By A Correspondent
How often does one talk about rice? Mostly during lunch, one would guess. In the last few weeks, though, the little white grains have become the talk of the town. Thanks to the “talkative” commercials that are currently on air for Best Foods International. In consumer-speak, they are a treat to watch. But what has gone behind cooking up these tasteful advertisements is another story.
It all started when Dinesh Gupta, Managing Director, Best Foods Ltd decided to rope in Ogilvy & Mather, New Delhi to design its corporate brand identity. Complete, from stationery to new packaging design. The new pack was an instant rage in the market because of its fresh and ethnic Indian look. It was a sweet start to a new relationship and somewhere in this was hidden a big idea for the commercials.
Best wanted their rice to be in everyone’s mouth and their brand name on everyone’s lips. In came the requirement to create TV commercials. Dr Aayushman Gupta, Business Director, Best Foods Ltd says, “We had an interesting challenge to reposition rice from an uninvolved product for the consumer to a desirable brand. The positioning and communication had to be out-of-the-box, clear, uncluttered and keeping with the times through its cues and presentation. The entire team at Ogilvy Delhi thought wonderfully to help us plan and execute the same.”
Ajay Gahlaut, Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy, New Delhi elaborates on the idea, “There are various ways of bringing the thought of “The Perfect Match” alive and several were tried. But experience shows that consumers always warm up to human stories. Specially love stories, which is where we hit upon the idea of using different couples to make our idea talk. The chemistry between the couples brings charm to the commercials while effortlessly communicating the brand benefit.”
Three scripts were devised for three strategic markets. Each commercial weaved a story about a perfect couple. Nitin Srivastava, Senior Creative Director, Ogilvy New Delhi recalls, “Cracking the idea was the hard part but fleshing it out was immense fun. We enjoyed writing stories after stories before we finally rested at three. Here, I would like to specially mention the efforts of Umesh Grover and Jonathan George who behaved like the perfect match on this project.”
Amit Sharma of Chrome was a wise choice to shoot these scripts. His adept handling of emotions and dialogues comes out in full glory in the series. The films showed how couples from different age groups, mindsets and geographies have something in common – the flavour. Chrome Films did thorough planning and research for two months before finalising the casting. All films were shot in a single take to bring out natural reactions from the couples.
Best Foods Ltd have already begun their plans for the coming year. Ogilvy, New Delhi is gearing up to lay out a brand new, sumptuous experience of films. The consumers too, are waiting eagerly for a fresh serving.
Credits:
Company: Best Foods Ltd.
Product: Best Rice
Production House- Chrome Pictures
Director- Amit Sharma
Creative team: Ajay Gahlaut, Nitin Srivastava, Umesh Grover & Jonathan George
Client servicing team: Sharmista Dev, Vineet Kindra, Shivani Sharma & Lagun Sehgal