By Malay Desai
From: Ogilvy, Brazil
In selected flights during the Carnival, a child would appear dressed as a pilot after an attendant’s announcement in Portuguese.He/she would go on to make the same annoucement -- weather, flight duration and other pleasantries -- in English, before winding up with a line in Portuguese: ‘This message was brought to you by Red Balloon’.
Why we Like
To feature the work of this South American agency twice in two months, we must really be infatuated with it! While the ‘toast taped to the cat’ TVC for an energy drink was high on eccentricity, this one is an instance of effective, real-world strategy that not only gets publicity, it gets you a Cannes Media Lions nomination as well!
Not all ‘third world’ countries have the finesse of an India in churning out English speakers by the million every year. Some such as Brazil must rely heavily upon English speaking schools such as Red Balloon to produce confident speakers. This is obviously not happening so soon, as evident from public life in the country, in-flight announcements included. Apparently, an English announcement would follow every one made in Portuguese, but would be incomprehensible enough to become a deaf spot. Biggest brownie point to the agency then, for connecting these dots and coming up with a new medium for a live advertisement.
That said, a successful campaign needed quality listeners and hence the annual Carnival was selected, when thousands of families would be taking domestic flights in Brazil. Also, to have sent the student (a boy looking ultra-cute in oversized pilot apparel, in the campaign video) right up on the flight was the surprise element.
It is not difficult to guess that the campaign must have demanded neat efforts from the client as well, in selecting their best English speaking tots for this practical test. Any hitches during the announcement would only mean negative publicity. We’d like to believe none of that happened and the kids ended up being brand ambassadors of this academy. And their final line about their academy was the crucial ‘product window’ of the ad!
Despite India’s huge English-speaking numbers (second in the world only after US!), the market for training academies is substantial, buoyed further by the BPO boom. We’re yet to see an impressive, mainstream ad though; in fact most of them are unintentionally funny thanks to their shadyness. Angrezi teaching centres, kripya check out this campaign!
