Hyundai Motor unveils its emotional side in marquee brand film

The 'Life is Brilliant' TVC, conceptualized by Innocean, is a story of a nuclear family portraying the emotions of a child and a caring father when the mother is away on work

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | November 26, 2014

Click on the image to watch the TVC.

As India's second largest car manufacturer, Hyundai has momentum on its side. Sales volumes show an upward trend and the product pipeline has newer and more exciting offerings in store. The timing was just right for initiating an exercise at the umbrella brand level to establish a closer emotional connect with the people, an emotional connection that transcends the practical utility of owning a Hyundai car.

Vivek Srivastava

Innocean Worldwide, the communications agency for Hyundai Motor, was briefed to create a campaign based on the need to establish an emotional rapport. “A deep dive into the existing customer base and the prospects revealed that they rate the brand high on innovation, performance and styling. However, they needed a bit of nudge towards a bonding based on feelings. Hence, along with the client, we decided to chart a new course,” said Vivek Srivastava, Joint MD of Innocean, providing a preamble to the new campaign.

“The values shortlisted based as the primary deliverables from this campaign were conviction, pride and an enabler – as seen from a nuclear family's perspective today. An interesting cue was seen in the 'separation anxiety' experienced in these yuppie families, more-so by the kids, and that became the bulwark of the creative process. It's about an emotional insight that's universally experienced but rarely acknowledged. Our strategy was clearly to avoid an in the face message or chest beating about product strengths. We wanted this campaign to be about real people and the real role of the brand,” Srivastava further said.

Saurabh Dasgupta

Armed with these insights the creative challenge was picked up by the team led by Saurabh Dasgupta, Executive Creative Director at Innocean. “We decided to move away from conventional, old-fashioned portrayal of family roles to add more weight to the idea,” explained Dasgupta, elaborating on his creative game plan. “In our nuclear family story which has a Hyundai cameo, we see a true play of emotions of the child and a caring father with a curious absence of the mother.”

The film shot in two versions of 60-second features a 7-year-old continuously pestering his father as he misses his mom. Finally, running out of answers, the dad tells him that his mom has gone across the river on a project and will be back once it's done. In one of the casual father-son outings to the riverside, the dad catches a glimpse of his son floating a paper boat with the message 'Come soon mom!'  The dad has a meaningful thought and is seen driving with the son through the night. The morning reveals the son waking up to see his mother by his side. And to his surprise, she reveals that her mode of transport was the boat he had sent!

Directed by renowned ad filmmaker Prakash Varma, the film has been produced by Nirvana Films. Dasgupta was ably supported in this effort by Bhaskar Choudhury, Creative Group Head at Innocean.

Paraphrasing the creative intent of the commercial, Dasgupta said, “The story works at an obvious level by making the brand a part of the fabric of today's lifestyle trends of working couples with equally shared responsibility of rearing the child and being the enabler of bringing seemingly disparate worlds together. At a subliminal level it's unlike a commercial altogether and imparts a sense of conviction to the brand owner. And Prakash Varma, with his incomparable storytelling skills, has given a magical feel to it.”

The campaign will use television channels across news, edutainment and general interest to air long format films. Given that emotional plots necessitate longer duration, the YouTube and digital avenues are being liberally used too to seed and propagate the film. In a departure from usual practice, the campaign is being pursued on TV and Digital media with a shared emphasis. The views on YouTube stand over 750,000 in just three days.

Encapsulating the overall corporate effort, Arjun Modayil, Executive Director, Innocean, commented, “This is a brave effort backed by our aggressive client Hyundai. We see medium-term and long-term dividends accruing to our client on the improved emotional bonding scores. The process of emotional connectivity has begun and is in overdrive.”

Hyundai has successfully completed 16 years in India by bringing world-class products to the Indian market and has consolidated its position as a trendsetter brand in India in-line with its brand slogan 'New thinking New Possibilities'. Since inception, Hyundai Motor India has been continuously growing and has become a household name for 3.5 million happy families in the country.

The TVC:

https://img-cdn.thepublive.com/filters:format(webp)/

Credits:

Client: Hyundai Motor India

Marketing Head-HMIL: Sanjay Gupta

Agency: Innocean Worldwide India

Executive Director: Arjun Modayil

Client Servicing: Aashima Mishra, Sarvprit Singh

Executive Creative Director: Saurabh Dasgupta

Creative Group Head: Bhaskar Choudhary

Production House: Nirvana Films

Director: Prakash Varma

Music Director: Rupert Fernandes

DOP: Chinva Panya

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com