Acer sings an ode to the power of touch

Acer has rolled out a TV campaign which emphasises the ‘power of touch’, to promote its new  range of Windows 8 tablets and laptops.

In the TVC created by BBH India, various situations are shown where a ‘touch’ could make the difference. One instance shows a kid climbing onto his cycle to pluck a Mango from a tree. Another shows a girl making an effort to ring a bell, which is too high for her. In the third case, a boy and girl are about to hold hands, only to be separated by two young children who run between them. A game of kabaddi where a player tries to touch the centre line, a lady trying to do yoga and bring her hands together to complete a posture, and a man is touching a ‘do not touch’ painting on display, complete the set of instances. Set to a soundtrack crooned by Lucky Ali, the film ends with a voice over introducing Acer's new range of touch laptops and tablets.

On the film, Russell Barrett, managing partner, BBH India, said, “With the Acer Touch range of products we had the opportunity to do something a little different for a technology brand. When you look at the market, you see so many ads that showcase shiny new devices changing peoples lives. Our challenge was to make a technology ad do more than that. We felt that ‘touch’ is not merely a technology; it is an undeniable instinct that our idea needed to capture. It takes a brave client to agree to a suggestion like that and hats off to the team at Acer for taking that bold decision.”

He added, “What the CDs on the job (Kunal and Vinod) did beautifully was tell a story of the significance of touch in all our lives. We wanted recreate that excruciating moment we've all had, when you're so close to touching something, but not quite there yet.”

S Rajendran, chief marketing officer, Acer India, explained that customer interface with technology today was all about touch, and that the brand decided to take the emotion platform rather than adopt ‘tech-dense’ communication.

He said, "The concept of 'Touch' lends itself so beautifully to evoke a lot of warm feelings on this aspect. And the canvas to exploit this emotive thought is practically limitless. Again, the adoption of gadgets is fairly pervasive across various age and demographic groups. With that as the context, the teams at both Acer and BBH brainstormed to come up with everyday vignettes that amplifies the emotional quotient of 'touch' in these situations."

"We do believe that the TVC gets to communicate the message of 'Touch' being an everyday phenomenon in a very emphatic manner. And the initial feedback we have had from the ecosystem (customers, channel partners, strategic business partners and employees) indicates that the TVC has resonated quite well with the market," added Rajendran.

The crafting

Russell Barrett, on the choice of Lucky Ali: “We decided that we needed a track that didn't just support the story, but actually make it come to life. When the director Pratap (Manohar) suggested Lucky Ali, we were intrigued. This would be Lucky Ali's first commercial and that in itself was quite exciting. When we heard the first cut, even more so and at the final moment, the music and the lyrics seemed just perfect for the film.”

Rajendran added, “We had a very nice and easy-to-understand set of lyrics sung by Lucky Ali in his characteristic and distinctive style. Though in Hindi, it appears to have cut across diverse geographies and different cultures, thus allaying the  apprehension of the potential danger of it not having universal appeal.”

Credits
Client: Acer
Agency: BBH India
Managing partners: Subhash Kamath, Russell Barrett
Head of planning: Sanjay Sharma
Creative directors: Vinod Sudheer, Kunal Sawant
Business director: Kunal Chakravarty
Strategy director: Yousuf Rangoonwala
Senior business partner: Monish Debnath
Executive producer: Khvafar Vakharia
Production house: The Reel Company
Director (film): Pratap Manohar