The Ad: The TVC emphasises on women’s safety by showcasing two young female athletes travelling at night, putting a fellow passenger couple’s worry to rest, as they explain the features of the watch enabling them to travel safely even at odd hours.

Target Audience: Women across age groups; pan India

Business Objective
To showcase the ease of using the ACT (App-enabled Coordinates Tracker) watch by playing on hope and optimism.

The Appeal
Functional
Emotional
Sensorial

The sharp brief highlighting the features of the watch comes across very directly. Considering that the product is a safety watch for women, one would expect the brand to arouse a viewer’s emotions, which it doesn’t.

Competitive Edge
As a brand, Titan is changing with ‘time’ and keeping its connect strong with consumers by launching smartwatches under its various sub-brands. Sonata’s ACT is the first in its category to launch safety watches for women, also highlighting the brand’s own journey to keep up with consumer needs. With 50% of its consumers being women, the product and messaging in the TVC could work for them.

Tone of Voice
Serious

Verdict
As a debut TVC for a new product, the ad film is a letdown of sorts. Although a user-related context has been employed to narrate the story, the tonality is very serious and in turn brings in a feeling of distress or fear in the viewer rather than hope and optimism as the brand attempts to communicate. Moreover, the film features two sportswomen from Haryana, giving a very Chak De India or a Rio Olympics hangover. A realistic, everyday situation could have been highlighted to create a better connect.

It seems that the brand is trying hard to educate the viewer about the product and its features, by literally spelling out everything frame by frame. A more creative approach would have worked better than adopting a product demo in its communication. Would the dialogue-heavy ad film provoke any reaction or sentiment when watched in mute mode? Maybe a little creativity would have helped!

Agency: Lowe Lintas
Brand: Sonata
Campaign: Sonata ACT
Production House: Absolute Productions

Rating: 4/10

Chandni.Mathur@expressindia.com
@chandni_mathur