Devina Joshi
Advertising

The marriage of Indian brands with ‘Namaste London’

Three brands – Spykar Jeans, Bharatmatrimony.com and Streax hair colour – have been associated with the latest Bollywood film, ‘Namaste London’, which is targeted at NRIs

Haughty NRI girl meets ‘desi munda’. While you may have heard that one before, the recently released Akshay Kumar-Katrina Kaif starrer, ‘Namaste London’, has tried its best to offer viewers something new in terms of embedded advertising.

For the benefit of those who haven’t caught the film in the cinema hall as yet, the story revolves around London-bred Kaif (playing the role of Jasmine aka Jazz), who is in love with her ‘firang’ boss. To get her to understand Indian values and to search for an Indian groom for her, her father (Rishi Kapoor) brings her to India and, through a series of circumstances, she finds herself married to the desi Akshay Kumar. Back in London for some reasons, Kaif tells Kumar the truth, at which he is heartbroken. While promising to reunite her with her love, he secretly plans on winning her heart.

The marriage of Indian brands with ‘Namaste London’
Keeping the plot and setting of the movie in mind, and in a bid to attract the cash-heavy NRI segment, three brands have associated themselves with the movie. These include Spykar Jeans (which has sponsored some of the outfits in the movie), Bharatmatrimony.com, and Streax hair colour.

Spykar Jeans is claiming to be the only Indian denim brand that has launched its outlets abroad (across the UK). An association with the movie meant access to NRIs living in the UK and UAE (primary markets for Hindi movies of this type) as well as those back home in India. “Indians in India are also particularly important, as Spykar, not being an MNC brand, was losing out on its cool quotient here,” says Darshana Bhalla, CEO, MATES (Madison’s entertainment unit, which handled embedded advertising for ‘Namaste London’).

In the movie, Kumar, who is a stranger to London, walks into a Spykar store there, owned by Kaif’s father, Rishi Kapoor. On walking into the store, he looks around in wonder and tells Kapoor, “Duniya bahut choti hai, sasurji, India mein main yehi brand pehenta hoon, aur yeh pehla denim brand hai jiska showroom London mein bhi hai (The world is indeed a small place; I wear this very brand in India and this is the first Indian denim brand which has a showroom in London).” His father-in-law, Kapoor, replies, “Indians aaj kal har cheez mein tarakki kar rahe hain (Indians are progressing in every field these days).” Foreigners are shown purchasing Spykar outfits to add to the whole pride in India sequence.

In addition to the in-film placement, Spykar and ‘Namaste London’ have also launched a co-branded commercial on television, which has shots from the movie (including the store sequence) to try to bring out the fact that the movie and the brand are going places beyond India.

“Bharatmatrimony.com is known for the most relevant searches for Indian brides and grooms,” says Bhalla. Therefore, in the movie, Rishi Kapoor, fed up of his daughter’s adoption of Western culture, hunts for a suitable match for her by logging on to the site. The film has a shot of the homepage as he logs onto it. The site, as in the case of Spykar, will benefit by attracting NRIs in search of Indian partners. Print ads in leading dailies complete the circle for the site.

Lastly, MATES partnered with Streax hair colour, a brand which had been leveraging brand ambassador Malaika Arora Khan for quite a while now. “In fact, its commercial featuring her has been airing for more than six months and was frankly reaching a saturation point, beyond which it stopped delivering,” says Bhalla.

Therefore, the modern day Katrina Kaif (symbolising the TG, that of young girls aspiring to look good and, therefore, confident) is shown with coloured and textured hair throughout the movie, courtesy Streax, while Kumar is shown praising her hair style and looks. Although there is no in-film placement involved, the brand has benefited through a co-branded TVC, which has Kaif sporting the cool look, and the ad explaining how Kaif’s hair style in ‘Namaste London’ is courtesy Streax.

Bhalla of MATES claims that the film has so far garnered more than 90 per cent box-office collections, thereby ensuring that the monies flow in for these three brands as well.

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