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The oldest cave paintings in the world, the oldest Buddhist stupa in the world and the largest wildlife sanctuary in Asia are all trying to invite travellers to come and visit Madhya Pradesh for sightseeing.
In 2006, Madhya Pradesh Tourism had released an ad called ‘Bioscope’, which presented shots of the attractions of the state, apparently viewed through a bioscope. It invited travellers to come and visit the state, the shots strung together by a narrative.
Now, after three years, another ad makes use of ‘eyes’ as the creative route to express the awe travellers experience in Madhya Pradesh. The eyes narrate the journey of the traveller and are complimented by a poetic song in the background. When the narration in the background is about sights one would see from a train, the model’s pupils become the wheel of the train, or if the narrative speaks of an antelope, the model’s eyebrows take the shape of its horns. Similarly, in the pool of her eyes, the viewer gets to see the intricacies of the Sanchi stupa.
Both ‘Bioscope’ and ‘Eyes’ have been conceptualised by Ogilvy India.
The suitcase
Mahesh Gharat, creative director, Ogilvy India, says that the task at hand was to create a follow up to the Bioscope campaign. “Since the song, music and the style of narration were popular, we were asked to follow the same style in the new commercial as well,” he explains.
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Interestingly, the first ad invited tourists to come and ‘see’ Madhya Pradesh, while the second ad narrates the tourist’s tale after he has visited the place. The creative idea for the new ad was, quite literally, taken from the word ‘sightseeing’.
GS Chahal, chief advisor, media, Madhya Pradesh Tourism, says that the agency was asked to do something which was in the same mould as the first ad and take the message forward. Hence, the style of narration, with the rhyming lyrics and quick music, is very similar to the first ad.
Eye Contact
Shekhar Jha, creative director, Ogilvy India, has penned the lyrics for the ad. He is also the musician and singer of the ad jingle. Jha has sung for a couple of other ads, including the recent one for Lexi Pens.
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For the MP Tourism ad, the team required a model who had a background in Indian classical dance – as her eyes do all the talking, a trained classical dancer would be adept at being expressive. That’s how they zeroed in on Shree Jeilachmee Appadorai, a Malaysia based South Indian model who has learnt Bharatnatyam and other Indian classical dances. She has also acted in other ad films such as the new Minute Maid Pulpy Orange ad.
The photographs of the tourist places in the ads have been provided by the team at Madhya Pradesh Tourism.
The production and post production work for the campaign was done in Malaysia and the film has been directed by Moon Chan Kien (known as Moon amongst peers in the industry) of MFX Films. The pre-production took about two weeks, where the team also created computer graphics (CG) generated eyes and eyebrows that matched the model’s eyes. The shooting was done in a studio in Kuala Lumpur and was completed in a day. The post production work took about six weeks.
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Moon says that searching for a model with naturally big and expressive eyes was an arduous feat. The model was also required to have the skill to manoeuvre her eyes according to the actions. The model’s eyes were naturally brown, making it perfect base for the work.
The attempt was to keep the eye movements as natural as possible and keep the transition between the real and CG movements as seamless as possible. The expressions in the ad are 60 per cent real and 40 per cent computer graphics.
One can observe that throughout the film, the edges of the frame are kept black. Naturally, this is done to ensure that the viewer’s focus is on the eyes. This was a very important aspect and for this the lighting set-up played a very crucial role in the shoot, says Moon. The base edge was created on shoot but the final framing was enhanced digitally in post production.
For the time being, the campaign makes use of only television. Chahal says that there may be a different radio jingle but the status of that is undecided as yet.
The tourists
So does this ad incite the feeling of packing one’s suitcase and making a dash for Madhya Pradesh? One also wonders how many ‘eyeballs’ this commercial will fetch.
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Rahul Jauhari, national creative head, Pickle India says that he finds the new ad as fresh in the category as the earlier one was. “The execution is riveting, well done and still connects to the heart of India with the jingle.
