Ahead of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2019, we are back with our 'Cannes Contender' series.
The premise is:
How much time really does a Cannes juror get to understand a case or piece of work s/he hasn't come across before?
Too little. It's up to us to help them get acquainted with the good work prior. We present here entries from Indian/South Asian agencies that their creators believe will be in contention for Lions at the 2019 International Festival of Creativity.
Dentsu Webchutney has two such entries.
Code Name: URI
To promote a movie based on a real covert operation carried out by the military, we devised a covert strike of our own in-order to bring forth the issue of online piracy onto the national dais.
We shot a fake film using the lead actors of the actual movie – Vicky Kaushal and Yami Gautam, wherein we got them to break the 4th wall and hilariously condemn those who downloaded the film thinking it was a leaked copy of the movie.
Subsequently, we uploaded our film on multiple torrent websites in the guise of it being a leaked copy of the actual movie.
We even got Cat-C Influencers to spread the news that the movie had been leaked on the same day as the release of the film, for would-be torrent downloaders to catch the bait.
Result:
1. Many downloaders proclaimed that they were going to go and watch the film in the theatre, as a result of this activity.
2. Our torrent file was downloaded over 20,000 times on each of the websites we uploaded it.
3. Once thousands of illegal torrent downloaders openly admitted to having gotten trolled, on their personal social media profiles, the story got picked-up by virtually every major news and content portal in India.
4. In just a few days, the Prime Minister of India – Narendra Modi addressed the issue.
5. In a country notorious for bureaucratic stalling, wherein law making literally moves at a glacial speed; on account of the momentum that our idea had generated in the national consciousness, the Indian Government amended the Cinematograph Act of 1952 in just 22 days from the launch of our campaign. Perpetrators could now face a jail term of 3 years.
6. Earned Media Worth Over $1.5 Million.
EarlySalary - The Month End Collection
EarlySalary is India’s leading instant cash-advances application. However, it isn’t the only brand providing such services. Smaller brands were taking up larger chunks of online conversations, day by day. So, the need for EarlySalary to be more visible, more relatable, more downloaded and hold the position as a leader, came about. But the biggest challenge was having the same audience with the same problem.
In India, this audience faces a monthly cash crisis towards the end of the month. EarlySalary needed to speak to this audience as a friend, striking a conversation in a tone of voice that sounds relatable and not preachy. Especially in a sector like financial services that is less entertaining to this audience. The challenge was to create a different space for EarlySalary in its audience’s mind, become a brand that makes them feel like their needs are understood and most importantly, increase downloads.
The Month-End Collection - a range of unique products was dedicated to our audience’s month-end behaviour of compromising. Real products along with product films were crafted and packaged to poke fun at them. The audience was provoked into feeling that the products were a new way to compromise. But once they were lured, they were provided with the perfect solution to month-end cash woes - the EarlySalary app.
The sarcastic, humorous tone of the products and films was deliberate to grab our audience. The videos were strategically released during the month-end,striking relevance with their desires. The products were displayed on a website and in corporate parks too, where people thought they could buy the collection, but instead, were directed to download the app and quit the crisis. The Month-End Collection by EarlySalary was crafted to be the end of compromising and the advent of a real solution.