Croma 'plugs' into South Mumbai

Larger than life electrical plugs in Mumbai city? This is not something out of a Hollywood movie, where the world is being taken over by electronic appliances that have suddenly come to life. These electrical plugs are part of the 3D hoardings created by Lowe for the new Croma store.

Croma, the large-format, multibrand consumer durables and electronics chain from Tata Enterprise, recently unveiled a 15,000 square foot store at Phoenix Mills in Lower Parel, South Mumbai’s business hub. To spread awareness and grab eyeballs for the store’s launch, Croma's creative agency, Lowe, created 3D hoardings for the store.

The innovative hoardings consisted of larger than life, white, 3D plugs and insulated wire connected to an image of Phoenix Mills. The plug symbolises Croma, the electronic store. Four such 3D hoardings were put up in Mumbai at Haji Ali, Mahim Causeway, Peddar Road and just outside Phoenix Mills.

“All we had to do was find an interesting way to communicate, hence the innovation to catch more eyeballs,” says Patel.

The agency says that it took about a week to fabricate the moulds for the plugs and have them ready to be placed on the hoardings.

Patel says that Croma talks to everyone – the evolved electronics consumer, the housewife and anyone who may have a need for an electronic item – therefore, the idea of “plug in”.

The creative outdoor has been backed by print. However, no radio or TV has been used as the 3D hoardings and the print campaign are expected to do all the talking.

"The team from Lowe that worked on the campaign includes creative directors Delna Sethna Patel and Sohini Dasgupta, Sagar Kambli and Kuber Sharma from creative, Farah Ahmed vice president client servicing & Shveta Jadhav from client servicing."

For the record, the first Croma store opened on October 9, 2006, at Juhu in Mumbai. The chain is promoted by Infiniti Retail Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Sons. This is the 10th store to be launched in Mumbai and the 24th store in the country.

Croma plans to launch seven more stores in the country by March 31, of which one store will be in Mumbai, three in Hyderabad and three in Delhi. The total estimated cost of opening the stores is Rs 28 crore. By March 2010, it aims to have 50 mega stores in India.

Croma also operates a compact version of the store, called Croma Zip, at the Mumbai airport and plans to launch a few more in the area range of 2,500-6,000 sq. ft across the country.