“In thought as well, the team has moved on from inviting people to recounting the experiences of Madhya Pradesh,” he says.
On the other hand, the erstwhile ad filmmaker Shamin Desai (who is currently making a feature film) thinks that the beauty of a tourism ad lies in showing the locations. “This ad will not appeal to the common man, as it is possible that they won’t be aware about tourist attractions in Madhya Pradesh,” he shrugs, clearly not too pleased with the manner in which the tourist spots find place in the ad. He concludes by saying that perception is everything when it comes to tourism ads.
Other execution experts concur. Vikram Kalra, director, Good Morning Films, says that he likes the first ad better than the recent one as the previous ad has a raw and real feel and is a simple and charming film. “The new film, though slicker in execution, lacks the charm and simplicity and is trying to be a bit clever,” he adds.
Another thing that Kalra finds appealing in the earlier ad is the use of English in its broken ‘desi’ style which makes one smile and adds to the charm of the earlier film. “Moreover, English lyrics, with this typical 'folksy' tune, also gives the track a bit of an edge over the newer one which is sweet but then falls into a regular Indian folk music genre,” says Kalra.
© 2010 afaqs!From aashish, Fri 06 Aug 2010 03:41:30 PM i have never seen an ad like this in which the eyes are speaking, acting,leading the words,able to get & hold the attention & much more. I mean to say beyond my words,speechless,superb...
From Madhusudhan, Fri 07 Aug 2009 06:52:32 PM Excellent AD, There are couple of things other advertisers must learn from this ad , especially being creative and smart,
From Roopesh Singhare, Sat 25 Jul 2009 03:22:26 PM One of the best ad. I have seen in last few years...
From Ravinder Singh, Thu 16 Jul 2009 10:21:10 AM amazing ad.
From Amit Rajput, Sun 07 Jun 2009 02:36:53 PM brilliant ad for tourism, great job done.
Amit Rajput
Impact BDO(Dubai)
From ANSHUMAN KAMLE, Sat 06 Jun 2009 06:59:56 PM Wow! I'ts a magnum opus.
From Sumit Roy, Sat 06 Jun 2009 05:33:04 PM WOW.
Spelt backwards, is also WOW.
You should have seen my eyes as I watched this ad.
Shekhar Jha, take an eyebow
From pranab bera, Sat 06 Jun 2009 01:49:36 PM ITS marvellous.. awsome trick with same jingle lovly
From Trailukya Dutta, Sat 06 Jun 2009 10:28:50 AM I have gone through the ad many times too. Initially when I played first, in a mute mode, it was like a bakwas for me. But later with the background narration/music, I found the beauty of Ogilvys Creation. I hope, for international targets Ogilvy has other language versions of the clip also.
Anyways, its good one to bag TRP!
From Ashish Jha, Sat 06 Jun 2009 01:55:55 AM great work but still wondering how this is going to help MP tourism.. surely this will bring some awards & recognition for Ogilvy but I firmly believe this won't help to bring any tourist to MP... forget indian & foreign nationals even the so called creative people won't visit MP once by watching this ad... i think tourists still prefer picturisque visuals than such ideas... I really don't understand why they are targetting indians.. they stopped going god's own country nowadays coz god's backwaters stinks & smells horrible and thailand & malaysia is cheaper than visiting indian states... instead of that they must ve focused on foreign nationals which will help MP tourism to bring foreign currency, trade, employment etc... hope the next one will be more relevant...
From himansu, Fri 05 Jun 2009 06:31:08 PM No doubt about it a piece crafted to perfection .LEts see the the response.Or how the viewers are goin to perceive it
From Latha, Fri 05 Jun 2009 06:30:30 PM Its a brilliant ad...They way the eyes portray different places is just superb!
From Dheeraj Kapoor LIMELIGHT, Fri 05 Jun 2009 04:59:27 PM simply marvelous.....what a way to portray tourism, truly humanly world class idea & execution.
