Ad Review: Will it be ‘Hoyenga’ for Greenply this time?

While the market today is cluttered with brands outdoing each other on grounds of features, looks, price, composition, celebrity endorsers, and so on, creating brand recall for a low involvement product such as plywood can be quite challenging. Lowe Lintas, however, has been quite successful in keeping Greenply on top of people’s mind through its out-of-the-box, funny, and memorable ads over these years. The common thread in the communication till now had always been the durability of the product expressed through passage of time.

But with changing times, Lowe Lintas now takes forward the communication for the brand, breaking away from the old format and expressing durability in a fresh and contemporary way. The promise of Greenply Plywood that it lasts for generations is now being expressed by looking ahead into future, into situations that may or may not happen in the future, but are relevant and easy to connect with. Visual rendition of these situations finds a perfect sync with the ‘Hoyenga’ musical hook up. The film has been directed by Ram Madhvani, while the ‘Always Hoyenga’ jingle has been composed by Sameeruddin.

The Brief:
Think of Greenply and its quite unlikely that you do not remember the ‘Sawithri’ ad with the reincarnation of a Sikh boy or the Court ad with cases going on and on. Both the ads showcase time lapse and the long lasting quality of the product. The new TVC, on the other hand, discusses situations that do not have any time associated with them as the world has been waiting for ages for them to happen. So, whether it is the ‘aane vale saalon mein’ solution to the Kashmir problem, a cure for baldness, rising petrol prices, increasing mobile dependence ‘hoyenga’ or not, Greenply Plywood will ‘Ji Hoyenga’.

Sharing the brief and its creative implementation, Amer Jaleel, National Creative Director, Lowe Lintas, said, “The brief from Greenply has always been to express the long lasting aspect of the product. But internally, this time our brief was how to make a category like plywood as close to people as possible – communicating a product that they just can’t ignore. Hence, came this whole idea of almost impossible situations that the product will outlast.”

The Execution:

The ‘Always Hoyenga’ TVC is accompanied by a new website, www.alwayshoyenga.com, as part of a digital campaign where consumers are being asked to guess the year when an event would happen and participate in the ‘Always Hoyenga’ contest.

Experts Speak:
Lowe Lintas has been creating a benchmark with clutter breaking and memorable communication for Greenply. While the new campaign entertains all, few are impressed with it.

Rohit Sharma, Vice President & Client Servicing Director, JWT, calls the ad a head turner, but is not sure about the ad’s efficacy with end users. He said, “Given Greenply’s credence to some fantastic ads in the past few years, this one falls a bit short in that league. The most compelling aspect of Greenply campaigns (Sikh Kid, Judge, Jab school mein…) has been the beauty of integrating the product per se in the storyline, this time around, it’s a mere prop, which kind of weans away the attention to the medley of action in the plot.”

Calling the new treatment as ‘old wine in a new bottle’, Sharma added, “Greenply has been consistently harping on the promise of durability which lasts really long across its thematic communication. The mish- mash of relevant issues and ever so elusive solution, which is eminently far for the foreseeable future, is a smart way of dovetailing the USP of the product, but the overall message kind of gets a bit muddled in the overt execution of the TVC.”

Shiveshwar Raj Singh, Group Creative Director, Draftfcb Ulka, likes as well as dislikes the ad. He explained, “I like the ad. Unfortunately, it’s for some right reasons and some wrong ones. I like the music. I like the casting. I like the dancing. All hugely entertaining. But hey! wait a minute, isn’t it supposed to be an ad for Greenply? While you had me hooked with the setup... you lost me with the sign off. With the song and dance – this ad will have a high recall. But with the oblique irrelevance to the product and a hatefully cocky voiceover telling me I’ll be long gone while the chair will still be around… sorry, you’re not going to get me rushing to the nearest timber merchant screaming ‘bhaiya, mujhe Greenply hi dena!’.”

Shobhit Mathur, Executive Creative Director, Cheil Worldwide, finds the whole treatment interesting. He said, “It’s interesting, it’s catchy and it’s clear. Greenply has taken the stance of long lasting for a while now. And it has been quite effective. Is this the best commercial from the stable? Arguable, especially after Sawithri and Jeevandas, which I thought were hilarious. But the foot tapping music, coupled with funny nuances and nice execution, will surely take the commercial to the 31st second. Out of five I’d rate it at three.”

For Chraneeta Mann, Executive Creative Director, Rediffusion Y&R, the ad is a perfect sequel to the series of memorable ads by Greenply. According to her, “Greenply nails the ‘long lasting’ point down again with ‘hoyenga hoyenga sab hoyenga’. The spirit is right for an economy that seems to be inexorably winding down, and even something like the dollar going back to being Rs 45 seems like an improbable event in the near or distant future. The timing makes the ad topical. The soundtrack is memorable and the film direction immaculate. It would create a recall primarily because of the soundtrack and the quite funny lyrics. Each time Greenply comes up with a great film, we ask will the next one be as memorable? We get the answer with this one ‘hoyenga!’.”

Mann gives the ad a three out of five.

Credits:
Creative: R Balki, Amer Jaleel, Shriram Iyer, Neeraj Singh, Rishi Chandana
Business: Syed Amjad Ali, Hindol Purkayastha, Gaurav Pathak
Production House: Equinox
Director: Ram Madhvani

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