Brands
Brands ride high on Raksha Bandhan ad campaigns
NEW DELHI: Raksha Bandhan is a festival of love and bond between a brother and sister and is all about creating special moments. As businesses across verticals have started operations, brands are encashing the opportunity through campaigns over digital media. The foremost reason brands roll out campaigns during this time is to drive engagement with storytelling. In return, this helps the brand to have a long-term relationship with the customers.
Every year, a number of campaigns are launched and this year, many brands are going a step ahead in creating something unique, which breaks the stereotypes and gives a powerful message to the mass audiences. Such campaigns not only resonate a better connection with the target audience but help them to connect at a deeper level.
Mondelez India
Mondelez India has come up with a campaign #CloserThisRakhi, TVC captures the playful relationship of a brother and sister wherein the sister is tying a rakhi to her brother while brooding over the fact that he has become everyone’s favourite sibling in the last three months of the lockdown by connecting with his extended family via video calls. Later when the sister asks him about his favourite sibling, instead of answering, he greets her with a piece of Cadbury Dairy Milk implying she is his favourite. It ends with them laughing and enjoying a box of Cadbury Celebrations showcasing a ‘Kuch Accha Ho Jaye, Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye’ moment of bringing people #CloserThisRakhi.
Mondelez India director – marketing (chocolates) Anil Viswanathan said, “In spite of the challenging times, we will continue to inspire India to celebrate with their friends and family. With the focus on spreading happiness and banking on the proposition of ‘Kuch Achha Ho Jaaye, Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye’, the new campaign #CloserThisRakhi aims to drive positivity and remind people to bond with their loved ones and cherish every sweet moment possible. The relationship between siblings is rather a special one and like every year, we aim to instil the same joyfulness this Raksha Bandhan and further strengthen the jovial connection between a brother and a sister.”
Mankind Pharma
Mankind Pharma launched a video campaign saluting the #RealHeroes. Through this campaign, the brand is saluting the selfless hard work done by the medical staff for the society. The video showcases a sister requesting the hospital staff to let her in so that she can tie a rakhi to her brother and when she wasn’t allowed. She wished the hospital staff a happy Raksha Bandhan and handed over the rakhi to pass it on to her brother. When her brother received it, he tied it on the wrist of the nurse who had been taking care of him at the hospital.
Mankind Pharma CEO Rajeev Juneja said, “India now ranks third, in the daily increase in COVID2019 cases and this shows the rise in the responsibility of our medical staff, while we will be celebrating all festivities in the comfort of our home, the medical staff will be serving us and saving our lives. Through this campaign, we would like to thank these #RealHeroes and pray for their safety.”
Tanishq
Jewellery brand Tanishq has launched its latest Raksha Bandhan film which celebrates ‘sisters’; the ones who manage to be both, the most annoying as well as the most comforting presence in our lives and yet the ones who will always be there by our side through adversities and celebrations alike. The film beautifully pays a tribute to a special ‘sister’ who has been going out of her way especially in the wake of the current pandemic. The film is not only contextually relevant as it is high on emotions but is also true to the spirit of Raksha Bandhan.
The film ends with a twist where one realises that the sister is also a nurse or a ‘sister’ as nurses are fondly called in India thus urging everyone to #CelebrateEverySister, including nurses, this Raksha Bandhan. The film is written & directed by Bhavesh S Kosambia and produced by Oneness Media.
Usha
Showing the love between siblings – the ’tere haathon ka banaa dal ka halwa’, the honest happy banter, and the doorbell that brings a thoughtful surprise in the form of a new Usha Food Processor that the sister needed. Tender moments that evoke love and longing for siblings lead up to a celebration of Raksha Bandhan over a video call, driving home the message that love means ensuring you keep your near and dear ones safe in their homes.
Usha International president appliances Saurabh Baishakhia said, “Raksha Bandhan is all about the bond between siblings and we wanted them to celebrate that love, but in a responsible way in the times of Covid2019 – by staying safe at home. As for us, we are meeting them more than halfway by making all our products available online and ensuring safe delivery across channels so they don’t need to step out at all.”
