Asian Paints urges people to go green

The brand's latest campaign spreads the message to live in harmony with nature and encourages people to 'Think Different'.

Colours impart a vibrant touch to one's mundane life. It's not just the colours created by God out there in the world, but even within our homes that make our lives beautiful and interesting. Painting our living spaces is one of the best and the easiest ways to do so, but to rely on the services of painters takes the joy out of the whole process.

In order to simplify the whole process of painting one's living spaces, Asian Paints Ezycolour Home Solutions has launched a digital campaign titled Think Different. The campaign conceived and conceptualised by the digital advertising agency FoxyMoron commenced in mid-October, and will continue till December 31.

The brand campaign aims to create awareness about its newly-launched Green Painting Service (GPS), an eco-friendly water-based paints range for all surfaces, as much as convey the message of 'living in harmony with nature' by thinking differently. The age-agnostic campaign has tried to target people who want to paint their homes in a safe and environment friendly way.

It's worth a mention here that the brand's competitor Nerolac, too, has earlier showcased the eco-friendly nature of its product range by roping in actors
Mona Singh
,
Shah Rukh Khan
and
Kay Kay Menon
to deliver the same message, with a mix of humour and gravity in equal measure.

The Asian Paints campaign has been planned and executed in two phases. In the first phase, three locations in Mumbai with high visibility were shortlisted to create one-of-a-kind murals that used nature as part of the street art. These three locations are the Shivaji Park corner, opposite HP petrol pump, Hindu Mills' outer wall opposite the MTNL office, and the outer wall of a house near the Keerti College signal.

The murals are various interpretations of living in harmony with nature. One depicts Vandevi, where her facial features represent the elements of nature. Another depicts the consequences of not being in harmony with nature and how to do damage control.

The third mural shows a mystical creature created by nature, is made from nature, and is home to the creatures of nature.

Meanwhile, the second leg of the campaign takes the offline initiative online with a film titled Asian Paints Ezycolour Home Solutions - GPS. It captures the stories of the three artists and why they chose art as a way of life.

Commenting on the launch of the GPS, Amit Syngle, president, sales, marketing and technology, Asian Paints, says, "Ezycolour Home Solutions has always been a pioneer in providing the best in class, end-to-end painting service. With GPS from Ezycolour Home Solutions, customers will get the opportunity to have water-based paints applied to all surfaces in their homes."

According to Syngle, the Royale range of luxury interior emulsions (for walls and ceilings), Royale Enamel (for wood and metal surfaces), and Aquadur PU (for clear wood finish) together offer a safe and environmentally responsible way of painting. "These products have the 'Green Assure' certification from Asian Paints for being VOC (Volatile Organic Compound)-safe and non-toxic. It is, therefore, safe for children and the elderly. The GPS ensures an oil-free product, which renders it odourless. Moreover, the painting gets completed faster. Customers are offered a healthy, hassle-free painting experience," adds Syngle.

The campaign has made extensive use of Facebook and YouTube for online promotion. It has already garnered 86,508 views on YouTube, 1,174 likes and 324 shares on Facebook, respectively. Interestingly, it has not made use of TV advertising at all, as the brand wants the campaign to reach only a niche target group.

Talking about the creative brief, Suveer Bajaj, co-founder, FoxyMoron, says, "The brief was to conceptualise and execute an awareness campaign about the new painting service from Asian Paints Ezycolour Home Solutions, the GPS, which uses the latest technology and water-based products for all surfaces and is a proponent in making people look at painting, differently."

Bajaj continues further, "We want our clients to know why we picked art as a means of communication for this activity. Ezycolour Home Solutions treats each home as a piece of art, so we thought why not use that to spread the message of living in harmony with nature. Our idea was to take the message to the streets through murals that evolved and revolved around nature and then further leverage this online through a heartfelt film." says Bajaj.

The film adds another dimension to the campaign with its captivating storytelling and aesthetics. "We hope that the concept of nature and art resonates with the consumers and helps Asian Paints amplify the message that all beauty comes from our planet and what we do to spread this beauty can now be given back to nature." Bajaj says.

Report Card

Arif Khan, planning director, digital, Cheil India, finds the ad well-executed. "It's an interesting way to show how wall paints are more than just 'wall paints'. The storytelling approach keeps you hooked until the end."

Khan further explains how Asian Paints has, through the film, attempted to go beyond the 'paint your home once' space and connect with the youth who are dynamic, creative and well-informed about the events unfolding around them. "The brand has smartly plugged its Ezycolour product as an enabler to think and act differently," he notes.

Khan likes the idea of adopting the story-telling approach in order to promote the brand. "The storytelling approach crafted for digital should work well for them. But, there aren't enough social media conversations around the video yet," he says. "There's a need to amplify the campaign since just 86,000 views in a month is not a big number to talk about. It can easily extend the campaign idea by organising street wall colouring events across four-five cities and further adopt wall space at popular wall art locations like Mahim in Mumbai," adds Khan.

On the other hand, Manish Bhatt, founder-director, Scarecrow Communications, does not find the ad to be engaging enough. Commenting on the same, Bhatt says, "Every brand, today, is trying to do good for society in some way or the other. Though the ad is for a good cause, it's a fairly confused communication as far as the creative execution of the ad is concerned."

He gives a thumbs up to the different perspective shown in the ad though, which he feels, doesn't merely talk about creating sales for the product rightaway.

Bhatt, moreover, believes that the idea of showing eco-friendly products is not a new innovation, nor is the perspective of relating it with artists. While the cause is noble, the idea carries 'no buzz value' of its own, he points out.

He further adds that anything that is being projected as unique to the customer must be engaging enough through a mass connect appeal, which the Asian Paints ad lacks, and hence, it doesn't really strike a chord with him.