Did DSP Mutual Fund cherry-pick 'Savings Committee' from Amazon, Flipkart & Nykaa?

Over the years, brands have set their identification marks through their communication. Spotting a kidult automatically takes one's thoughts to Flipkart, 'Aur Dikhao' rings the Amazon bell, speak of 'pink' or 'make-up' and you can visualise the Nykaa logo in your thought clouds. But what happens when you spot these backbones of brands in the communication of a company from a completely different world. Why ask? We spotted it!

The brand in question here is DSP Mutual Fund and the film is the brand's latest communication - 'Kaun Banega Sabse Bada Saver?'

Conceptualised by Mumbai based digital marketing agency Schbang, the film not only borrows the preserves of these brands but also wittily modifies their signatures into names for its protagonists. The two-minute ad opens with a kidult - 'Mr Filipe K. Art', rolls on to 'The Amazing Family' with the pet 'Aur Dikhao' dialogue and ends with a pinch of pinky-fashionista – 'Ms. Khanayika', all part of the 'Committee of Ultimate Savings'.

Speaking about the campaign, Abhik Sanyal, head - consumer marketing, DSP Mutual Fund says most of us waste a lot of time chasing online discounts and small savings during sales and e-commerce festivals. However, we end up forgetting one of the biggest savings of them all - tax savings. “Our idea was to build a quirky yet relatable piece of work that worked this insight and had the potential to provoke young millennials, especially online shoppers, from across India.”

When we pointed out the cherry-picking from other brands' communications that we observed in the ad, he said e-commerce brands are among the largest players who promote discounts and shopping festivals all year round. These shopping fests have started directing and in certain cases, even dictating the spending habits of young, salaried Indians. This is where many people spend a lot of their free time and make impulsive money decisions these days, he avers.

“As a brand that is essentially aiming to do the exact opposite - encouraging people to make prudent, well thought-out and responsible financial decisions, this canvas was the most natural and obvious choice to present a point of view on. The decision to have this conversation with millennials in their universe and in a language they understand and could relate to, stems from this thinking.”

The ad intends to appeal to young working professionals with the money and the propensity to spend. “We felt this audience could benefit from our point of view on the importance of tax savings and the idea of prudent financial decision-making,” Sanyal opines.

Akshay Gurnani, co-founder and chief executive officer, Schbang, tells us the brief given by the brand for the campaign was to make the youth conscious of the fact that tax saving is important and that there are easy ways to do it.

“It's funny how today's youth is somewhat penny wise, pound foolish when it comes to money matters, where they get excited by saving small amounts of money through various shopping festivals and offers but often ignore the fact that the major savings they can get is by simply planning their taxes better. Hence, we tried to get their attention by using characters who might be familiar to them and convey the same message in an interesting and engaging way,” he shares.

He adds, “The penny drop occurs at the end when the viewer realises that these icons of savings haven’t really won this game because they have missed the most important kind of saving, a tax one, which then creates relevant room for the brand to fit into.”

The campaign is being promoted exclusively on digital platforms, via YouTube and social media.

Jagdish Acharya, founder and creative head, Cut The Crap, tags the ad as a 'creative Khichdi'. “The kidult of Flipkart gives it its most prominent aroma, while some undernotes come from Amazon and others,” he elaborates.

“A Khichdi, even when enjoyable, does not have the dope to become a signature dish. A reference to any popular ad runs the risk of being mistaken for the original. This trick needs the following recipe - a very popular brand taking off on another equally popular brand or communication. Like Burger King heckling McDonald’s.”

He says the ad is well written and well-made. “It cruises with wit. But its connect with the brand is weak. A decent dish that does not sell its chef,” he sums it up.

Manish Bhatt, founder and director, Scarecrow M&C Saatchi, is of a similar view. He who believes that a communication should be simple and message should hit the consumer in the first view, finds the ad complicated.

“To me it seems like the brand is trying really hard to engage the audience and speak up. However, I do not find it entertaining. It’s rather a complicated message.”

“In order to be humorous the brand has ended up creating confusion. The core message did not hit me right away when I watched the film for the first time,” he adds.