Using animals to add a clutter-breaking twist ..

The latest campaign for Mahindra Lifespaces’ recently launched residential project — Vicino — located at Andheri-East, Mumbai, comprises a series of short, digital-first video ads that give a quirky twist to the home-buying.

Created by Network Advertising, the films feature animals and each video ends with an unexpected reveal of the benefit of buying a home in one of Mumbai’s most sought after locations. Vicino by Mahindra Lifespaces attempts to address a key consumer concern amongst Mumbai buyers — hours of travel time cut down considerably by virtue of its proximity to the Metro station, Mumbai Airport and the Western Express Highway. This benefit is conveyed rather unconventionally.

In a candid chat with afaqs!, Shayondeep Pal, chief creative officer, Network Advertising, opens up about the creative brief from the brand and more.

"The brief was single-minded and sharp — How to leverage the locational advantage of Mahindra Vicino? In a city like Mumbai where commuting takes a toll, it makes sense to buy a property that is closer to the metro, the highway and the airport. That way, what we wanted to say was simple but how we wanted to say was a challenge," he tells us.

The videos are minimalistic yet visually stunning. We were curious to know what inspired him to create something of this nature.

"Since the films were in the digital space, we started analysing the kind of videos people love to watch on social media. We struck upon a pattern. We noticed that people love to share cat videos or cute animal videos. The behavioural expressions of animals are no different from humans. They express shock, they yawn and are startled by something or the other. The idea was to use animals instead of humans as it added a clutter-breaking twist to the proposition. The same idea with humans made no sense. The last thing we needed to do was find the right story,” he reveals.

Using animals in advertising is a 100-year-old idea. Several brands across the globe have opted to feature animals as part of their communication to sell products instead of the humans who actually use them.

For instance, Nipper, the dog (who went on to become the canine advertising icon) is recognised by music lovers across the world after he served as the model for a painting by Francis Barraud titled "His Master's Voice". Closer home, the Vodafone pug became an aspirational pet overnight.

Pal lists down some of his favourites from the lot,

"Over the last 10 years, many commercials stand out. Like the Ameriquest Mortgage’s ‘Don’t judge too quickly.’, Cadbury’s ‘A Glass and a Half Full of Joy’ with a Gorilla and The Guardian’s famous ‘Three Little Pigs’, which won at Cannes."

According to Sunil Sharma, chief customer officer, Mahindra Lifespaces Developers, in a cluttered real estate space, the brand's focus solely remained on "ensuring crisp, engaging and hard-hitting films that would be entertaining while also effortlessly seeding our customer value proposition".

Credits:

Name of the creative agency – Network Advertising

Chief Creative Officer – Shayondeep Pal

Chief Strategy Officer – Sunit Khot

Chief Operating Officer – D B Murli

Creative Team – Saikat Sengupta, Kshitija Tagde, Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Praveen Chauhan, Hetal Joshi, Bharat Kuradia

Account Management Team – Samson, Riyaz Ahmed, Richa Tomar