Kit Kat: Babies rock

Nestle Kit Kat's new TVC, which reinforces the brand's ongoing campaign of taking a break, show it through a baby pop concert. The video was launched first on the online medium.

At a time when youth-targeted brands sell speed and instant gratification, Nestle's chocolate-coated wafer brand Kit Kat has consistently asked youngsters to slow down and enjoy a break. In its latest television commercial under the 'Have a break, Have a Kit Kat' campaign, the brand finds music in babies' cooing and babbling.

The new TVC shows a baby pop band complete with baby gibberish. Two earlier creatives for the campaign had animated squirrels and birds dancing to popular Bollywood tunes in typical style.

Titled Babies, the latest TVC opens with a teacher leading a bunch of students in lab coats. One of the students breaks out and comes across a day centre that has infants playing with toys. As he opens a Kit Kat, one of the babies suddenly breaks into a musical gurgle, with others joining in. At one point, the children break into a jig, too. Astonished by the performance, the youngster tries to call his friends but is too enthralled. Finally, when he finishes the Kit Kat pack, the performance also comes to a halt. A voiceover then says, "Kabhi Kabhi break lo. Kit Kat Khao. Jane agla pal kya le aye."

Conceptualised by JWT India, the campaign was launched online before it made an appearance on TV. The agency explains that it wanted people to discover and create a buzz about the video before it was put out on the wider mass medium. And, it certainly seems to have done the trick. According to the agency, the video received a million hits on Facebook and YouTube within 72 hours of putting it online.

Speaking about the insight behind the TVC,
Bobby Pawar
, chief creative officer, JWT India, says that while the brand has used Bollywood songs in the past, the idea was to create something new and different this time. In a brainstorming session, the idea of babies doing an impromptu pop concert emerged. "Babies are universally liked. They are cute and cuddly. So, we decided to do a spin on this with a dance to track with baby sounds. While youth are into concerts, we thought of making babies do that. It was a marriage of opposites," he states.

Making babies listen to adult instruction could not have been easy, what with their short attention span. Concurring, Pawar reveals that to gather sufficient footage for the TVC, they had to shoot for two whole days. "We had to keep shooting them, as they would get distracted. We had to work according to their pace. But every now and then, they did something magical. Some would lip sync to the track," he recalls.

The TVC was directed by Shyam Madiraju of Gobsmack. The sound track was recorded by Mikey McCleary, chosen for being experimental, and the animated dance moves by the babies were created by Belgrade-based Crater Film Studios.

Animation has been staple in Kit Kat's campaigns, with the earlier two ads also liberally applying it to create intrigue.

The agency intends to come out with a two-minute music video of the commercial, which, as Pawar says, has the song that 'hooks into' one's head. While the concept of dancing babies is not new, the pop concert is a new idea, he adds.

Perfectly tuned?

Nima Namchu, executive creative director, Cheil Worldwide, believes that scripts having singing, dancing and talking babies have already been made before. As a result, any new film with the same ingredients needs to be fresh and entertaining, which he found lacking in this commercial. "For someone who has enjoyed the wit and the energy in the brand's older commercials, I found this one trying too hard to be entertaining. Also, the commercial could have done with some more days in the animation studio," Namchu says.

Jaideep Mahajan, executive creative director, Pickle Lintas feels that the dancing babies will definitely amuse the audience. It is in line with a lot of funny baby videos that are a huge hit on social media platforms. "But I don't see anything new. Though the story is better than the last commercial, it lacks in finesse. The babies look unreal," he says.

He believes the brand needs a fresh rendition, as taking a break doesn't translate to dancing only (we've seen the dancing squirrels, the birds and now, the babies, he adds). In fact, the brand has some great renditions on the same idea internationally, like the Kit Kat cranes, he points out.