Honda Brio 'loves you back' in its new TVC

Conceptualised by Team Grey, the television commercial for Brio, Honda's new car, highlights the fact that Brio stands for reciprocation of love, and how important it is to complete a relationship.

Love and be loved is a wonderful feeling, and everyone wants to experience it at least once in their lifetime. The new television commercial for Honda's newly-launched small car Brio has been created, based on this notion of love.

Conceptualised by Team Grey,
the television commercial titled 'I love Brio'
, juxtaposes the relationship between a guy and a girl as lovers, and a guy and Honda Brio. The commercial shows a young couple very much in love. At the same time, the TVC also highlights the relationship a young man shares with his car and treats it with love and affection. In the end, the TVC stresses on what it means to be loved back.

Talking to afaqs!, Jnaneshwar Sen, senior vice president, Honda Siel Cars India, says, "In India, car purchase is more of an emotional decision, rather than a rational one. And, our research before the launch indicated that Brio will attract a wide spectrum of customers, of whom a few will be first-timers, while for some, this could be a second car in the house. Therefore, to bind the entire range of consumers together, we needed to highlight one emotion, and what could be better than the universal feeling of love."

Speaking to afaqs!, the creative duo of Amit Shankar and Vishnu Srivatsav, executive creative directors, Grey, and who are based in Delhi, says, "When we won this business through a creative pitch we had pondered on several thoughts and ideas. It was then we came across the idea of love. Love means expression, expectation, and most importantly, reciprocation. Love is a two-way street and is complete only when two people feel equally for each other. The Brio stands for that reciprocation of love and how important it is to complete a relationship. Also, Honda believes in the philosophy of 'man maximum, machine minimum'. We, therefore, weaved the idea of the TVC based around this philosophy."

Jaten Jais, who is associate vice-president, Grey, explains, "The idea of love applies as much to objects around us. We love our homes, our phones and our clothes, as well as our cars. However, we never think of 'being loved' by the car. This thought brought the idea of our campaign for Honda Brio alive. The campaign shows the magic of saying 'I love you, too'."

A feel-good factor

The campaign gets a thumbs up from the advertising fraternity as they call it a fresh and innovative idea. However, some feel a little something more could have been done in terms of execution.

Nima DT Namchu, senior vice-president and executive creative director, Contract Advertising, says, "I saw the Honda Brio press ad before I saw the commercial. 'The New Honda Brio. It loves you back', it promised. The commercial, however, was a bit of a letdown because I was expecting a story about innovations and engineering -- a film which would be more about the car. I am not too sure if this would make someone part with five lakhs. Having said that, it's very well shot, very precisely edited, and the music is just right for the film."

Arun Raman, executive vice-president, strategic planning, Lowe Lintas, says, "The TVC boasts of great production value. Beautiful people, well shot, crisply edited and outstanding track...Tom Petty/ Bob Dylan-ish. But, if they only had a simpler strategy and idea!"

He further explains, "'Loves you Back' is such a wow platform. So much could have been done by it. Pity. 'It loves you back' -- how? What's in the car that loves you back? Is it the features (which I missed first time, because the music, editing and story prevent your eye from reading the supers!), or is it the feeling, or is it something else that will be revealed in the second or third stage of communication?"

As regards the story, Raman says, "This whole 'two-timing' emotion is very collegian, maybe great for Fastrack and its tagline -- 'Move On'. For Honda Brio, could they have given it a whole new spin? Now, will someone immediately after a shocker like this, feel solace in his car? Wish the team had pushed the envelope on that."