redBus has launched its digital-first brand campaign featuring its brand ambassador, actor Allu Arjun.
Ahead of the festive season, the campaign is launched with the objective of presenting itself at the heart of intercity bus travel, amid the upcoming festive occasions and holidays.
As part of the campaign the bus ticket booking platform has rolled out two ad-films with Arjun in the lead and delivering the message of ‘bringing your loved ones and dreams closer with redBus’.
Through this campaign, the brand intends to progress from a functional communique to one that builds a more emotional and cultural connection with its audience to create enduring relationships, trigger a habit change among offline ticketing travellers, as well as attract young first-timers, and has crafted the campaign to that effect.
redBus undertook extensive research across 15 cities, reaching out to hundreds of people from different walks of life to identify the emotional and cultural anchors that it needed to create the theme for the campaign. Two aspects stood out, they were- ‘India dreams big’- people are ambitious, with a zeal to make it big in life and ‘Family comes first’- commitment towards family ranks high in priority.
This creates a dilemma among many, having to choose either ‘ambitious goals’ or staying connected to loved ones and redBus saw here a clear opportunity to resolve the conflict and ease the tension by positioning itself as an enabler, allowing people to follow their dreams as well as perform their family duties, but not at the cost of one another. With this emerged the campaign tagline- ‘redBus: Apno ko, sapno ko kareeb laye’.
The company has launched two 45-second ad films and 30-second edits of the same, starring Arjun and directed by Trivikram Srinivas. The films depict slice-of-life situations of a logistics manager at a storage facility and a mother-daughter duo running a small eatery.
The first film depicts a helpless father who misses out on the joys of being a part of his infant child’s formative months. As he dreads the prospect of chasing a bus to get home, even to see his child take the first steps, a red bus arrives on the scene and pulls up to drop off a very special passenger. The father is awestruck as Arjun alights from the bus and treads a red carpet towards him with a swagger befitting the actor. The actor comforts the anguished father in a breeze with his cinematic charisma, as he speaks of the benefits of booking a bus ticket on redBus, which could help improve the time the man spends with his family.
In a similar construct, the second film comprises a mother-daughter duo managing a small eatery. The hardworking daughter is also very talented, making her mother proud who now wishes to see her enrol at a college in the city for higher studies. The daughter is apprehensive as her mother would have to manage the weekend rush at the eatery all alone while she spent valuable time in queues for obtaining a bus ticket for the trip.
The same red bus arrives here too with the actor strolling up to the two to defuse their tension, by asserting a list of benefits that come along with booking a bus ticket on redBus. Arjun finishes both the films with a powerful tone, exclaiming- ‘redBus: Apno ko, sapno ko, kareeb laye’.
Arjun said, “My long and close association with redBus, allows me to seamlessly step into the shoes of the character for the ad films. I believe the narrative is strong and I look forward to watching people build an emotional connect with the concept as well as the redBus brand.”
Prakash Sangam, CEO, redBus, said, “The festive and holiday season this year is being looked at with immense anticipation and opportunities, and rightly so, since the restrictions over the last two years has resulted in a pent-up spirit leading to extravagant festivities, including travel for leisure and home-coming. We would like to stay ahead and be the platform of choice for booking bus tickets across the county and age groups, as we enter an important phase of demand and growth in the sector. Our campaign with our brand ambassador, Allu Arjun, has been created to lead us through this phase and help us build strong relationships with existing as well as new customers.”
Pallavi Chopra, Sr VP and Head, Marketing, redBus, added, “We arrived at this campaign concept after a careful study of where redBus stands as a brand today and how it needs to evolve and mature from here, also taking into consideration traveller needs and aspirations. What emerged from our deliberations is here for the nation to see in the form of two very captivating ad films that will immensely strengthen our hold on the segment, with Allu Arjun working his magic. The digital-first campaign will entail an extensive push on leading digital and social media platforms and during prime time across national and regional TV channels.”
Dileep Ashoka, Executive VP and Head South, McCann Worldgroup, said, “redBus has come to be by far the leader and defining force in the category. In this context, we wanted to move the conversation from category-oriented feature speak to life-centered benefits. We felt that redBus was fulfilling a very meaningful role - one that mitigates the conflict arising between individuals’ dreams and their duties. And this campaign gives voice to this truth. This campaign is also a reflection of redBus’ leadership stature.”
The TVCs will be rendered across national and regional TV channels, including in 7 regional languages.
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