Naukri continues to challenge 'the boss'

While taking forward its theme of boss-employee friction in a tongue-in-cheek manner, Naukri.com launches three new ad films to convey the message that the brand is now on the mobile space through its newly-launched job search app for smart phones.

Job portal Naukri.com introduced free job search apps on the mobile medium for smart phones earlier this month. Now, the brand has released three new 25-second TVCs in order to popularise this offering.

The campaign carries the catch phrase 'Your boss will hate it', and attempts to display the frustration of 'the boss' towards the medium which allows employees to seek better opportunities instantly.

The brand's mobile app and site allows jobseekers to search and apply for jobs from their cell phones, even while they're on the move. The offering is the company's way to keep pace with the fast-moving lifestyle of today's employees.

In conversation with afaqs!, Sumeet Singh, senior vice-president, marketing, Naukri.com, explains that though the objective of this campaign was to promote the newly-launched job search app, it has retained its positioning stance of being a brand that empowers employees who face a bad boss. "We maintain our original statement that an unhappy employee doesn't quit his job; he quits his boss. We continue to be a brand that empowers employees against their employers," she says.

afaqs! questions Singh as to whether it was particularly challenging to live up to the iconic status generated by the brand's previous 'Hari Sadu' commercial. She says, "Comparisons are normal. However, this campaign has an entirely different message at its core."

When quizzed on the matter, K S Chakravarthy (aka Chax), national creative director, Draftfcb Ulka, (the creative agency that has crafted this campaign), responds rather eloquently. He says, "Hari Sadu was thematic. It was a brilliant execution of a powerful insight. The new campaign on the other hand, is based on a simple, straight-forward announcement of a new delivery channel (namely, mobile), and we have created advertising that is single-minded about this latest news."

Chax adds that this campaign drives the original brand theme in a fresh manner. "To compare the two is to miss the point -- one is thematic, while the other is almost a tactical continuation," he sums up.

Besides TV, the media mix comprises media vehicles such as online (Facebook and YouTube), mobile, and on-ground activations in certain select corporate office areas (in cities such as Gurgaon and Bengaluru).

While refusing to divulge the exact marketing spend amount, Singh tells afaqs! that this year, the allocation of the spends has been modified such that the online-offline ratio is 65:35, while last year it was 80:20. As is evident, the brand's offline marketing spends have thus been upped this year.

Well-received?

While the ads stand appreciated in absolution, they seem to fall short when compared to the 'Hari Sadu' campaign.

According to Chraneeta Mann, executive creative director, Rediffusion-Y&R, while Naukri.com has stuck to the approach of humour to communicate its point yet again, it doesn't seem to manage the same level of recall value as it did with the 'Hari Sadu' campaign. She elaborates, "They have carried forward the character of the 'the unreasonable boss', yet the part about the revenge of the employee, is missing. And, it is perhaps that aspect of Naukri's communication that has made its earlier communication appealing -- that is, the revenge of the underdog."

Mann thus feels that while the ads are nicely shot and the message 'Naukri.com now on your mobile' is communicated fairly effectively, "they leave the heartstrings quite cold."

Titus Upputuru, national creative director, Dentsu Marcom, opines, "The trouble with creating an iconic commercial (Hari Sadu, in this case) is what happens afterwards -- you'll be compared each time you come up with something on the same brand, for the rest of your life. I guess that's the cross that this brand must bear as one can't see this ad in isolation."

He, however, goes on to add that he liked the progression from 'the boss you hate' to 'what the boss will hate'. "It seems like quite a nice journey. As to whether it can stand up to Hari Sadu -- well, that's anyone's guess."