If people are asked to recall Kashmir, on most occasions, the answer would be either about the region’s beauty or its treacherous terrain being a far located place. Keeping these factors in mind, several brands have tried to use Kashmir’s backdrop in their ads, especially to showcase their reach. Recent examples like Axis Bank, Havells, Tata Sky have all used Kashmir to amplify their focus on small towns and villages in India, and that these are markets where consumption exists.
However, the state’s disturbed political landscape and the skeptical relationship between the locals and the Indian army stationed there for years, has never been a subject of brand advertisements in the recent times, but not anymore.
One of the latest examples is OLX, an online marketplace for used/old goods, which has recently launched the second edition of its ‘Keemat Bhi, Kuch Keemti Bhi‘ campaign.
Designed and conceptualized by Lowe Lintas, the emotional campaign presents a strong relationship between an Indian Army officer and a local shop owner in Kashmir. The film showcases an army officer receiving the news of him becoming a father via phone at a local shop near his camp (where he regularly visits). The officer could not see his daughter’s image as he does not have a mobile phone. Realizing his pain, the local shop owner upgrades his phone using OLX and travels all the way to the army camp to show the photograph.
Shayondeep Pal, Executive Creative Director, Lowe Lintas shares that choosing Kashmir for the campaign was more of a creative call rather than a client brief. “After the success of the first campaign (The Dining Table), we are on a lookout for stories which has the same underlying hidden message ofKeemat Bhi, Kuch Keemti Bhi. We wanted to give the transactions, which take place on OLX, an emotional boost. The idea was to communicate that though there is a price attached to every transaction, but some of them are priceless. And Kashmir, as a matter of fact, is known to be a tensed region, so we chose to communicate our idea via a story on the friendship between a soldier and a local” adds Pal.
Pal further shares that they researched well before executing the campaign. “We learnt that communication lines in Kashmir are disturbed and there are some areas where army people are not allowed to keep phones,” points Pal.
Speaking on the campaign, Amarjit Singh Batra, CEO, OLX.in, says, “This campaign is based on the resounding response to the first campaign from across the country. As a consumer-to-consumer (C2C) platform, human connection is at the core of our business. OLX has always given people the best value for their used products, but every product is also tied to its user through a unique story, which is invaluable.”
OLX has also released a second creative in this campaign where a young guy upgrades his phone to take a selfie with a yester-year actor, who he sees every week in a theatre to watch films. This particular creative is released in Tamil, Telugu and Malayali. The Kashmir creative is released in Hindi.
Tried and Dusted?
There is no doubt that the creative touches the emotional chords and the storyline weaves well into the central idea of the campaign. But experts are questioning the usage of emotion for a brand like OLX, which has always constructed its brand story on the humor quotient.
Adrian Mendonza, Independent Creative Consultant and Proprietor, Rain 7 Creative finds the ad to be emotional but confusing. “Why is OLX going an emotional route when humor works so well for them? The way transactions take place at OLX is very snappy and quick, so why there is a need for a melodrama. Secondly, the production, casting and music are right but how come a military officer comes so far to receive a phone call. Army camps have all such facilities and gone are those days when such situation used to prevail,” shares Mendonza.
Simran Sahni, Founder and Creative Director, Goddess, shares that the situation and the script has been written and rejected many times. “There is nothing new and the ad is predictable. It will have a good recall though,” shares Sahni.
Interestingly Vikisha Parekh, Creative Director, Guava Creative Solutions questions that would anyone buy a new phone for one picture, that too of a friend’s baby? “It justifies Keemati bhi in the sense of “Priceless” but it fails to justify Keemat bhi as one never knows whether one got the right price or not. But it still works,” adds Parekh.
Besides, Kashmir is a very sensitive zone and OLX has tried to showcase a strengthening relationship between locals of the region and the army. “It is clear from the ad that the local and army personnel are of different communities. The brand has the right intent and it is done in the right spirit,” shares Mendonza. To this, Sahni adds that after that Havells ad, Kashmir is becoming every brands favorite destination for doing ads.
