Hutch’s pug connection: three years old and still going strong

Wherever the Hutch ad goes, its pug follows.

O&M’s advertising for telecom major Hutch broke paradigms of sorts in 2003, when a simple idea and insight brought to the fore its core proposition – that of a superior network. Till date, you remember fondly the pug which followed the small boy wherever he went, and the tagline, ‘Wherever you go, our network follows’. Four similar campaigns followed that ad, all featuring the boy and the pug, all of them spaced out with gaps of eight months to a year. The second campaign comprised three ads, ‘Photo Studio’, ‘Swing’ and ‘Classroom’, following which there was another campaign full of short capsule ads such as ‘Locker Room’ and ‘Log’, each again showing the pug following the boy to unexpected places.

Well, the pug is back in Hutch’s fifth brand campaign in three years (discounting the occasional tactical/product based campaign), in what O&M hopes is an even more endearing manner. “Well, the client brief really hasn’t changed at all,” grins Rajiv Rao, group creative director, O&M, Mumbai. Rao and his late partner, V Mahesh, first came up with the campaign idea in 2003. “We just did more of the same,” says Rao today.

The new campaign features three ads. The first one has a magician entertaining kids with his act. He invites one of the children to step into a box on the stage. To everyone’s surprise, the boy emerges out of an adjacent box a while later. As he walks back to his place amongst the audience, more magic takes place: A pug comes out of the box, too, following the boy. The trademark tagline appears as a super. The second ad shows the pug following the boy in a race, while the third one has the pug occupying a seat near his master during a game of musical chairs.

Harit Nagpal, chief marketing officer, Hutch, says, “Network is a core proposition for any telecom player; schemes and value added services come later.” This is why network has always been the core focus of Hutch advertising and will continue to be, as Nagpal points out.

O&M’s challenge was to present the same story in a charming, refreshing way through new situations. “A magic show or a race may not be an everyday situation, but they can be related to nevertheless, as they are part of a child’s growing up years,” says Rao. One observes also that after the initial ad in 2003, all the other pug ads have the dog appearing towards the end of the film, so as to maintain the surprise element.

But don’t the pug ads run the danger of becoming predictable at some point? “The recall of these ads is still very high,” says Nagpal of Hutch. “This communication has worked for us through a premise which people find cute. So, I don’t think there’s that danger any time soon, as long as we find new ways of saying the same thing.”

Interestingly, a new boy and a different pug were used in this latest campaign, as the earlier boy and pug have grown up in the past three years.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!