A hat trick for Hari Sadu

The campaign has been recognised in the Consumer Services category and was amongst the three campaigns that won at the Effies this year

Three years ago, Naukri.com’s Hari Sadu ad campaign became an icon in the category of job portals. The campaign has been hugely successful. This year, the third ad in the Hari Sadu campaign has been awarded a bronze at the APAC Effies Awards in Singapore.

Sanjay Sharma, creative director, Draft-FCB-Ulka, is obviously happy about the award and says, “We have been consistently winning at the Effies at a national level for this campaign. The Hari Sadu ad is the latest and the most awarded (six and counting) in the series. And having got international attention for it this year is a truly great high for both the agency and the client.”

In three years, three TVCs have been released by the creative agency, Draft-FCB-Ulka, on the theme of ‘Guess Who’s Just Heard from Us’, including Hari Sadu. The campaign has been recognised in the Consumer Services category and was amongst the three campaigns that won at the Effies this year.

“An indicator of the success of the campaign is the huge recall for Hari Sadu and the character’s association with the brand, Naukri.com. The brazenness of the idea and the starkness of the execution helped in making the idea stand out. We are glad to be recognised in the league of the most effective campaigns in the APAC region,” says Sumeet Singh, national head, marketing and corporate communications, Info Edge India. Naukri.com is the flagship brand of Info Edge.

The commercial, which was launched in 2006, has a grumpy boss expressing displeasure at his junior colleague’s work – he throws a file in anger at the junior. Just then, a woman (his secretary, perhaps) puts her head into his room to tell him of a call from a hotel reservation desk. While making his reservation, the boss says his name is Hari Sadu, but the person on the other side cannot understand him.

The junior colleague offers to help. He begins spelling out his boss’ name: “H for Hitler, A for arrogant, R for rascal, I for idiot.” The boss is struck dumb and a super appears, ‘Guess Who’s Just Heard from Us? Naukri.com, India’s No. 1 job site.’ The junior continues, unmindfully, “Sadu, S for...” He pauses to think of an appropriate word. In no time, another colleague, who’s also there in the room, completes the sentence with “Shameless”. That’s the last straw for the boss.

Established in 1997, Naukri.com is a recruitment platform that provides services to the corporate world, placement agencies and job seekers in India and overseas. It offers a bouquet of products such as resume database access and response management tools. Its services include job postings and branding solutions on the site.