All the very best to the team who worked on it and of course it will be a gr8 film which will eventually reflect proudly on their work profiles for sure.
From gaurav, Fri 05 Jun 2009 04:45:53 PM I think the end part makes it really brilliant because it makes the emotional connect.
From Rajeev, Fri 05 Jun 2009 04:23:45 PM Left to opinion polls, India would've had a very different parliament today. And left to critics, Eklavya deserved to go to Oscars.
From varsha shah, Fri 05 Jun 2009 03:38:15 PM Very Very Good..
Simply superb...
Very good imagination
Cheers
From umananda, Fri 05 Jun 2009 02:56:23 PM Clap clap clap...
And a long whistle too.
Ogilvy. We're proud of you!!
From JA, Fri 05 Jun 2009 01:47:13 PM bakwas ad. waste of money for a tourism ad. does nothing to change what i think of MP. may be MP has nothing for tourists thats why all this disco with eyes.
From Virat, Fri 05 Jun 2009 01:08:52 PM I belong to MP. And I am sure this not what MP is. The ad may be imressive, afterall excuted in Malaysia!
The state is "All explored, never here" kind of place. You can spend an year roaming all around and find Nature, Wild life, history, regious places, moutains, rivers, waterfalls, temples of unseen glory.
Infact in last ad even, Indore was highlighted for PAAN? Only the agency and MP tourism guys can answer that why it was done!
In simple words, the case is like, Shahrukh's film is endorsed by Arshad Warsi!!!!
Great going advertising!!! burn the money and win accolades...
From mehulzeee, Fri 05 Jun 2009 12:52:23 PM awesome ad. Brilliant execution.. I love those eyes... Good leap from the earlier campaign. What Next?
From rohan toma, Fri 05 Jun 2009 12:48:03 PM i think the ad is a great buzz-ar
From Ashwin Nagarkar- Art Director_Arms Advertising, Fri 05 Jun 2009 12:15:22 PM Its really good ad. new generation shows something creative. And studyed well.
From Pooja, Fri 05 Jun 2009 12:04:06 PM Off to Madhya Pradesh :p
From Nitin Jain, Fri 05 Jun 2009 11:21:25 AM This ad has international quality. Ogilvy raises bar of Indian Advertising once again!
From shonit gupto, Fri 05 Jun 2009 11:17:05 AM Not only wonderful concept, great strategy and a incredibly execute , specially I liked story telling through eyes. its Brillient...great jingle simple but very effective words, arrangment of Music and Vocal is awesome. After Biscope it gives us a great sequel...
Thanks to the entire team for there great effort...
From Shalabh Pandey, Fri 05 Jun 2009 10:53:49 AM The ad is quite unique (and I also like the branding of MP- The Heart of Incredible India). the special effects are subtle (not like some other over the top ads that one has seen before) and do deliver the message.
However, how do you scale it? This is certainly only targeted at Hindi speaking and understanding populace (unless they developed other languages) the background score and the street singing voice/tone/accent's appeal would be largely Hindi speaking areas driven.
The creative quality can make it easily adaptable to English language (thus reaching international audience)- and the overall unique texture makes it a great candidate for getting some buzz online.
It will be interesting to know if they are doing something in the direction to scale it to the digital medium or use other languages/international markets.
Shalabh Pandey
From Viswanathan Ganapathy , Fri 05 Jun 2009 10:37:15 AM Really eye catching campaign. A different one and a good one after a long time in this space. One must monitor the tourist traffic in the state.
From Ruchita, Fri 05 Jun 2009 10:35:33 AM I have seen this ad so many times and must say hats off to Ogilvy India, the ad is so damn expressive that one cannot take his/her eyes off, especially the way they have portrayed the places with the eyes.....just amazing...
keep on the good work...
From rajesh, Fri 05 Jun 2009 09:07:19 AM a brilliant ad. don't see this in isolation. this is a follow up to another brilliant and well received ad.
