Dhara's new campaign brings forth 'Women Of Change'

Edible oil brand Dhara's new campaign titled 'Women of Change' brings to light some real life stories of Indian women who have balanced their daily chores with their passion.

Created and crafted by Mixed Route Juice, the campaign aims to encourage women to revive their subdued dreams, all the while keeping their daily routine intact. The brand has unveiled the first video of the campaign titled 'Zara sa badlav'. The film showcases the real life story of Deepti Nair, an employee at the Mother Dairy head office, who speaks to the audience about how she balances her daily life with her passion of Mohiniyattam dance.

The brand has announced that the video-led campaign will introduce one video every month across digital platforms, featuring one story at a time. The campaign films can be spotted on the brand's social media handles including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Dhara has used the tag line 'Zara Sa Badlav' in multiple ad films in the past. Its earlier ad films have been more specific in their brand proposition, which isn't the case in the new campaign video. For example, here is an ad film from Dhara depicting a household setting where a young man is seen surrounded by his in-laws, all asking him to eat.

Despite the comic undercurrent, the ad film makes the brand proposition clear by the end. However, the new campaign appears to be more cause based. We reached out to the brand to understand the intent behind the campaign. Sanjeev Giri, business head – Dhara, Mother Dairy, points out that the brand is aiming to leave a message for the target audience.

He says, “Dhara’s target group comprises progressive women ( over 25 years), who tend to take decisions for their families. Through this initiative, Dhara is trying to reach out to the exact target group by covering stories of a similar segment of people. For the same reason, ordinary profiles living extraordinary lives have been picked up. The intent is to leave a core message to the target group through video-tales. For instance, in the first video, it clearly mentions that there is no age to relive your passion.”

Elaborating on how the brand chose the stories for the campaign, Giri says, “We are shooting the stories in collaboration with production houses and the selection of profiles is through various mediums, including digital entries, referrals, et cetera.”

We asked Giri about the brand's connection with the campaign. He responds, “The new initiative is an extension of our umbrella positioning of ‘Zara sa badlaav banaye life behtar’ which is all about change, encouraging people to bring in small changes for the betterment of life. The earlier proposition was all about driving consumers to use less oil in everyday cooking, restricting it to 30g/day, and inculcating a change in the daily edible oil consumption habits to promote a healthier lifestyle.”

He adds, “In order to make the overall positioning more relatable to our consumers, we are coming up with videos of ordinary women in this campaign, with an aim to encourage others to dig deep and search for their true calling, thereby invoking a change within.”

Expert Review:

Ramakrishna Desiraju (Ramki), chief executive officer, Cartwheel Creative Consultancy

I love Indian classical dance. And have great admiration for its exponents. So I really wish I could say wonderful things about this film. Sadly, it has neither a meaningful connection to the brand and what it stands for, nor does it tell a story I could enjoy just for its sake.

I think the film would have actually been stronger if it unabashedly showed the dancer cooking or frying snacks for her family even as she balanced her work, passion and home. After all, so many of us do that. Returning to your passion is a powerful enough thought, but it's important to find a relevant enough role for the brand. I'm afraid I don't see that here.

We are all struggling to come to grips with the demands of the digital age. For some reason, we all seem to have collectively and simultaneously forgotten how to coax the magic out from the product itself.