In 2021, even Santa Claus is looking for a job

To advertise for Swiggy Genie, Webchutney has created a new campaign featuring an out of job Santa Claus. A chat with the team behind the idea.

Christmas and the holiday season are all about food, laughter, joy, cheer and, of course, presents. Every year, children from all over the world wait for Santa Claus to deliver their presents. As adults, we play Secret Santa and set up Christmas trees and decorations.

But this year, it's a little different. After living with the COVID pandemic for nearly two years, Saint Nicholas himself is out of a job, thanks to Swiggy Genie.

Swiggy Genie is a parcel pickup and drop service that can be accessed from the Swiggy app. To advertise for the service, Dentsu Webchutney has created an ad that features the jolly old man, looking into the camera and stating his achievements. Santa Claus has reached out to thousands of potential employers via LinkedIn, digital ads, emails, flyers, business cards, posters, etc.

The team that created this ad includes Sanket Audhi (creative director), Mihir Joshi (associate creative director), Farishte Irani (copy supervisor), Johanna Israni (senior copywriter) and Leena Gupta (senior copywriter).

(Top L-R) Mihir Joshi, Sanket Audhi, Leena Gupta, Johanna Israni.

(Bottom L-R) Farishte Irani, Rishabh Agarwal, Aditi Gujaran, Ishan Rao

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"When people think of Swiggy, their minds immediately go to food delivery. The brief from the client was to change that and highlight the other services that Swiggy has to offer. Since we're used to expecting Santa Claus to deliver presents, the connect between the message and the brand offering came to us seamlessly," says Joshi.

(L-R) Srishti Shetty, Parag Aswal, Pratyush Mishra, Soha Dabade

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The shoot happened in Mumbai with the Webchutney team overseeing the process. Joshi mentions that it was tricky to cast for the role of Santa Claus, as Father Christmas is a religious figure and they had to be careful with the choice of actors.

The team took three days to put the film together from scripting to production. They conceptualised and executed it in record time, they say, with a somewhat relieved smile on their faces. The campaign also has physical touch points, in terms of flyers and business cards that will be distributed to Swiggy Genie customers.

Interestingly, when designing the flyers and posters, the client was fine with the idea of not having Swiggy's branding on them. The team mentions that the client trusted their instinct on the design of the flyers and cards, and gave them the green signal to play around with the idea.

Farishte Irani, a copy supervisor at Webchutney, mentions that it was one of those times when the client chose the agency's first preference too (again, very rare). "This was super important because this isn't even an idea you can park for next Christmas. It's a very work from home-led idea that wouldn't land the same way once the context was lost."

The team reveals that one of the toughest aspects of the campaign was creating the LinkedIn profile for Santa Claus. The team had their account suspended twice and had to reach out to the employees of LinkedIn India to talk to them about the campaign and inform them about what they were doing.

Credits

Agency – Dentsu Webchutney

Leena Gupta – Senior Copywriter

Johanna Israni – Senior Copywriter

Farishte Irani – Copy Supervisor

Aditi Gujaran - Visualiser

Pratyush Mishra – Art Director

Parag Aswal – Associate Group Head (Art)

Rishabh Agarwal – Account Executive

Ishan Rao – Senior Account Manager

Soha Dabade – Group Account Manager

Meharunnisa Moula Sahib – Senior Producer

Srishti Shetty – Group Account Director

Mihir Joshi – Associate Creative Director

Sanket Audhi – Creative Director

Manish Thanvi – Executive Creative Director

GD Prasad – Vice President

Prashant Gopalakrishnan – Managing Partner

PG Aditya – Chief Creative Officer

Gautam Reghunath – CEO

Production House - Trippy Films & Little Filmy

Producer - Raj Banerjee, Manisha Panwar, Jayant Raj

Client – Swiggy

Vaishali Sain – Senior Marketing Manager

Pruthvi Sai – Senior Marketing Manager

Sneha John – Director – Marketing