Spykar celebrates India's first blue film festival

Conceptualised by Scarecrow Communications, 'The Blue Film Festival' is a quirky vehicle to launch the digital video catalogue of Spykar's new Autumn Winter '15 Collection.

Is India ready for a blue film festival? Perhaps yes, because lifestyle brand Spykar claims that #BlueFilmFestival was trending on number one on Twitter on the first day of the countdown phase.

Conceptualised and executed by Scarecrow Communications, 'The Spykar Blue Film Festival' is a quirky vehicle to launch the digital video catalogue of Spykar's new Autumn Winter '15 Collection. The campaign, which is quite edgy and interesting, is targeted at the youth.

Talking about the concept, Manish Bhatt, founder director, Scarecrow Communications, says, "It was great fun playing a nationwide prank with the youth of India. What better way to grab their attention and make them browse through the video catalogue of Spykar's new Autumn-Winter '15 Blue Collection, other than compiling it under the name of Blue Film Festival!"

According to Bhatt, Blue Films are usually associated with sleaze. "So, we ensured that our catalogue films are provocative yet classy. The length of the videos was kept crisp, had the right balance between product showcasing and sensuousness, and left enough for the audience's imagination," he says.

The campaign was launched on Facebook where an official page for Blue Film Festival was created. To intrigue the audience, a trailer and many pixellated and provocative posts were shared on the page. The social media activation further directed the traffic to the campaign website where viewers could see 10 pixellated films across various categories. These films were revealed on the website on November 5.

"Being a youthful brand, Spykar needs to stay in conversation with the youth. And, when it comes to capturing their imagination, the approach has to be clutter-breaking," remarks Sanjay Vakharia, COO, Spykar Lifestyles.

The campaign is targetted at the millennials who are open-minded, liberal, self-expressive, upbeat, and of an overtly passionate nature, informs Vakharia. They dwell in a digital world where they are exposed to multiple ideas or content that gets them interested.

"For this year's Autumn-Winter Collection, we used Indigo-dyed fabric that fades with every wash, revealing a new blue every time. We decided to call it the Blue Collection. We wished to come up with an unconventional catalogue that every young person will love to go through, and one which will resonate with Spykar's edgy and innovative brand personality," says Vakharia.

Founded in 1992, Spykar fashion apparel and accessories has been synonymous with fashion for the youth. The Spykar Jeans range offers a large variety of choice, from the basic five-pocket jeans to fashionable denims, trousers, jogger pants, jackets, tees and shirts. Spykar also has an extended collection of deodorants, perfumes, bags, belts, wallets, socks and other accessories.

Spykar claims to have been voted by Brand Equity as the 'Most Exciting Indian Brand' in the denim category. The survey was carried out amongst youngsters in the 15-26 years age bracket.

Out of the box

Rohit Raj, co-founder, The Glitch, believes that the campaign has an element of intrigue and will help the brand in getting noticed. "The name in itself reeks of an element of risque-ness and the creatives complement the messaging. The website will definitely draw user eyeballs," he asserts.

Raj is however slightly disappointed with the campaign for not being engaging enough. The content and execution, he feels, is "lacklustre and fails to generate any emotion".

"The campaign lets a great communication peg fizzle out. With a property like blue film fest, the brand had the opportunity to own the segment. As a matter of fact, I even forgot the name of the brand by the end of this review, which is a dangerous sign. Another example of a great idea, but poor execution," he rues.