The Brewhouse conjures IPL Superheroes for Puma

The innovative campaign captures the essence of what cricket and cricketers mean to India in a comic-book style

Ananya Saha | Delhi | May 11, 2012

This is not a run-of-the mill campaign. Neither would you get to catch it on TV screens. The Brewhouse, founded by ex-Wieden+Kennedy colleagues Abhineet Singh and Emilia Bergmans in February 2011, has created a unique campaign for Puma this time around – a comic book style live match reports for the brand.

The latest campaign for Puma India captures the essence of what cricket and cricketers mean to India. It's a super sport played by superheroes. The agency took this insight and is creating two superhero comics featuring the 'Rock 'n' Royals' aka Rajasthan Royals and the 'Electric Chargers' aka the Deccan Chargers.

The unique thing about this campaign is that The Brewhouse illustrates one page per match as it happens live, in a superhero comic style. Each page is a match report with a twist – re-imagined the Puma way with lots of quirkiness, joy and imagination. The completed pages are then put online ( http://www.espncricinfo.com/puma/content/site/puma, http://www.pumashop.in/cricket/), and made available to all cricket fans the very next day.

How does it happen in a day? Abhineet Singh, Co-Founder, The Brewhouse, explained, “We planned to do match reports in a unique way like the way a journalist does, talking about every move and run. Just that we are doing it visually and uniquely by making superheroes out of cricketers. We have six people working on the campaign. It takes about six-seven hours to illustrate and about four-five hours to colour. We have two different illustrators working on one team each.”

“This is not just any match report. We have taken the creative liberty to illustrate the stars of every match by giving them unique superpowers and integrating the much talked about 'spiked red boot' that a lot of Puma players are wearing this IPL,” said Emilia

Bergmans, Creative Director at The Brewhouse. “The reason we went this route is because we felt that Puma is a brand that's always at the forefront of pop-culture.

Therefore, we wanted to explore a new way of storytelling that is more engaging, more imaginative and reflects how Puma sees the world!”

“Our rationale is simple; we believe that marketing shouldn't be an excuse to say things to people but rather a chance to do things for them. And that brands of the future will be shaped by the ever-growing youth market, where profitability and brand equity will be measured in terms of social and not paper currency,” averred Singh.

What happens to the creatives once IPL is over? "The IPL is all about entertainment and we give people a match report in a fresh, fun way – something they can look forward to, collect and share with friends. After the IPL is over we are planning to publish these pages in a limited edition comic book as a souvenir of the entire IPL season 5 for RR and DC," said Rajiv Mehta, MD, Puma South Asia.

For the record, The Brewhouse clients include Puma, Red Bull and Lemon Tree Hotels among others.

Credits:

Client: Puma

Agency: The Brewhouse

Concept + Creation: Emilia Bergmans, Abhineet Singh

Writer: Gaurav De

Graphic novelists: Harsho Mohan Chattoraj, Ghanshyam Bochgeri

Colourist: Santosh Pillewar

Ananya@BestMediaInfo.com

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