TVC: Retirement (Vodafone) v/sIce-Cream (Airtel)
By Malay Desai From: O&M (Vodafone) and Taproot (Airtel) Two newly launched campaigns from Vodafone and Airtel tow the emotional line to promote their services for smartphones. In Vodafone’s campaign titled ‘Speed is good’, a senior executive is shown quietly packing up on his last day at work, before one of his colleagues gets to know of his retirement and clicks a selfie with him. He is later greeted by a bunch of colleagues with a song and a framed picture with messages. In the Airtel spot, after an old school mate spots the gang’s ice-cream seller still with his cart outside their school, the gang surprises him by turning up and gifting him an ice-cream truck. Do we Like? Senti is the new sexy, 50-plus is the new 20-plus – or so it seems. I usually don't compare chalk with cheese here but the sheer timing of our two telco giants’ new commercials makes me wonder if both their creative bosses are old mates sharing nostalgic notes. Greying men asking for sympathy – check, young people teaming up to show their nice sides and tugging your emotional chord – check, sentimental happy selfie – check. Well done Airtel and Vodafone, you’ve both passed your mid-term exams, the latter with distinction. Let me explain why. Both the characters here – a middle-class officerand the old ice-cream vendor, are guys from our lives, but the former is more so. He’s probably our dad, or that uncle we know, or that nice guy from SBI. Ogilvy, ever so good at churning out emotionally intriguing films, takes this premise to a greater level with filming – the shot where the uncle turns back assuming the song party isn’t for him is just delightful. Taproot’s film for Airtel features more service features (like its controversial ‘wife cooking for subordinate hubby’ film) and hence dilutes the emotional pull that we feel throughout Voda’s film. The senti-meter relies on the premise – school mates reuniting to surprise old ice-cream man – and not the filming and screenplay. There’s hardly any touching of emotional chords here, just a ‘oh, nice’ feeling because c’mon, an ice-cream truck is just too much of a Boston than a Borivli idea. (Taproot’s January film for Birla Sun Life is on the top of my senti-meter). By the way, notice how both the surprises are generic/universal and not typically desi? Now, the debatable bit.Why would a telecom giant, wait, two of them at once –feature an old character as lead when most of us smartphone users are in our 20s and 30s? My guess is simple – the real heroes are the guys who plan the surprise, hence communicating that ‘you young smartphone users are nice people too, once in a while in-between partying and Whatsapping, you care for dumb phone users too!’ And we, the network guys, are your allies. Bottomline –Voda’s film, just like its network, is better than Airtel’s– in unexpected corners. (Look up ‘Vodafone India’ and ‘Airtel India’ on YouTube to watch these films) Social Newsfeed Your regular dose on the shifts in the social media universe Elton John’s Insta post leads boycott of D&G What’s the opposite of brand ambassador? It’s someone famous who gets severely upset with a brand and airs his views online, beginning a social nightmare. After business partners Dolce and Gabbana recently gave an interview terming IVF children of same sex couples as ‘synthetic’, Sir Elton John sparked off his dissent, creating a wave of boycott. ‘Shame on you for wagging your judgmental little fingers at IVF… I shall never wear D&G again,’ he said, not withholding much. He was soon joined by Martina Navratilova, Courtney Love and Ricky Martin and hence tens of thousands of angry followers. The boycott campaign has reached new heights now with several online messages tarnishing the image of the fashion wear brand. D&G bros, what you need now is an apology as classy as your suit cuts or else the bottomline might hurt soon. Tommy Hilfiger likes this YouTube Fan Fest raises at toast at roast venue It’s a great time to be a YouTube content creator, or so Google and team said last Friday evening in Mumbai at the YouTube Fan Fest event at NSCI, Worli. Given that it was the same venue that hosted the now infamous AIB roast, it was slightly comforting to see the AIB boys along with a host of local/internationalcomedians take the stage again. The big deal was obviously AIB and The Viral Fever (TVF) becoming the first Indian creators to cross the 1 million subscription mark on their channels – both of whom received a gold ‘Play’ button. Pepsi we hear paid generous amounts of money to budding creators and the ‘next big’ AIBs. The YTFF was a ticketed event, and featured a mix of music, comedy, make-up and fashion, all on a stage. More so, it was streamed live. Good times! Kanan & Biswa like this Order food on Whatsapp (and from Ola Café) now There seem to be good times for Ola Cabs too, who after recently taking over its rival Taxi4Sure for a huge sum has now ventured into a territory no other radio cab firm has gone into – food delivery. It has launched a service, Ola Café, for users to call for food from nearby using the same Ola app, which ironically I have been breaking my head over at the time of writing this – it’s acting up at its primary job!Meanwhile, I stumbled upon and tried out a brand new order service – TapOrder.in, which enables you to call for food using Whatsapp! Breathe in and let that sink in, while I tell you its first use review. It’s pretty easy, convenient and helpful. I actually called for rolls on a hungry weekday without calling anyone. I’m only wondering now whether there are any digital mediums left for food/social entrepreneurs to explore. Lazy writers like this
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