Airtel brings 'Har ek friend zaroori hota hai' catchphrase back after 5 years

We spoke to Taproot Dentsu's Agnello Dias about the campaign.

Remember the 'Har ek friend zaroori hota hai' ad that put forth Airtel as a youth brand? The brand is back with its famous catchphrase after five long years through its new TV campaign with an addition - there are few things in life that are not important but friendship is important.

The new campaign conceptualised by Taproot Dentsu, has a series of three different ads focusing on the points such as free incoming calls during an international trip, free calls from one Airtel to another Airtel subscriber and low cost data packs. The ad films have been produced by Equinox Films and directed by Ram Madhwani and Nitin Parmar. The music has been composed by Ram Sampath.

We asked Agnello Dias (Aggie), chief creative officer, Taproot Dentsu, the reason behind revisiting the 'Har Ek Friend' theme after five long years. He says, "We were thinking of one umbrella under which this whole bundle of advantages that the brand brings can be tied together. So we looked at it from the opposite angle - where the brand takes care of the unnecessary things such as data charges and roaming, so you can concentrate on what's necessary, and that is, friendship. So the search for that common link brought us to the opposite of 'Har ek friend zaruri hota hai'."

We asked Dias what's the ideal frequency of using such successful audio assets versus not using them in ads? He says, "I don't think we ever timed frequencies in this case, but the actual line matched whatever we were trying to communicate. In this case, it was a whole bundle of advantages that Airtel is offering to the customer and we thought it would be interesting to see if the advantages take care of four or five things that are not important or unnecessary."

He adds, "In life, there are some things that are not zaruri (not important). In the film, it is matched with every friend is important so you don't need to have worry about the not so important things in life. The line in the ad says, 'yeh sab cheez zaruri nahi hai, because har ek friend zaruri hai' so there is no real formula about when you bring back the theme but when required use it because there is some popularity and this one has a different take."

Interestingly, one of the ads focusses on low cost data packs and yet we don't see Sasha Chettri in it. So we asked Dias if this was because she has been only chosen to promote the 4G services of Airtel. He says, "Not necessarily. But because we felt that in this bundle of offers we tackle four to five big customer pain points. They have the idea that 'ye sab cheez zaruri nahi hai' and that fit better with 'har ek friend zaruri hai' than Sasha Chettri but not because of 4G. We have done non- 4G ads as well with Sasha. She did launch with 4G, so everyone associates her with 4G but there have been Airtel ads without 4G and with Sasha."

We asked our brand expert, when it comes to the usage of such popular 'audio-visual brand assets', what's the ideal frequency of usage and should the brands take such long breaks when it comes to using these popular tunes/images in their ads?

Viren Razdan, managing director, Brand-nomics, a brand consultancy, says, "The 'Har ek friend' launch was a super(-sonic) makeover of the brand, from
AR Rehman's mouth organ
to a crazy pop anthem, which captured the coolness and vibrancy of the new generation brilliantly. While this set the tone and tenor of the 'refreshed' brand, the next phase of 4G pushed the hard-sell, using a protagonist, reflecting chutzpah of the millennials."

He adds, "While being top-of-the-pops, holding back the anthem protected it from fatigue, as weaving it in with the 4G girl's charming (or irritating) spiel, would have perhaps wasted the effort. While there are no rules, a pro-longed exposure to popularity does tend to lose charm and following, evergreen is now max a year (example Kolaveri)."

Adding further he says, "Its comeback, with a millennial mindset and now mainstream theme, is refreshing and entertaining, but the individual products do get overwhelmed with the familiarity and popularity of the song. 'Har ek friend' is a strong sonic expression of the brand's personae, little guesses for which hot air balloon YOU would want to be in - AIrtel or the 'other' one on-air currently."