Addendum is a weekly column that takes a sometimes hard, sometimes casual, sometimes irreverent yet never malicious look at some of the new or recent advertisements and comments on them.
Now this is an interesting and well-made TVC for Telenor by McCann. It is meant to serve a dual purpose. First, Uninor, the well-known telephony brand, has re-branded itself as Telenor. And second, the party continues as the brand remains faithful to its mass market and offers more than full-on value for money, or paisa vasool . I said it’s a well-made TVC, and I mean it. The production values, casting, editing and the general look and feel of the film are top-class. So why am I qualifying my compliments? Well, now you need to decide who you are. Telenor and McCann have described what they feel are the full paisa vasool types. There’s this pretty young girl who is enjoying her pani puri and after her serving is done, she asks for some more dry puri , some more pani , and pleads for more. Or there’s this guy at a salon having a haircut and after the barber completes his job, asks for a little head massage, a little shoulder massage and whatever he can get free. Or you have the dancer who, when told that the party is over, uses some pleasantly emotional blackmail to squeeze another five minutes from the DJ. So now we have profiled the audience. If you fall into this category and want something more every time, well, Telenor has just the offers that might make you feel you are getting full paisa vasool . So next time you get your bill, go ahead, call them, try and get that little extra. They positively expect you to do something like that.
I can speak for myself. I am almost paranoid about turning off lights, fans, air-conditioners, television sets and the like, if I am not using them. And so I could relate to this new TVC from RK Swamy BBDO for Polycab. It shows Paresh Rawal very pleasantly and affably introducing his family, and the issue to the viewer. So you see his wife who doesn’t close the microwave oven’s door after she takes out the dish, leave alone switching off the oven. And his daughter who is standing in the verandah, door ajar, air-conditioner running. And his grouchy dad who has dozed off with the TV set on, but is clutching the remote for dear life, and growls when Paresh gently tries to pull it out of his hand. And, of course, there is the youngster who has left the music blaring and run off somewhere else. Every frame in this film invoked a strong sense of
Rooms and more
I watched these commercials with great interest. Mainly because I got to listen to, and meet this 21-year-old boy-wonder called Ritesh Agarwal at the IAA Silver Jubilee Summit in Kochi earlier this month. Everything about him impressed me. His poise, his simple and humble demeanour, his cool way of answering questions and, of course, his vision and his implementation skills. Yes, the OYO Rooms entrepreneur is really disrupting the way the hospitality industry has been run, in style. With presence in 110 towns and cities and a simple yet efficient technology platform to search and book, OYO is onto something truly big. And the two TVCs currently running present a quirky, maybe too quirky (in the one with an unwell dad) take on what OYO is offering. The accent is on an app that takes just five seconds to download and rooms that are air-conditioned, offer wi- fi and breakfast, at rates that begin at ₹999. Now that’s an offer that’s hard to beat. So if they just made some better ad films, instead of showing the mother and son enjoying themselves in the hotel room next to the hospital where the father has been admitted for multiple organ failure, the brand would really be built well. Ritesh, a great idea needs great advertising.