Devina Joshi
Advertising

The stubborn paper that refused to crumple

A film for premium brand Louis Philippe, conceived by Contract, Bangalore, draws an interesting parallel between paper and fabric

‘100 per cent wrinkle-free’. Although it sounds suspiciously like an age-control product promise, it isn’t … it’s the phrase that most apparel manufacturers are swearing by these days. Officials at Grasim, Peter England and even Louis Philippe will know exactly what we’re talking about here.

Louis Philippe, though, is relatively new to advertising about Permapress, its 100 per cent wrinkle-free range, which has been in the market for over three years. “While we did a fair amount of launch activities at that time, we didn’t launch a TVC back then,” says Yasmeen Mishra, brand marketing manager, Louis Philippe. (In India, Louis Philippe is marketed by Madura Garments). As a brand, Louis Philippe has heavily relied on press so far, with a few TVCs now and then (but none for Permapress, one if its largest selling ranges).

However, after the initial launch activity, it was noticed that the Permapress range had built up a set of loyalists. “Despite repeat purchases by our loyal consumers, we weren’t getting new customers to try this range,” Mishra says. Hence the need to go on television arose, with the specific task of luring in first-time users.

Says Ravi Raghavendra, creative director, Contract, Bangalore (the agency on Louis Philippe), “We were told to present the wrinkle-free premise in a no-nonsense and refreshing manner.” Contract then worked on the product truth, that here is a fabric that just doesn’t crumple. “The word ‘crumple’ instantly made us think of paper, and so we decided to draw an interesting parallel between the two,” Raghavendra remarks.

The film opens with the shot of an executive entering a room in his house (which has been converted into an office of sorts). As he approaches his desk, his glance falls on a plain white sheet, hidden under a newspaper. Curious, he picks it up, but dismissing it as of no use, he crumples the sheet and tosses it into a nearby bin. As he takes whatever he was finding and is about to turn around and exit the room, he stops short on noticing that the crumpled paper has transformed back into its original avatar – a crisp, white sheet of paper.

Intrigued, he picks it up from the bin and carefully crumples it, throwing it once more into the waste bin. He double-checks to make sure that this time, the job is done. However, he sees the paper back in its upright form again. This time, the man picks up the paper and examines it, flipping it around to reveal the Louis Philippe Permapress shirt logo and product visual, with a voice-over echoing what’s written on the paper: ‘Permapress shirts from Louis Philippe. 100 per cent wrinkle-free’.

Mishra of Louis Philippe is quite pleased that this ad doesn’t talk about the ‘technological’ aspect of the product, the way some others do. “We, too, could have spoken of Durable Press Rating, which is the tech term for wrinkle-free,” she says. But the brand didn’t want to unnecessarily confuse its consumers with terminology they frankly don’t care about. “They are only interested in its benefits, which is what we set out to portray,” she adds.

Keeping in line with the Louis Philippe tradition, an Englishman (Justin Mason) was made the protagonist of the ad. The idea is to give an international character to the brand, as it is a premium, upscale one, aimed at males falling in the Sec A, 25-35 age group.

In fact, the ‘office in a home’ setting was added to lend the feeling that the Louis Philippe user is a rich executive, who has moved up the corporate ladder and found his claim to fame fairly early in life. The film has been directed by Aparna Nori and Saurabh Ghosh of Clique Pictures.

“As the idea was so simple and clear, we had to make sure that the execution didn’t go overboard either,” Nori explains. “We also had to present the model in the film as someone who is well-versed with and clued in to the latest… a young CEO of sorts, on his way to office, who stops by his study to grab something.”

Well-versed, you said? That explains why a copy of Financial Times was displayed so prominently on the protagonist’s desk.

Louis Philippe hopes to clock a 30 per cent increase in the sales of its Permapress range following this communication. The film is at present being aired on NDTV India and NDTV 24/7, but there are plans to air it on GECs soon.

It’s quite amusing that a brand that used press as a medium for years together continues to rely on ‘paper’, even on television.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!

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