Sapna Nair
Advertising

Cutting short the ‘match-fixing’ process

After Timesmatri.com shed its name and image to pave the way for SimplyMarry.com, the matrimonial website faced the tough job of re-launching and re-branding the website. The new TVCs do the needful

When Timesmatri decided to give itself a new name and identity, it was posed with several hurdles. Chief among them: The ‘new and improved’ SimplyMarry.com had to position itself differently in the clutter of matrimonial websites and make a place for itself in consumers’ minds.

Mudra Communications played catalyst to ensure the rapid and effective transition of Timesmatri to SimplyMarry and to help it carve a clear, distinctive identity for itself among its target audience. “We wanted to establish it as a new brand and project a different brand personality” says Rajat Gandhi, business head, SimplyMarry.com. ‘Connect with the target and convey the simplest way of getting married’ was the mantra which started the creative juices flowing.

While most matrimonial ads prefer to keep the communication serious and clichéd, this one is a refreshing change. The TVC shows concerned parents, with an equally enthusiastic kid, on a journey to find Mr Right for their extremely demanding daughter. Apart from the conventional order for tall, dark and handsome, she yearns for a daring, dimpled and moustachioed partner! Her parents seek the man of her dreams everywhere – on the streets, in the market, in a train, in a photo studio and even in a wrestling match, but in vain. Some quality is always missing.

Here’s where SimplyMarry.com comes to their rescue. ‘For better search results, log on to SimplyMarry.com’, the ad ends. The end result, Gandhi says, coincided with what was desired. “A humorous, contemporary and clutter-breaking ad is what we aimed for and achieved.”

Ullas Chopra, creative director, Mudra Communications, Delhi, adds that the re-branding exercise was done with the intention of breaking away from any previous communication for the earlier brand. “We wanted to devise a completely fresh approach to the insight that it is not easy to find a life partner,” he explains. So, the crux of the advertisement was to project the difficult search process, which has its own nuances and rituals, in a humorous manner. Or in a manner that the target audience would empathise with, as Chopra prefers to put it. Group heads OS Radhakrishnan and Pankaj Gajwani worked on the campaign with Chopra.

“Though humorous, one will only laugh with the ad and not laugh at it, because you can relate to it,” he asserts. That explains why the agency and the producers have taken utmost care to make the characters in the commercial look like real, concerned family members. The most astonishing part was that neither of the parents are played by professional actors. “That was a deliberate move because we wanted to make the setting look small town, yet retain the local texture,” Chopra reveals. The TVC has been shot by ad veteran Milind Dhaimade of Equinox Films.

The TVC is being aired currently on television channels such as HBO, Max, MTV, Zoom, STAR News and Times Now. The television commercial has been supported by print advertisements as well.

Gandhi is content with the end result of the campaign. He says, “We have witnessed a 300 per cent increase in traffic on our website. Moreover, according to initial reactions, it has garnered a distinct position in the consumers’ minds vis-à-vis other portals.”

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