Small town or big city, Amazon's 'Citizens of Fashion' knows no barriers
From Raiganj to Rioganj and from Kamalapur to Parispur, the ad by Ogilvy & Mather enhances Amazon Fashion's positioning as a website that takes international brands to every corner of India
Akansha Mihir Mota | Mumbai | July 25, 2016
There was a time when you could tell by a person's clothes if he was from a city or a small town. Now you can't. Today, youth across metros, cities and small towns have access to top national and international fashion brands that reflect their global aspirations and style. Based on this insight, Amazon Fashion's new campaign shows how fashion has become a unifier and a language that bonds Indian youth into a cult called 'Citizens of Fashion'.
Created by Ogilvy & Mather Bangalore and directed by Arun Gopalan of Storytellers Productions, the films are set to foot-tapping music and have slick cinematography. The campaign was launched earlier this month.
Talking about the brief, Kiran Ramamurthy, Senior Vice-President, Ogilvy Bangalore, said, “Amazon is a great fashion destination. In the first campaign, Amazon Fashion established their width of selection. In the second campaign, while we were talking about the width, we also talked about being at your best for any occasion. What Amazon now wants to establish is the availability of some incredibly great international and national fashion brands on the site.”
Shot in Varanasi, the two commercials show how Indians in every nook and corner are becoming increasingly aware of fashion. The models in the ad film are a complete juxtapose of the traditional Varanasi, which further enhanced the beauty of the campaign.
Azazul Haque, Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy Bangalore, said, “Fashion belongs to everyone. It belongs to those who live in Paris. It belongs to those who live in Banaras. All you need is the desire to look stylish and fashionable. Amazon Fashion wanted to celebrate these citizens of fashion who live everywhere in small towns and in big cities. Amazon Fashion wanted to become the destination for anyone who is seeking the latest style and famous fashion brands, online.”
Elaborating on the insight, Ramamurthy said, “Today if you look at the Indian consumer, irrespective of where they are, they have a lot of aspiration. All are extremely well aware of which fashion are popular. They are also extremely conscious about how to present themselves. And this is irrespective of where they come from. Amazon is the great enabler for getting these brands easily at your doorstep and eventually helps transform your look. From here, we came to the starting point that Amazon truly democratises fashion. When a consumer wears a fashionable attire, he does that irrespective of where he comes from and that was the seed of the idea of Citizen of fashion.”
Ramamurthy also appreciates the kind of cooperation and freedom given from the Amazon's end, he said, “It is wonderful to have a client who is extremely receptive. Amazon has an immense amount of faith and trust in the team. From the time when we first presented the beginnings of the idea of 'Citizens of fashion' and 'Kamalapur becoming Parispur', the client and the agency were working like true partners. We were working very closely with the Amazon's marketing and the fashion team as well. Together, we believed that this would make a good campaign. In a couple of weeks, the entire campaign evolved into 2-3 concrete scripts. Amazon gave us a lot of freedom to do that.”
Arun Sirdeshmukh, Head of Amazon Fashion, further said, “Amazon Fashion is one of the fastest growing stores on Amazon.in with a wide selection of over 2 million fashion products available across categories. Our fashion store has now become a one-stop destination that offers engaging fashion editorials, curated selection and a wide range of top national and international fashion brands. The new campaign reinforces our transformation vision in India as we bring the latest and exclusive in fashion to the doorstep of our fashion savvy customers across the country, including tier 2 and 3 cities.”
In the ad, one could get to see small town people and mostly the youth all decked up in stylish attires. The peppy lyrics by Haque and the out-of-the-box music composed by Subhajit Mukherjee really adds to the charm of the advertisement.
A 3600 degree campaign encompassing TVC, digital, print and OOH, 'Citizens of Fashion' portrays the new Indian youth who remain rooted within, but are breaking traditional stereotypes with their sense of style.
BestMediaInfo had a word with a few creative people in the field to know what they think of the ad.
Plaksha Prakash, Copy Partner, Infectious, said, “So, I think the ads are able to deliver the message very clearly. Making Raiganj into Rioganj is a nice idea that communicates 'international brands at your doorstep' very effectively. The song was really catchy; it stays with you for a while. No complaints with the execution either, but if anything, being hipster has, ironically, become extremely mainstream today, and it makes the ad a little hard to recall, which is where the music helps.”
Vistasp Hodiwala, Co-Founder and CCO, Underdog, said, “The Citizens of Fashion brand film, the first in the series, has its heart totally in the right place. It has the mood and the words just right. I have a bit of a disconnect with the execution though. It's one thing to say the heartland has become cool and another to pick up a bunch of cool looking kids from Mumbai and Delhi and have them walk the streets of Kamalapur or Agra, which is what this seems like.”
He further added, “The smaller films do drive the idea better with just the right touch of 'anglicised desi' jingle pushing the narrative and the name change underlining the thought well enough. Overall, it's a pleasant campaign which will be well-received by the audience even if it may struggle initially in standing out from a crazy clutter of ads we are bombarded with in this category these days.”
Vandana Das, President, DDB Mudra North, said, “Amazon's 'Citizen of fashion' seems to be blurring the global borders successfully portraying that fashion as something that can't be restricted to a geography, but is not just a matter of personal choice and preference. So RaiGanj to RioGanj or Kamalapur becomes Parispur. It's more real and more here. It celebrates Amazon's huge range to break the geographical barriers and specifically refers to smaller towns in order to appeal to the youth mindset there. Amazon even in this endeavour has stuck to its range story. The hook here is Raiganj is equal to Rioganj which could fan our pride at bit otherwise it's a regular nice ad which puts across the message in a likeable manner.”
The TVC:
Credits:
Creative Agency: Ogilvy & Mather Bangalore
Production House: Storytellers Production
Director: Arun Gopalan
Music Composer: Subhajit Mukherjee