The Man Company
Bollywood actor Ayushmann Khurrana and men’s grooming brand The Man Company have released a new digital film for Rakshabandhan that urges people to celebrate the tradition of tying a rakhi with a new perspective.
The ad shows Ayushmann Khurrana tying a rakhi on his sister’s wrist as opposed to the norm of sister’s tying it on their brothers’ wrists. Sisters often protect their brothers from both physical and mental harm and are always a comforting presence when things seem to be going astray. With a subtle change, the Idea promotes the idea of gender equality.
The Man Company founder and CEO Hitesh Dhingra said, “The #RakhiForSisters campaign is our attempt to acknowledge the protecting roles that doting sisters invariably play for their brothers. It is also our effort to convey that it is ok to relook at certain traditions and bring them in sync with the modern reality of gender equality.”
Daawat Basmati Rice
Daawat celebrates the unbreakable bond of siblings through the video, themed around ‘Khud ki raksha karke apno ki raksha karein’. This Raksha Bandhan, all the brothers would be eagerly looking forward to seeing their sisters who stay away and sisters would be even more anxious to tie rakhis. However, in the current situation, the true meaning of Raksha Bandhan is very different.
The campaign showcases that both brother and sister celebrate the festival with social distancing as distance is the best protection one can provide to their siblings.
Brands
Uber launches hotel bookings feature in partnership with Expedia
From hotel bookings to room service at your door, the ride-hailing giant is making its boldest push yet into everyday life
CALIFORNIA: Uber is done being just a taxi app. At its annual GO-GET product event, the world’s leading mobility and delivery platform unveiled a sweeping set of new features designed to plant itself at the centre of how people travel, eat and shop, hotel bookings included.
The headline move is a partnership with Expedia Group that lets Uber users in the United States book hotels directly within the Uber app, with access to a catalogue that will eventually grow to more than 700,000 properties worldwide. Uber One members get 10 per cent back in Uber One credits on all hotel bookings and savings of at least 20 per cent on a rolling list of more than 10,000 hotels globally. Vacation rentals from Vrbo, Expedia Group’s home-rental brand, will be added later this year. The partnership is expected to expand beyond the United States. From June, Uber rides will also be integrated directly into the Expedia app, with push notifications sent to travellers ahead of hotel check-in to book discounted Uber rides for the duration of their stay.
Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive of Uber, framed the expansion in terms of the modern condition. “Uber is becoming an app for everything, helping people go, get, and now travel all in one place,” he said. “We’re all living through a moment of real cognitive overload: too many apps, too many decisions, too much noise. At the end of the day, our job is to help people reclaim their time, spending less of it managing the logistics of life and more of it actually living.”
Ariane Gorin, chief executive of Expedia Group, struck a similarly ambitious note. “Travel should feel effortless, and this partnership gets us one step closer to offering a seamless traveller experience,” she said. “By connecting our two-sided marketplace with Uber, we’re bringing Uber rides directly into the Expedia app and Expedia Group’s lodging inventory into the Uber app through our Rapid API technology. Together, we’re helping travellers spend less time planning and more time enjoying the journey.”
Beyond hotels, the product announcements come thick and fast. Travel Mode, available within both the Uber and Uber Eats apps, offers curated recommendations on local favourites, tourist destinations, OpenTable restaurant reservations and on-demand delivery to hotel rooms. Uber One International means the membership programme now works globally, allowing members to earn credits on rides abroad that can be redeemed once back home. A new Shop for Me feature lets users request items from any store, even those not listed on the app. Eats for the Way allows riders in select cities booking an Uber Black or Uber Black SUV to have a drink or snack waiting for them in the car. Voice Bookings, powered by artificial intelligence, lets users book a ride conversationally, without touching their phone. And a redesigned One Search bar consolidates results for places, food and items across the entire Uber platform in a single query.
Uber has now logged more than 72 billion trips since it launched in 2010. The question it is now answering is what comes after the ride. The answer, apparently, is everything else. Whether users want a hotel in Paris, a coffee in the back of a car or a snake plant from the local garden centre, Uber would very much like to be the one to provide it. The app economy’s land grab has a new front-runner.
NOTE: The image used is AI generated and only for representational purposes.
