HomeShop18 creates cat characters Billy and Sunny, promises to make buyers happy

HomeShop18 has launched an integrated campaign around the theme ‘Shopping Makes Me Happy’. The campaign comprises five TVCs featuring animated cat characters ‘Billy’ and ‘Sunny’. The TVCs conceptualised by Creativeland Asia went on air on 6 June across GECs, news, sports and movie channels.

 

The films features cat Billy and his son Sunny, sitting at a table facing the camera. Billy greets viewers and announces that the family has been in the shopping business for ages. He states that happiness cannot be achieved when one starts looking for it but instead can be derived from shopping. He switches on the TV screen in the background and Sunny announces ‘HomeShop18 – 1000 brands with big discounts and amazing products, lakhs of customers’. Billy corrects him to say there are crores of customers. Sunny continues that the service is open 24X7 and customers can shop through the TV channel, website and the mobile app. He points out that one doesn’t have to get hassled about the payment as it is to be made on delivery. 

 

Billy surmises that it’s a wrong notion that happiness cannot be ‘bought’. He asks viewers to come and shop with them and that too at a discount. With Billy’s permission, Sunny plays the jingle and the two cats begin to do a small jig. The song goes: “Shopping makes me happy happy, HomeShop18 makes me happy.”

 

The other TVCs highlight the discounted prices of the products on HomeShop18, product categories and so on.

 

 

Vikrant Khanna, CMO, HomeShop18, said, “The brand campaign reflects HomeShop18’s ideology of ‘Shopping makes me happy.’ This is not just a tagline but a universal insight that resonates with people across the world. At HomeShop18, we believe that we are best poised to appropriate this position since we are the only ones that offer shopping via our three digital commerce platforms of TV, web and mobile app – each aligned to a relevant consumer segment in the Indian market. The correlation between shopping and happiness is simple; the customers can buy the best products at the best price across any of HomeShop18’s on various multi-screens. We used animated cats as a creative device as they were not just clutter breaking, but also very loveable and that helped us package the brand message in a charming way.”

 

He added that the two-month campaign will extend to print, radio, and social media. “HomeShop18 has innovated with its campaign spread by being the first Indian brand to use Whatsapp to reach out to its customers through viral posts and videos. The company has also created a micro-site (www.shoppingmakesmehappy.com) for engagement with its customers as well as, latest on Billy and Sunny. We are confident that this commercial will differentiate us from the already busy digital commerce market,” added Khanna.

 

Sajan Raj Kurup, Founder and Creative Chairman, Creativeland Asia, said, “Our understanding of the category told us that the core idea of ‘Shopping makes me happy’ is one of those truisms you can’t disagree with. Shopping in the past was about buying necessities. Today, shopping has become a stress-busting, mind-opening and a mood-uplifting recreational activity.”

 

 “Remote shopping is at the cusp of becoming mainstream in India. Since this category deals with a lot of information decimation, we had to find engaging characters to deliver it. Cats are famous on the internet. Cat videos are the most watched and viral videos on the internet. So we decided to go with two cats, a father and son duo to star in our commercials that represent different generations of shoppers across TV and the  internet. We have created multiple engaging films where the father cat and son cat sit and woo audiences with the skill and wit of traditional Indian  shopkeepers,” Kurup added.

 

The campaign will straddle print, radio and digital media (website,  Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest.)

 

Credits

 

Client: HomeShop18

 

Creative agency: Creativeland Asia

 

Creative chairman: Sajan Raj Kurup

 

Executive creative director: Anu Joseph

 

Creative directors: Ravi Shanker, Rajat Dawar

 

Copywriters: Sajan Raj Kurup, Rajat Dawar, Ravi Shanker

 

Creative partners: Deepak Jage, Riti Hamlai

 

Illustrator: Sanjay Pandav

 

Planning: Priyanka Kurup

 

Client servicing: Harshad Lad, Shreyashi Pandit 

 

Production house: Equinox

 

Director (film): Ram Madhvani

 

DOP: Pushan Kripalani

 

Animation: UPP Prague