To enhance it’s positioning of being the preferred partner for consumers even after they have finished shopping on the platform, Flipkart has taken a new communication route that will see it promising consumers of the platform being not just convenient, but assured as well. The new campaign, which has been conceptualized by Lowe Lintas Bangalore, has been weaved around the core thought of “Shopping with Flipkart is not just convenient, but assured as well.”
It has been derived from the insight that while online shopping seems convenient and a lot of people are using it to buy at great prices, there is a certain fear that crosses their mind – especially about the products. Some prominent barriers that people have today is around “the fear of unknown” like fake products, and cumbersome returns process. The task on hand thus was to get regular and infrequent users to reappraise their perception about Flipkart’s Service Promise. Rather, to reassure the core TG on the benefits of online shopping by amplifying the superior service credentials of Flipkart.
Commenting on the communication objective behind the new campaign, Shoumyan Biswas – VP, Marketing, Flipkart said, “With over 50 million users, Flipkart is the largest ecommerce player in the country. We are seeing great traction with our consumers on the back of pioneering selection, service and pricing. While the start has been great, we feel the journey has only just begun especially when the majority of the country is yet to experience online shopping. In such a scenario, we believe that as market leaders it is our responsibility to develop the market and help onboard the next few million.
With this intent, a few months back we initiated an extensive activity across multiple cities and different target segments of potential shoppers. It was interesting to see that while there were some nuances in terms of the reservations towards shopping online, the overarching challenges that cut across cities and target segments and could be distilled down to two key points –Reassurance that they (consumers) will get original products and the Ability to return products with ease if needed which will help build trust.
This is what gave birth to our campaign Flipkart Matlab Bilkul Pakka. Given the strategic importance of this project, our approach for this campaign was to design, plan and execute a complete 360 degree campaign leading with spots on TV, Integration and Sponsorships on key properties across genres like ICC T20 World Cup on Star Sports, SA RE GA MA PA on Zee TV amongst other key regional, youth and niche genre sponsorships.
Over the next few weeks you will also see this get amplified by a strong social, digital & outdoor plan reaching out to national metro as well as regional markets.”
The campaign comprises a series of two films that focus on the assurance provided by Flipkart that the products sold on its platform are of genuine quality. In the first film titled ‘Easy Exchange & Returns’, a non-user of online shopping – who is also a boss – is seeing urging his employee to buy a gift from a local retail store. To which the employee responds that he should try buying it from Flipkart. Not wanting to compromise on the choice and quality, the boss seems apprehensive of taking the online route. But upon further conviction by the employee on the assurance on quality and easy return policy, he decides to buy from Flipkart. He seems completely satisfied with his decision as he gets to return the product without any questions asked.
In the second film titled ‘100% Original Products’, a doctor is seeing complimenting his patient on his choice of shoes. To which the patient leads him on to the Flipkart App that has a range of shoes he can chose from. Worried that he may not receive a genuine product, he seems apprehensive of buying it from the platform. But the patient promises him that the product is indeed genuine and is something that is vouched by Flipkart as well. In fact he could even return the product if he does not like it. Now convinced, the doctor goes ahead and shops from Flipkart and ends up being totally satisfied.
Sharing his views on the creative thought process, Arun Iyer, Chief Creative Officer, Lowe Lintas said, “We wanted to get an entertaining creative expression which has the core cultural insight of our consumers ingrained in it. With our campaign sign off “Flipkart matlab bilkul pakka” we have been able to answer the most primary and oft repeated service related question, “Pakka na?” This campaign has been crafted with an attempt to connect to our consumers through instances which depict doubts which a lot of our prospective consumers have before shopping online. Hopefully through this campaign, we would have answered their questions and relieved them off their doubts regarding online shopping. Hopefully people enjoy it as much as we enjoyed working on this project.”
Adding his views, Rajesh Ramaswamy, ECD, Lowe Lintas Bangalore said, “In today’s times of crazy clutter, we wanted to take an approach where we are sharp and to the point. The challenge was to still make it entertaining. So, this treatment of back and forth, set to a soundtrack of a TT match, really stood out, and added to the humor in the end. And yes, we also got characters we’ve always loved but never see in ads like Amol Palekar and Rajesh Sharma. It is always inspiring to work with Abhinay Deo, and we believe we have something really clutter breaking and enjoyable.”
The treatment for the campaign is derived from a ping pong game, as the conversation follows that pattern of communication where each character ‘serves’ a response. The music too has been used in the pauses and silent moments of the film to ensure that the desired message is pronounced. It has been shot by Ramesh Deo Productions and will play on prominent offline and online mediums as part of its outreach plans.
Team credits:
Client: Flipkart
Team: Samardeep Subandh, Shoumyan Biswas, Kartikeya Bhandari, Kunal Dubey, Swimmi Singh
Agency: Lowe Lintas Bangalore
Creative: Arun Iyer, Rajesh Ramaswamy, Ujjwal Kabra, Nischal Thapa, Adarsh Atal
Account Management: G V Krishnan, Anand Narayan, Sushant Sadamate, Harish Shetty, Ketaki Joshi, Pooja Sharma
Planning: S. Subramanyeswar, Rahul Bandi
Production: Ramesh Deo Productions
Director: Abhinay Deo