Kelvinator shows off specialised features of home appliances in a five-ad campaign

Launched in the festive season, the ads highlight the features of Kelvinator ACs, refrigerators and washing machines, and target middle-income homes.

Home appliance brand Kelvinator India is out with a new campaign. Launched in the festive season, the ads highlight specialised features of home appliances – refrigerators with front water dispensers and maximum storage, air conditioners with 360-degree air flow and tested for 960 hours of non-stop cooling, and washing machines that allow adding clothes mid-cycle.

The campaign is a set of five 30-second-long films, and is targeted at all middle-income homes whose desires and aspirations are bigger than their budgets, says Kawal Shoor, planner and founding partner, The Womb, the agency behind the ads.

The brief by the brand, Shoor tells afaqs!, was to help it relaunch Kelvinator in India in the most impactful manner possible. “We worked on helping develop the brand’s product portfolio, the real need it can stand to fill in Indian homes, and the go-to-market strategy.”

Shoor adds, “When you work with a client, right from product development to evolving the positioning for the brand, you don’t work on the briefs given by the clients. As is the case with all our other clients, Reliance and The Womb had come together sometime late last year to work on a few brands, without a pitch. When that happens, a client-agency relationship starts on an equal footing and briefs don’t get ‘given’, they evolve through the partnership.”

When we asked him about the timeliness of the campaign, Shoor mentions that it is not about a season, but about presenting the brand in the most compelling manner possible. “Unlike yesteryears, Kelvinator’s portfolio today is not just about summer product, but a wider range, so seasonality is not a dominant factor.”

What caught our attention about the campaign was Navin Talreja, the actor playing the role of Kelvin’s dad in the ads. Talreja is the founding partner at The Womb.

This is, however, not the first time we have seen the adman on screen. He has acted in advertisement for deodorant brand State Bank of India, Kamasutra and an film for Percept Picture Company, directed by Rensil D'Silva. He has also acted in a breast cancer awareness ad for

When we asked Talreja about what motivated him to be a part of it, he says, "No special motivation was needed. Acting is my passion and am part of the professional theatre scene in Mumbai. Rensil wanted me to test for these ads. I resisted initially, but eventually the fact that this was going to be a different kind of family as compared to what has been seen in TV ads before, both in term of looks and most certainly in terms of the family dynamic, got me hooked... So, this was a good opportunity and, of course, Jasper (Kelvin) was non-stop entertainment."

Talreja also does theatre. In an earlier interview with afaqs!, when asked about how he manages his time between The Womb and live theatre, he mentioned, "Timewise, I finish my work at The Womb and start rehearsing at the night... I am at rehearsals till 1 a.m. I sleep at 2 a.m. and then wake up in the morning and come to the office. Although opportunities are many, I'm not sure about getting into full-time acting. I have to balance The Womb and my acting life on the side. As long as the balance is maintained, I should be open to any opportunity, but if the balance gets tilted towards acting, at this point, I don't know if I can fully commit myself."

The national campaign will be visible across most traditional and digital mediums.