When a vampire got sucked into subscribing for Furlenco’s ‘UNLMTD’ 

To promote the furniture rental brand’s subscription service, McCann Worldgroup takes the supernatural route.

When a vampire wakes up from his sleep, it usually means terror for humankind. Only this time, the ‘dark creature’ finds himself on the other side.

“Our story is about this ghoul, er a gentleman, who has woken up after a long, deep slumber to discover that his house is desolate and in shambles,” says Sambit Mohanty, creative head (South), McCann Worldgroup, the advertising agency behind the spot. The dark creature’s dire need to furnish his house and the challenges he faces are what we discover as the story unfolds.

Also Read: What is Furlenco, an online furniture rental startup, doing in the subscription space? 

Should such a dark creature care about furnishing? Well, he should, if the ad is for furniture rental company Furlenco’s subscription service. Called ‘UNLMTD’, think of it as “a buffet. You get to pick and choose items you like for a fixed price per month... In a furniture rental, you may pick just one item,” explains Mohanty.

The ad starts on a hilarious note… “We’ve named him not Dracula, but ‘Drako Lal’ – who is a lifestyle influencer. It’s a little dig at the gig which is ‘in’ these days. After all, this is a vampire who’s not an anachronism, but wants to be in sync with the times.” quips Mohanty.

Throughout the 90-second spot, one will notice many nods to a vampire, like “Now, that just sucks” or “I got the biggest scare”. And, don’t miss the red liquid Drako Lal sips towards the end.

Says Mohanty, “The story pretty much wrote itself once we cracked the idea of a vampire wanting to furnish his house right away. In keeping with the supernatural theme, there are Easter eggs strewn throughout the film for people to discover and enjoy.”

The campaign is a purely digital one, reveals Mohanty, and is for a young, upwardly mobile audience... He adds that the ad is a tad long, but keeps you engaged.

“Nowadays, unless the storytelling grabs attention and enlightens people about what the brand offering is, it’ll pass by in the night – no pun intended.”

And yes, the ad was released on Friday the 13th.

Credits

Creative agency: McCann Worldgroup India

CEO & CCO: Prasoon Joshi

Head of Creative: Ashish Chakravarty

Head of Creative, South: Sambit Mohanty

Creative Team: Ajith Emmanuel, Vaishali Rao, Unnikrishnan R

Agency Producer: Karan Prabhakar

Planner: Hardik Foflia

Executive Vice President, McCann South: Dileep Ashoka

Senior Vice President: Sonal Devraj

Senior Brand Service Director: P N Keshav

Brand Leader: Vineet Nair

Senior Project Manager: Shourey Goswami

Director: Kaushik Sircar, Kitchen Films