Ambuja Cement's strong solution for Khali's 'giant' problem

Conceptualised by Publicis, the TVC featuring The Great Khali takes the humorous route to break the monotony of boring cement campaigns

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | October 19, 2015

Click on the image to watch the TVC.

Publicis takes the humorous route to break the monotony of boring cement campaigns for Ambuja Cement, starring world-known wrestler, The Great Khali.

The TVC illustrates the difficulties faced by Khali while trying to live a normal life in his house. The irony is that his stature and strength, which has made him world famous, has become a reason for his struggle. Finally, Ambuja Cement comes to the rescue of Khali and provides him a home which is strong enough for the giant.

Bobby Pawar

Commenting on the campaign Bobby Pawar, Managing Director, Chief Creative Officer, Publicis, said, “For ages, Ambuja Cement has sported the tagline 'Giant compressive strength'. We stared at that for a little less than ages, and the dominoes started falling. What if there was a giant, who is too big and too strong for this world, especially his home? What if we did a 'mockumentary' of his troubles? Wait a minute, there is an Indian giant, WWE World Champion Great Khali. Hallelujah! But wait, won't the idea seem kinda obvious in hindsight? Okay, let's also make him dance. The client bought it. We made it. The rest is virus, I mean viral. The film is just the tip of the iceberg. Great Khali will be popping up in unexpected ways – on the web, on billboards, and in on-ground activations – pretty soon.”

Partha Sinha

On the strategic front, Partha Sinha, Managing Director, Publicis, said, “Ambuja has the reputation for being the strongest cement. We needed to look at a new narrative to tell the strength story. Something that's fresh, engaging and brings the point home. The Great Khali helped us do all of that. Both the brand and the endorser fed off each other's reputation for strength.”

Jigar Fernandes, Executive Creative Director, Publicis, added here, “We knew we were on to something the moment the idea struck. And it was cool to see the client sharing our enthusiasm instantly. It was a lot of fun taking it from there. Khali was an absolute joy to shoot with, happily giving all those back-breaking takes, back to back.”

“Since the beginning, Ambuja Cement has believed in making the strongest cement. People look at strength as the most important aspect in cement. The idea was to use Khali in a very interesting way to portray Ambuja Cement's strength. After all, the strongest man needs the strongest house to live in,” said Ajay Kapoor, MD & CEO, Ambuja Cement.

Sanjay Gupta, CMO, Ambuja Cement, commented, “Ambuja Cement is known for its giant compressive strength. Similarly, Khali with his size and stature is also known for his strength. The idea was to marry the two giants in way that would bring out the core proposition of Ambuja Cement.”

The TVC:

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

Credits:

Client: Ambuja Cement

Creative agency: Publicis Mumbai

Director: Ayappa

Executive Producer: Anand Menon

Producer: Milin Shah

Agency team: Bobby Pawar, Jigar Fernandes, Jignesh Maru, Ganesh Iyer, Chandan Jha, Ankul Singh

Line Producer (Mumbai): Mrinal Chodankar

Production Manager: Rajesh Margaj

Line Producer (Delhi): Kaushik Guha, Shailendra Kaushik, Lalit Malik

DoP: Vikash Nowlakha

1st AC: Srinivas Achary

Production Designer: Mustufa Stationwala

1st ad: Karan Tejpal

DA: Mandakini Menon

ADs: Shruti Srivastava, Akshay De

Asst Producer: Alok Potnis

Costumes: Abhilasha Sharma

Makeup: Rohini Foregard

Casting: Sumit, Bhavna

Stunt Team: Parvez Shaikh, Riyaz Shaikh, Vinit

Editor: Prakash Kurup

VFX House: Metropolitana (Spain)

Music: Sameeruddin

Sound Engineer: Kenneth Basumatari

Post: Daniel Fernandes

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