This year, brands celebrate Holi with special messages

Brands need no occasion to speak to their target audience but festivals and occasions do add spice to the communication. Holi is one such festival and this year toobrands did not let go of the opportunity to launch occasion-specific campaigns. On the one hand there are brands like Ghadi Detergent, which reran its last year’s Holi campaign #saremaeldhodalo. On the other hand, other brands brought fresh communication campaigns.

Reliance General Insurance

As part of a women’s safety initiative, Reliance General Insurance has launched #HoliNotHooliganism, the intent being to focus attention on the largely ignored realities surrounding Holi festivities.

Burzin Mehta

Burzin Mehta, Group Creative Director, Ogilvy Mumbai, said, “When students are hurled with sperm-filled balloons and forced to celebrate the world’s most colourful festival indoors, there’s a serious problem. This is why it is almost inevitable to expose what the festivities camouflage. And we’ve done that by taking generic Holi pictures and stripping the colour off them. What we were left with churned our insides. But it is the unfortunate truth.”

Rakesh Jain, CEO, Reliance General Insurance, added, “Holi is one of India’s most beautiful festivals because it upholds the spirit of liberation. But for a few it has turned into an excuse to harass women, whichdestroys the beautiful festival with a horrifying experience for women. This campaign is our small contribution to create awareness and is one of the many initiatives we do as a corporate towards Women’s safety.”

Print campaigns

Big Bazaar

Big Bazaar, the hypermarket chain, had launched a campaign giving a glimpse of the spirit of Holi. Executed by Prime Focus Technologies, the TVC is part of Big Bazaar’s on-going campaign ‘Har Tyohaar Mein Big Bazaar’.

The ad film features a free-spirited young girl, who despite being cautioned by her mother joins the colourful festivities of Holi with all her heart and soul. The film’s jingle encapsulates the joys of coming together to celebrate India’s colourful festival with enthusiasm. The TVC ends with a musical line which says, ‘Desh Ek Rang Hazaar, Har Tyohaar Mein Big Bazaar’.

Jishnu Sen, Chief Marketing Officer, Big Bazaar, said, “With a presence of more than 250 stores in the country, we are proud to be an integral part of all Indian families. Festivals are special occasions that bring families and friends together and we are glad to participate with our consumers in their endeavour of making these gatherings beautiful memories to cherish. India is a land that celebrates many cultures and colourful festivals and our campaign is a small reflection of our festivities.”

Bhaskar Sitholey, Vice-President, Creative Services, PFT, said, “Holi is all about coming together as a community and immersing oneself in colours and optimism. The TVC aims to capture the delights of celebrating this festival, with Big Bazaar at the core of all the revelry. It celebrates the spirit of sharing with loved ones in its true sense and infuses beautifully, the brand, i.e. Big Bazaar contributing at each step of celebration.”

Gagan Cooking Oil

The cooking oil brand has unveiled a new digital campaign for Holi, a festival of colours and food. This year, Gagan Oil urges consumers to celebrate Holi with colour and food, but also by avoiding the use of a scarce resource like water. This message with the brand core has been articulated in its typical humorous way. The campaign has been created by Leo Burnett India.

Milind Acharya

Milind Acharya, Head of Marketing, Bunge India, said, “We Indians, and more so the people of North India, are full of life, celebration and food. Brand Gagan is an integral part of their lives as it carries the same attitude. Festivals are mainly where this attitude comes alive. We see an opportunity to talk to our consumers carrying the same attitude. This attempt is also the same, whereby, we are simply telling consumers to ‘celebrate Holi with colours and food’. Yes, in our own unique way.”

Vikram Pandey

Vikram Pandey, Executive Creative Director, Leo Burnett India, said, “Dos and don’ts around festivals can be quite a downer. The brand urges people to look at these ‘rules’ positively with the mantra of 'Khao Gagan, Raho Magan', and keep their festive spirits high with great food. While for Diwali we showed the ban on crackers in a positive light, we took up 'Save Water' for Holi. With quirky execution as the brand language, this one delivers a Happy Holi message that's like no other.”

Radio City

Radio City has launched #BlackandWhiteHoli, an initiative aimed at improving road safety in Mumbai. Spearheaded by the popular duo of Radio City, RJ Salil and RJ Archana of ‘Kasa Kay Mumbai’, the initiative aimed at reducing road accidents that occur for not being able to spot speed breakers and zebra crossings. Radio City joined forces with ‘Chal Rang De’, a non-profit organisation, on a mission to make Mumbai gorgeous again, painted speed breakers in black and white, thereby enhancing visibility. The activity that kickedoff in February continued for a fortnight till the festival of Holi.

A recent study showed that around 30% of road accidents take place because of lack of visibility of speed breakers and zebra crossings. Additionally, around 42% people get an e-challan for overstepping lines at zebra crossings. Radio City’s #BlackandWhiteHoli aimed to reduce these occurrences by addressing this pressing social issue by bringing together the spirit of Mumbai.

As a part of the on-air campaign, Radio City invited listeners in Mumbai to dial in and identify specific areas of the city where speed breakers need to be painted. Subsequently, Radio City RJs and team of Chal Rang De arrived at the location along with volunteers from schools, colleges and other organisations to paint speed breakers/ zebra crossings. Radio City already covered key areas such as Carter Road in Bandra, Lokhandwala backroadin Andheri, Bandra Kalanagar, Charkop Kandivali, Near Grand Hyatt Santacruz, Powai Vihar and SV Road in Andheri, where MLA Ameet Satam also lent his support.

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