Publics takes a humorous route to break the monotony of boring cement campaigns for Ambuja Cement’s new campaign starring world-renowned wrestler The Great Khali.
The TVC illustrates the difficulties faced by Khali while trying to live a normal life in his house. The irony is that his stature and strength which has made him world famous has become a reason for his struggle. Finally, Ambuja Cement comes to the rescue of Khali and provides him a home which is strong enough for the giant.
Speaking about the campaign Bobby Pawar, Managing Director, Chief Creative Officer, Publicis said “For ages Ambuja Cement has sported the tagline ‘Giant compressive strength’. We stared at that for a little less than ages, and the dominoes started falling. What if there was a giant, who is too big and too strong for this world, especially his home? What if we did a ‘mockumentary’ of his troubles? Wait a minute, there is an Indian giant, WWE World Champion Great Khali. Hallelujah! But wait, won’t the idea seem kinda obvious in hindsight? Okay, let’s also make him dance. The client bought it. We made it. The rest is virus, I mean viral. PS: The film is just the tip of the iceberg. Great Khali will be popping up in unexpected ways; on the web, on billboards, and in on-ground activations, pretty soon.”
On the strategic front, Partha Sinha – Managing Director, Publicis said “Ambuja has the reputation for being the strongest cement. We needed to look at a new narrative to tell the strength story. Something that’s fresh, engaging and brings the point home. The Great Khali helped us do all of that. Both the brand and the endorser fed off each other’s reputation for strength.”
Jigar Fernandes- Executive Creative Director, Publicis said “We knew we were on to something the moment the idea struck. And it was cool to see the client sharing our enthusiasm instantly. It was a lot of fun taking it from there. Khali was an absolute joy to shoot with, happily giving all those back-breaking takes, back to back!”
Ajay Kapoor, MD & CEO, Ambuja Cement -Since the beginning Ambuja Cement has believed in making the strongest cement. People look at strength as the most important aspect in cement. The idea was to use Kali in a very interesting way to portray Ambuja Cement’s strength. After all the strongest man needs the strongest house to live in.”
Sanjay Gupta, CMO, Ambuja Cement commented “Ambuja Cement is known for its Giant compressive strength. Similarly Khali with his size and stature is also known for his strength. The idea was to marry the two giants in way that would bring out the core proposition of Ambuja Cement.”
Credits:
Team Credits:
Director: Ayappa
Executive Producer: Anand Menon
Producer: Milin Shah
Agency: Publicis, Mumbai
Agency team: Bobby Pawar, Jigar Fernandes, Jignesh Maru, Ganesh Iyer, Chandan Jha, Ankul Singh
Line Producer (Mumbai): Mrinal Chodankar
Production Manager: Rajesh Margaj
Line Producer (Delhi): Kaushik Guha, Shailendra Kaushik, Lalit Malik
Dop: Vikash Nowlakha
1st AC – Srinivas Achary
Production Designer – Mustufa Stationwala
1st ad: Karan Tejpal
DA: Mandakini Menon
Ad’s – Shruti Srivastava & Akshay De
Asst Producer – Alok Potnis
Costumes: Abhilasha Sharma
Makeup – Rohini Foregard
Casting: Sumit & Bhavna
Stunt Team – Parvez Shaikh, Riyaz Shaikh, Vinit
Editor: Prakash Kurup
VFX House: Metropolitana (Spain)
Music: Sameeruddin
Sound Engineer: Kenneth Basumatari
Post: Daniel Fernandes