Asian Paints invites customers for a budget wedding

Asian Paints’ new commercial for Tractor Emulsion is based on a budget wedding, and offers various innovative options to reduce costs.

The campaign opens with the shot of the bridegroom on a white horse being welcomed by the bride’s family. Suddenly, two men spring out from beneath the horse’s body – the horse was not real, but only a makeshift arrangement. One of the guests is surprised at this, considering that the bridegroom is supposed to be from Dubai. Another guest enlightens him, “Yeh budget shaadi hai, boss.” (This is a budget wedding, my friend).

Similarly, cost cutting measures are seen in the most crucial aspects of the wedding -- a tape recorder is used instead of a priest and a snake charmer is used instead of a band, for instance.

The ad has been shot by Shoojit Sircar of Rising Sun Films. It has been created by Manish Bhatt and Raghu Bhat, senior vice presidents and executive creative directors at Contract Advertising, the creative agency for the brand.

The brief given to the creative team was that Asian Paints Tractor Emulsion is a high end distemper and holds 75 per cent market share. The idea they wanted to promote was that this was an inflation fighter brand and would fit in one’s budget.

Amit Syngle, vice president, sales and marketing, Asian Paints tells afaqs!, “Before we gave the brief to the agency, we did research and found out that consumers prefer to upgrade to a smart product, which offers them value for money at an economical rate.”

Talking about the timing of releasing the ad, Syngle says, “We have released the ad now, as it is festival season; and this is the time when people usually paint their houses. So, we want them to have top-of-the-mind recall for our brand.”

The campaign features two Bollywood actors, Vijay Raaz (of Monsoon Wedding fame) and Atul Kulkarni (of Rang De Basanti fame). Bhatt shares the reasons for the unconventional choice of artistes, “The actors’ past performances were taken into consideration and then we finalised them. Vijay plays Mr. Cynic while Atul plays Mr. Wise. We have developed their characters in the ad by keeping note of even tiny details.”

He adds, “Both of them have never worn suits for any of their on-screen roles. So, we have dressed them up in suits, which were inspired by the movie, Men in Black.”

Sambit Mohanty, executive creative director, Brand Planet Elephant shares his views about the ad. “This is a departure from their previous ads. It seems like the brand is self promoting itself, which does not suit the brand. It is something DTH players do. Also, the previous ads touched the viewer in an emotional level; while this one uses slapstick humour that does not appeal to me.”

Saurabh Dasgupta, executive creative director, Innocean Worldwide says, “The script is funny, but the message is slightly confusing. On one hand, they are talking about the paint, which is affordable but looks expensive; while on the other hand, the analogies are slightly misplaced. The replacement objects such as the tape recorder are cheaper, but not necessarily expensive looking. Both the actors are good and I would classify the ad as passable.”

For the record, Contract Advertising has been associated with Asian paints since 2003 and handles the interior paints segment while O&M handles the exterior paints segment.