Karbonn’s whacky multi-tasking ads strike a chord

Can you do two things at the same time? Can you put thread inside a needle while running on the treadmill? Can you cook ‘jalebis’ and play tennis at the same time? Can you shave your face while playing drums? The answer is impossible but Karbonn smartphones enable users to do two things at the same time. The brand unveiled its new campaign conceptualised by Taproot to highlight the multitasking capabilities of dual core processors used in its smartphones.

Taproot won the Karbonn Mobiles creative business two months ago and has come out with the first campaign for the brand.

The campaign is based on the insight that though the youth knows multitasking, one cannot do two things at a time. However, the Karbonn smartphone enables users to perform two tasks simultaneously. The idea is shown with the help of three short films mentioned above and each film concludes that while it is impossible to do two things at the same time, Karbonn Smart Mobiles allows to do two things.

Shashin Devsare, Executive Director, Karbonn Mobiles said, “Through this campaign, we want to celebrate the irreverence of Indian youth. It is quirky, humorous and centred to the core technology that is delivered. We asked the agency to come up with a unique campaign so as to communicate the multitasking capabilities of dual core processors used in Karbonn smartphones.”

“Recently, we had a change of guard with Taproot coming on board and we strongly believe that our equation with Taproot is going to last very long,” he added.

Santosh Padhi, Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder, Taproot India said, “The brief was to do a campaign on the dual core processor series which is being coined as ‘Duple Series’. They are one of the first players to offer the dual core processor in this price range. We took an interesting insight that’s relevant to youth, though youth is known for multitasking, but one cannot do two things at a time. Hence, the whole idea is that you may fail to do two things at the same time but the new Karbonn Smart A21 won't.”

He added, “The bizarre things that we have shown in each of the film is quite wacky and the music too has taken the films to a different level. The way it is shot is not a traditional nice clean photogenic way; we have tried to get the youth connect on every element of the campaign.”

Padhi commented that it was a difficult task to do something on dual brief, as lots of things have been done to death on this proposition, be it double interest, double safety and double benefit. He said, “Connecting with youth these days is not easy as every second ad is targeted to youth, this category itself is flooded with tonnes of brands targeting youngsters, so there was a clear and conscious decision to make sure whatever we do should be mad, irreverent and youthful. Both, me and the director felt if we had few more days, we would have got time to experiment, which at times works and at times doesn’t. Otherwise, we all are extremely happy with the output.”

Manan Mehta, Managing Partner, Taproot India said, “This is our first campaign for Karbonn Smart. We were handed over an interesting brief, where the target audience was the teenagers. The truth about today’s young India is that they are comfortable living parallel lives at multiple levels. Their impatience combined with high ambitions has allowed the unlocking of potential markets, by creating opportunities to launch products that address their needs. The intent of this campaign was to reflect this very mindset of our impatient, multi-tasking audience and demonstrate the product benefit upfront in a rather amusing manner.”

Marketing push
The communication plan includes print, TV and digital. However, digital is the main focus of the campaign. Karbonn is the title sponsor of Champions League Twenty20. 

Devsare said, “When we started Karbonn in 2009, it was essentially multi-media products portfolio and the positioning was for value-for-money products. With the launch of smart devices, the positioning still remains value-for-money at its core. The focus point is to expand technology and concentrate on price points, which is one of the delight factors. About 60 per cent – 70 per cent of the entire media budget is going to be focussed on the smart category.”

On the festive season promotional offers, he said, “The impact of festive season on smartphones is not as heavy or as high as consumer durables. We have just launched three new smartphones and two tablets. It will be in the form of new product launches rather than specific consumer promotions or discounts.”

He explained, “We are aiming at the second slot in the smart devices category in next six months. This fiscal year, we will be spending Rs 200 crore, majorly on the smart devices category. Appetite for data consumption for an average consumer is going to be very high. Hence, the need for more and more smarter devices is the call for future.”

Experts Speak
According to Anindya Banerjee, Branch Head and Executive Creative Director at Scarecrow Asia, “The consumer cannot see a dual core processor. So, one has to illustrate that as vividly as possible. Using an analogy to show multitasking as an idea is very good (although explored in other categories). And best of all, it is extendible. It also leads to very quirky situations. What lifts the film, is the awesome music, well-supported cast and excellent production.  The weakest film is probably the drummer as his acting is very contrived.”

He added, “The only issue? There are no hidden layers to discover on repeated viewings. Once they’ve seen it, the consumer might just zap it the second time.”

Ashish Chakravarty, Creative Chief, Delhi at McCann Erickson said, “The creative take of the ad is striking and interesting. However, it is not a fresh promise and if they were trying to be funny, I don’t’ think in terms of execution they have managed to do so. Some of the situations are bizarre and will be noticed, especially the ‘Jalebi and TT’ scene. Here, I am talking of being bizarre in a good way. The more bizarre, the funnier it is but if the ad would have been more hilarious, it would have done better.”

He explained, “With limited budgets also, an ad can get noticed but I don’t think this ad will work with lesser budgets. It needs enough media weightage to get noticed.”

Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India)