Bring out the child in you at MP Tourism's Jal Mahotsav

Childhood memories are something that always grabs our attention whenever the story is told well. Taking on the nostalgic route, Ogilvy and Mather has conceptualised a campaign for Madhya Pradesh Tourism’s Jal Mahotsav.

Last year, Madhya Pradesh Tourism talked about a similar nostalgia through its campaign ‘MP main dil hua bacche sa’.

Last year’s campaign

Extending the same philosophy to the next level, the new campaign focuses on promoting Jal Mahotsav (water tourism) in MP, which sports the feeling ‘Dil hoga bachche jaisa.’ Now in its third year, Jal Mahotsav has become a very important part of MP Tourism’s tour packages with more and more people coming over to discover a completely new face of the state. The one-minute seven-second film beautifully tells a story through innumerable water colour paintings that work as a flip book moving in a motion film.

Azazul Haque, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy Bangalore, said, “Every Madhya Pradesh Tourism campaign is like competing with our own past campaign. Once again the challenge was to create a piece of communication that also looks like a piece of art, like every other MP Tourism campaign. Since the brief was to create excitement around Jal Mahotsav, a magnificent event that happens on an island of Hanuwantiya where water-related sports and activities take place, we thought of using water colour paintings created by children would be the best way to capture that fun and excitement.”

Mahesh Gharat, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy Bangalore, added, “But then static water colour paintings were not enough to showcase the exuberance and energy of Jal Mahotsav. So, we decided to make the characters in the paintings move. That was a herculean task. Rajesh and Vidya, the directors of the film, played a significant role in helping us overcome this herculean task. Thousands of paintings were created and finally 700 plus paintings were used with ‘stop motion’ technique to create this magic.”

The film has a very catchy and quirky music with a very down-to-earth song that has the flavour of the Hindi heartland. Haque added, “Even the words in the song are kept childish and only the sound of water drops and Ghatam (a clay tumbler) are used to create the music. We wanted to create childlike magic in this campaign. Hope we have achieved it.”

Keeping in line with last year’s campaign, which aimed at bringing alive the child in every tourist, the new Jal Mahtosav campaign brings alive the many splendours of the water festival through a child’s imagination. And carrying forward the legacy of past campaigns done for Madhya Pradesh Tourism, this one too is a visually and musically rich treat. The stop motion film, which took about three months to complete, was shot with over 700 watercolour paintings, where the key frames were painted by children and the style was carried forward by more than 30 professional artists. Using the Kessler Rig stop motion technique, the film was shot in a single take.

Ajay Menon, Executive Vice-President, Ogilvy India, said, “It is always a delight to work on a brief from MP Tourism. This time around the brief was to promote Jal Mahotsav, a one-of-its-kind water festival, being held at Hanuwantiya in Khandwa district. Therefore, in keeping with the work we’ve done with MP Tourism over the last decade, our response to this brief also attempts to create the same magic through its visual and aural experience. We hope the campaign excites people enough to plan their next trip to MP.”

Jal Mahotsav offers a treasure trove of experiences on land, air and water. From cruising in a hot air balloon to speeding on a jet ski, from zip lining over the island to enjoying a languid cruise in the back waters; one can experience all this and a whole lot more. Jal Mahotsav is being held at Hanuwantiya in Khandwa district from October 15, 2017 to January 2, 2018.

The TVC:

Credits:

Client: Madhya Pradesh Tourism

Chief Creative Officers (South): Azazul Haque and Mahesh Gharat

Executive Vice President, Ogilvy Mumbai: Ajay Menon

Creative team: Unnikrishnan R, Alisha Sharma

Account Management: Simoni Shah

Production House: Ransom Films

Director: Vidya Sharma and Rajesh Thomas

Producer: Sia Bhuyan

Music: Subhajit Mukherjee

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