After LGBT, UrbanClap rides on gender equality in new ad

"We don't need you. But we still want you," say a bunch of strong women in the brand's latest campaign.

UrbanClap, an online marketplace that connects customers to service professionals, released a digital ad film that shows women in off-beat professions in a bid to coexist, as equals. Interestingly, UrbanClap launched the video supporting the cause of equality on the occasion of International Men's Day that is observed on November 19, every year. The ad has been created by CellarDoor Films, and directed by Rishav Rastogi.

The film portrays four women from different walks of life - Shanti Devi, a motor mechanic, Vankadarath Saritha, New Delhi's first bus driver, Mehrun Nisha, a bouncer in a pub in Delhi, and Teena Chaudhary, a fitness trainer - in off-beat professions that are most often not thought of as a conventional career choice for women.

The video recreates anecdotes from their lives to accentuate the need for equality in every walk of life and ends with the catchphrase "We don't need you. But we still want you," highlighting the fact that a woman doesn't need a man, but wants them - as equals.

Abhiraj Singh Bhal, co-founder and director, UrbanClap, tells afaqs!, "In October, we decided to make a film that portrays women who have chosen off-beat career paths. The idea was to honour them without being blatant while depicting our brand - for example, the fitness trainer portrayed in the film is registered with UrbanClap. Once we had the film ready, we timed the release on Men's Day, with a bigger message around equality."

This is the second time that the brand has taken up a cause in its communication push, instead of crafting 'how-to' ads or ads that demonstrate how one can successfully avail a service through UrbanClap. Previously, UrbanClap had released a digital ad film - '
Capture Your Love
' - in support of India's Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender (LGBT) community. The brand also urged members of the LGBT community to 'come out' for a photo shoot, as photography is one of the many services the brand offers.

"We run two kinds of campaigns. On one hand, the films are focused on demonstrating our services, and driving customer acquisition, which appear on TV channels, Facebook, and YouTube. On the other hand, we make low-budget, experimental brand films, which have a larger social message," says Bhal.

"However, the difficult part of creating such films is two-fold. First, it's the idea that originally seems amazing and viral worthy; eventually it might not turn out that way. The second is the execution; in this case, we had to convince these women to participate in the film. Without them the film would have hardly been as powerful as it is now," he adds.

The two-and-half-year old brand is quite optimistic that their new digital-only film will influence their customers to choose UrbanClap's services. "Such films and initiatives help give the brand some identity, which sub-consciously shapes customer opinion. But the user acquisition will primariy be driven by customer experience and then by mainstream advertising," explains Bhal.

Unconventional...

Ayan Banik, head - brand strategy, Cheil India, finds the ad quite inspiring and impactful. "Unfortunately", he says, "there's a large section of people who believe that communicating an app is all about a product demo, but I don't agree with this. At the end of the day, most of the apps are about fulfillment of one's day-to-day needs. They are all quite user-friendly. It's no rocket science that has to be explained. Hence, doing a product demo or talking about features and occasions of use is a waste of opportunity and money. It simply adds to the clutter. Similarly, UrbanClap's offering is not anything earth shattering."

According to Banik this ad is a perfect piece of communication because it integrates the proposition in a positive and seamless messaging. "The story-telling beautifully integrates what the brand stands for - about getting that help in terms of a mechanic, a driver or a fitness trainer," he states, adding that the ad also stands out because it reinforces the emotional connect in a man-woman relationship by taking the transactional value out of it.

Banik believes that the use of real-life examples lends credibility to the ad. "It's very important to show real-life examples otherwise the ad would have become very gimmicky, very 'addy'. Unfortunately, even within the educated well-off strata of society there is still skepticism about what girls can do. The brand has removed the doubt and shown how women are actually doing these physically demanding jobs," he notes.

"What was this? Men's Day? Movember? And brands really believe that men feel like men that day?" quips Priya Jayaraman, co- founder, Propaganda India.

On the execution front, while Jayaraman thinks that the stories are very inspiring, the ending seems construed and forceful, making it a wasted opportunity. "In this day and age, to stereotype any particular profession as a man's profession, is short-sighted," she states.

(With inputs from Ashee Sharma)