It's your turn to shop online, says Flipkart

Flipkart's new digital campaign #EveryoneOnFlipkart aims to influence customers who've been resisting online shopping.

Flipkart's latest series of films bring together human stories from different walks of life, generations, and cultures, in order to highlight the myriad ways in which the online marketplace has become the common thread connecting people and their aspirations. The digital campaign #EveryoneOnFlipkart, conceptualised by Dentsu Webchutney, aims to influence customers who've been resisting to go online shopping.

Featuring the quintessential North Indian 'Rastogiji', the Bengali 'know-it-all Mausima', the true-blue Mumbai cop and 'anna' from South India, the campaign comprises four digital films, each set in a different region of the country. The ads quite visibly target middle-class people, probably the SEC B and C across cities, using relatable characters. The brand has tried to give multiple messages and cues to people through these films, thus motivating them to switch to online shopping. While the Mausima film talks about the ease of using a Flipkart app for the older generation, a generation not too comfortable with technology, 'constable sahib' highlights the convenience of getting products delivered to even the most random and fleeting of addresses.

Online businesses have always struggled to break barriers when it came to online shopping, whether they are around secure transactions, the perceived difficulty of using online tech-based products, or the inconvenience in terms of payment options, availability of choices, returns and exchanges. In the 'Rastogiji' film, Flipkart tries to break the psychological barrier of distrust associated with shopping online. The film is a story of the 'gyaani' or the person who knows it all, of every group, who in this case, is shown guilt-tripping his friend for cheating on their neighborhood shopkeeper Rastogiji by shopping on Flipkart. The joke, however, is on him when the gang finds out that Rastogiji is also selling on the platform. What comes through in the video is that online shopping is not an impersonal exercise of buying from an invisible seller who is a complete stranger, but is more like the neighbourhood marketplace where the platform facilitates a similar trust-based relationship between the buyer and seller.

Speaking about the campaign, Shoumyan Biswas, vice-president, marketing, Flipkart, shares, "As the market leader, we believe that driving market development and accelerating adoption across different consumer segments is one of our key focus areas. #EveryoneOnFlipkart is a series of short films that uses simple, yet powerful everyday slice-of-life narratives to show how Flipkart has earned the trust of every Indian and become an integral part of our everyday lives. The campaign is, therefore, a tribute to every Flipkart shopper across the country, an invitation to everyone else to start their online shopping journey with us, and a reflection of our commitment towards organising and democratising retail in India".

Slated to run for a couple of weeks, the campaign will also have a series of contests to engage the audience. P G Aditya, associate creative director, Dentsu Webchutney, says, "The idea was to create great content that 'happens to be an ad'. The fact that Flipkart has been a brand led by human stories only made that easier. As an agency, we're extremely proud of these films. And, to think they were produced as a digital-first effort only furthers my belief that the unsaid 'caste-system' of platforms that exists in advertising is rapidly breaking loose."

Prashant Gopalakrishnan, general manager - strategic accounts, Dentsu Webchutney, adds, "Brands, today, are storytellers. Stories are the real heroes and the brand stays in the background. This is what makes content share-worthy. For #EveryoneOnFlipkart, it was important for us to capture India's diverse cultural flavour. We, therefore, approached Gajraj Rao to direct our films. His deep-rooted understanding of various cultural nuances coupled with his ability to tell a story in its simplest form is what made these films possible."

The films were shot within a stringent two-day schedule by Code Red Films. "It takes time to tell a compelling story; the fact that I wasn't restricted by a fixed duration was what excited me to take this up," says Rao, who is director, Code Red Films.

Launched in October 2007, online marketplace Flipkart has a registered base of 50 million customers and 80,000 sellers. With more than 30 million products across 70 plus categories including books, media, consumer electronics, furniture and lifestyle, Flipkart claims to receive over 75 per cent traffic on mobile.

Dentsu Webchutney, part of Dentsu Aegis Network India, is a team of over 200 digital marketing professionals across New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Its clients include Flipkart, Airtel, Unilever, MasterCard, and Coca Cola, in areas of online advertising, website design, mobile marketing and social media.

In India, Dentsu Aegis Network is supported through its seven global network brands namely Carat, iProspect, Isobar, Posterscope, Vizeum, psLIVE, Amnet, and the Dentsu branded agencies namely, Dentsu Creative Impact, Dentsu Marcom, Dentsu Communications, Dentsu Media, Taproot Dentsu and Dentsu Webchutney. Newly added to the Group are the recently acquired local brands of Milestone Brandcom, WATConsult and Fountainhead.