The IPL ad is a visual treat and linking IPL with Holi is a really smart, social and emotive connect that fans will agree with

Campaign: Paint Bomb

Brand: Pepsi IPL

Company: Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)

Agency: Ogilvy and Mather

The Campaign

The film starts with visuals of a few cricketers coming to the dressing room. As one of them puts on his shoes, blue paint oozes out of his shoe. Seeing this, they all run outside, only to have a bucket of paint falling over their heads. The scene moves to a street where a group of people is playing with dry colour and then ensues a series of visuals of people painting the walls, the streets and one another with the colours of their favourite Indian Premier League (IPL) teams with buckets of paint, dry colour and paint-filled balloons. The Koi Nahi Bachega soundtrack plays in the background.

Our Take

Two weeks ago, we gave our take on the Sony Max IPL campaign and here we are again, giving you the lowdown on yet another campaign on India’s biggest sporting extravaganza. But the commonality perhaps ends there. This new campaign, which is essentially a BCCI campaign, is nothing like the Sony Max campaign. And that is a relief. First impression of this new ad? Well, it’s a visual treat with colours splashing all around, becoming one with ? and the central element of ? the energy and the joy that the ad intends to show. It ends up linking IPL to the buzzing social milieu of the country, with fans splashing and painting everything and everyone around with their team colours. The timing must be noted here, as the sixth edition of the IPL will kick off immediately after this year’s Holi celebrations come to an end. That’s a really smart, social and emotive connect that the TV commercial succeeds in putting forth. It’s timely, it’s pretty, it’s happy and it connects. Well executed creatively, the ad also has an earthy folky soundtrack that seamlessly blends with the visuals, complementing them, and even enhancing their visual impact. The Ehsaan-Loy duo knows their stuff. The rustic, raw and cheerful lyrics penned by Ila Arun seal the deal as far as the soundtrack is concerned. The impressive use of slow motion videos deserves a special mention. Through all the action and the energy of the ad, it’s very fluid and the visuals flows easily.

Interestingly, this campaign doesn’t feature any cricketers. Now that can be interpreted as IPL’s attempt to connect directly with the fans and viewers, and keep it straightforward and simple. Five years since IPL started changing cricket in India, this campaign is a good attempt in bringing back the initial excitement and frenzy which perhaps has been affected by some amount of viewer fatigue over the years. It’s an ad that speaks straight to the senses and the heart, and whether you like the IPL or not, or are indifferent to its existence, you just can’t miss this ad. It’s one of those ads that make you sit up and take notice. While it does push the IPL brand well, this campaign also comes as a marketing boon for Pepsi, which is the new title sponsor of the IPL, and hence enjoys some substantial display within the campaign. Without going much into Pepsi’s own campaigns over the last few months, this ad, we feel, works better for Pepsi than what the beverage brand has been dishing out in terms of its own ad campaigns. So like last week’s column, it is perhaps apt again to end this piece with a fitting quote. In the words of Oscar Wilde, ?Mere colour, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.?