Godrej?s campaign featuring Aamir Khan is subtle, smartly executed, and peppered with just the right amount of situational humour
Campaign name: Godrej’s product portfolio
Brand: Godrej Industries
Company: Zindagi muskuraye
Agency: JWT
The Campaign
This campaign is a series of nine TV ads ? one teaser film and eight product films, out of which six have been aired until now. The teaser film introduces Bollywood actor Aamir Khan dressed as a woman. He tells his friend how he is researching for a woman’s role. He then introduces himself as Soniya to a friend’s wife (played by Nauheed Cyrusi). The subsequent product films show ?Soniya?interacting with Nauheed and her husband, and getting introduced to a wide range of Godrej products ? from hot plate-fitted dining table to a Godrej air conditioner to Godrej property homes and even the Good Knight mosquito repellent. Struggling to conceal his identity, Khan often finds himself in comic situations.
Our Take
He has done it before and he is back on screen masquerading as a woman. Aamir Khan is no stranger to drag acts as he has successfully pulled them off for Coca-Cola and Tata Sky in the past. It does prove to be a clutter breaking move as there is definite viewer attention that this campaign attracts. The ads are subtle, smartly executed, and peppered with just the right amount of situational humour that is judicious but effective. The subtlety quotient just doesn’t end there as the product integration with the communication in these ads too is done in a subtle and seamless manner. A nine-part series is a brave and bold move, and one that is set to pay rich dividends to the Godrej brand.
While first impressions of the teaser commercial weren’t really exciting to be honest, the campaign grows on you with each instalment of its product specific films. The progression is similar to that of a sit-com series, wherein characters and the larger plot develop a relationship with the audience, easing into their minds. The communication is straightforward, unassuming and simple and is one of the few campaigns which places the premium on acting. There is a definite cinematic approach that has been deliberately adopted for this campaign and it works decently well.
However, the campaign runs the risk of product underplay as the products can go unnoticed in the larger scheme of the campaign story. Perhaps it’s too subtle for the products to really make an impact and is a curious case where the campaign overshadows the products. However, there’s no denying that it works well overall for the Godrej brand. It speaks directly to a varied and large target audience by using a young newly married couple, putting special emphasis on that consumer segment as an influential buying group.
All three actors do well in terms of justifying their characters, complementing each other, the script and the broader story line of the brand communication. Aamir Khan’s star power and his acting prowess grabs attention instantly and he does justice to the heightened expectations that viewers have with anything the actor is involved in. While a few parts of the series are still to be aired, we can safely say that Godrej has a good enough brand campaign to build further on its brand identity. In spite of being one of the oldest brands in the country and enjoying top of the mind recall value, Godrej for a while, has lacked a formidable brand communication to reposition itself as a suave and modern brand across product categories. While this campaign is not earth shatteringly new or very innovative, it is a safe, endearing and enjoyable campaign still.