Sit down, start bragging: why Flipkart wants you to flaunt your buys

Watching Flipkart urge people to brag about their purchases to friends was both amusing and oddly uncomfortable. Perhaps it’s the late millennial in me, but we were always taught to stay humble and never flaunt our wins or buys; after all, you never know who’s watching and might decide to take it all away, to teach us a lesson in humility.

Maybe times have changed? “We post everything on social media: ‘I bought new shoes. I bought a new watch.’ We took this existing behaviour and amplified it beyond limits,” says Rahul Mathew, chief creative officer at DDB Mudra Group.

Created for Flipkart’s Diwali sale (which ends today, having started on 21 October), the ad not only encourages bragging but lets customers take it one step further—by customising a poster that includes their purchase, their photograph, and a witty catchphrase, which they can share on a friend’s social media feed. A few lucky customers even get a real-life billboard in front of their friend’s home, bragging about their purchase.

Mathew believes “flex is big” with this generation (Gen Z) and that such a campaign gives the e-commerce giant the ultimate “flex” at a time when every second ad is from either rival Amazon, food delivery app Zomato and Swiggy, or quick-commerce brands like Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, and Blinkit.

“It’s a good kind of pressure, but it’s also an insane amount of pressure,” confesses the chief creative officer. Yet he’s not too worried because the agency —22feet Tribal, a digital agency under DDB Mudra and Flipkart’s digital agency on record —has a strong understanding of the brand.

“We’ve done so much with the brand now; we know when certain occasions require us to act, even without a brief. We know the audience we want to reach and the tone we need to strike.” Speaking about Flipkart’s biggest rival, Mathew says the American e-commerce giant’s tone “feels warm and fuzzy, whereas Flipkart’s is cheeky.”

However, it’s not so much about the rivals as it is about Flipkart’s Big Billion Days —its annual sale —which overshadows all other campaigns. “Any campaigns following it lack that same impact,” he admits. As a result, the creative team has no choice but to create something that captures attention. “Sometimes, necessity creates the biggest push for creativity.”

With so many ads from online delivery brands, capturing viewer attention is challenging. “What makes people react to an ad is its creativity. You can show an ad a thousand times, but if it doesn’t resonate, people will ignore it a thousand times,” he warns.

So how does his agency deliver superior creative work while Flipkart also works with FCB Kinnect and Leo Burnett at the same time? “The competition makes you better and pushes you to go further,” says a nonchalant Mathew.