबॉय से हाथ धोये क्या?

Now that is something! Every person who is served this roti, will ensure that he has washed his hands before eating!!

Photo credit: Economic Times

HUL, the owner of the brand "Lifebuoy" made special heat stamps to make an impression of this message and hired 100 promoters to stand in 100 kitchens across the mela. This simple trick is helping the company to reach millions of people at fraction of the cost should they have utilized conventional channels!!

Here is the video covering this creative:

Hats off the creative team!! 

Tum chalo to hindusthan chale...

In 2008, Times Of India had launched a campaign to choose a leader from Indian masses. To quote ToI:

The point of the campaign, however, was not purely about identifying a winner . It was more about providing every right-thinking Indian a chance to step out of the comfort zone and take on the task of stewarding the nation. It was a clarion call to be the change that we expect in Indian society; an opportunity for citizens to shrug off their indifference and put a shoulder to the wheel.

To publicze this "Lead India" campaign, a TVC was launched and had appealed a lot to all of us. 

A tree has fallen on the road blocking the morning traffic. Almost everyone is in a hurry to reach their destination - school kids want to reach their school, other folks want to reach their office, a politician wants to reach somewhere. Everyone is stuck. Police are probably waiting for some help to clear the road and in the meanwhile actually taking a nap. You can hear people cursing police, the country and all sort of things. 

In all this chaos, a boy peeps out of the bus and sees that there's some problem and wants to know what it is. As he approaches the obstacle, suddenly rains start. Everyone runs to find shelter, but that doesn't deter this kid. He is thinking something and looks decided to do something. He drops his school bag and approaches the fallen tree. And all of a sudden he starts pushing the tree. Obviously, he couldn't move it, but he appears to be all determined to move the tree come what may. 

And in the events that happen immediately after this is the real motivation. A gang of kids playing on the road join the hands with this school kid. The tree gives a damn to the force exerted by these kids, but now kids have started enjoying the rain as well as the togetherness. It doesn't matter to them that they don't even know each other. Their only motive seems to be to move the tree. Everyone on the street is watching this and is taken by surprise. And then the team starts growing, people start joining one-by-one - gents, ladies, young and adults, without any hesitation. And as can be expected, the tree eventually gets lifted by this unity and the road gets cleared.

The entire scene has beautiful song in the background which reads:

फलक पकड़ के उठो ,
और हवा पकड़ के चलो ,
तुम चलो तो हिंदुस्तान चले 
तुम चलो तो हिंदुस्तान चले ॥ 

लगाओ हाथ के सूरज सुबह निकाला करे,
हाथेलियों में भरे धूप और उछाला करे । 

उफ़क के पाव रखो , और चलो अकड़ के चलो 
उफ़क के पाव रखो , और चलो अकड़ के चलो 


फलक पकड़ के उठो ,
और हवा पकड़ के चलो ,

तुम चलो तो हिंदुस्तान चले 
तुम चलो तो हिंदुस्तान चले ॥ 

Amazingly done ad, beautiful lyrics and music. In just about two minutes, it tells you complete story of what unity can do!! and to do something meaningful you don't need any power or need not be of any particular age or caste or religion!!

You can watch it here:

Telephone Exchange - IDEA Cellular

You are going to love this TVC, especially if you are a couple with double engine, I mean both of you earning.

Just watch it...

A little more...

When you get a little more, it definitely gives a pleasure whether you are kid, an young person or a senior citizen. Everyone tries to maximize their earning at every possible occasion.

This is the theme of new Aircel TVC campaign which is kicked off in 2013. 

A cricket match is going on between two teams, it is under arm cricket, probably getting played in some lane of a town. The match is towards the end and the team who is batting needs only few runs to win. So the fielders are all for saving even the singles. The dialogues are conveying you all this. 

When the batsman hits the ball, it was sure to have only one run - no less no more. And the fielder in all his hurry, stops the ball and throws it back to the non-striker end. And guess what - no one fields it there and the batting team gets another run!!

Look at the joy of both the batsmen, their dance (should I say belly dance;) ) and the guilt on the face of the faltering fielder, amazing expressions. The narration continues that Aircel is giving extra talking time worth Rs. 150/- for a recharge of just Rs. 135/-

थोड़ा extra मिलता है तो ..

अच्छा लगता है ना ?

Here is the video: