Bajaj rides on long format storytelling to promote V15

Titled 'Bajaj V - Invincible Indians', the campaign salutes real life heroes in this new campaign.

Bajaj V, the motorbike that is built by using a partial amount of scrap metal from the decommissioned INS Vikrant warship, recently launched an all new initiative titled 'Invincible Indians: Stories that invoke pride everyday'. It is an initiative to uncover stories of ordinary Indians who by their sheer determination and guts perform extraordinary acts to serve the society. These selfless acts happen all around us, yet they go unnoticed.

So, to bring the selfless-service of such people into the light, last week, Bajaj Auto released five digital films, conceptualised and created by Leo Burnett, India. The films portray five 'Invincible Indian' awardees - Vijaylaxmi Sharma, who is leading a movement to eradicate child marriages in villages of Rajasthan; Chewang Norphel, who created 15 artificial glaciers in Ladakh to solve the perennial water crisis, and was also awarded Padmashree in 2015; Bipin Ganatra, a man who rescued people from more than 100 fires in Kolkata, and has been recognised as a volunteer firefighter by the Kolkata Fire Department; Omkar Nath Sharma, who travels across Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) to collect medicines from people who no longer need them, and distributes it to clinics and hospitals who serve the poor; and Karimul Haque, who converted his bike into an ambulance, and offers a 24X7 ambulance service free of cost.

The films, which are currently available only on digital platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, are 'Didi', 'The Iceman', 'Aagun Pakhi', 'Medicine Baba', and 'Ambulance Dada'. While Siddharth Sengupta has directed two films, namely, 'The Iceman', and 'Aagun Pakhi', the other three have been directed by Vikrant Yadav and Kevin Lobo, creative directors at Leo Burnett. All the films have been produced by Leo Burnett's own production house - Greenhouse.

Speaking about the campaign, Sumeet Narang, vice-president, Marketing (Motorcycles) at Bajaj Auto, says, "We looked for the stories of people who are working for the greater good of the society in a selfless manner and something that could pass two measures on a test: first, one should feel that the said task would require a lot of inner solidarity to dedicate yourself because that's what invincibility is all about, and second, when someone reads about it, s/he should feel very proud about it. People should feel a sense of pride about their country and their countrymen. Based on these tests we found that these five stories were very unusual."

Interestingly, none of the films in the series give you a sense of a usual two-wheeler ad campaign, and rather look like short films, of three-five minute duration, and are shot in a very different manner. They are basically content films, says Narang, elaborating, "By definition, in a content film one cannot actually script it out. There's no story board. Therefore, it's very important that one aligns the objective and expectation with the director. The other thing is the choice of director you make since you want somebody who has got the knack of capturing every little detail. That's because, at times one travels for three hours to take a single shot. All of this has gone into creating the depth in these films."

He adds, "You have to be very confident as to how you want to blend the brand with the content film. The moment you make the subject inspiring, you end up getting the best from the director. This was the biggest challenge we had. But we controlled the format in such a way that the linkage with our brand comes out well."

Although, it took just two months for the brand to shoot the five films, it took the brand six months for completion of the campaign - right from conceptualising, identifying the five people, to making the films.

Bajaj V has been in the market for past eight months. Until now only the 150CC variant was available in the Indian auto bazaar, and it has been well accepted by bike enthusiasts. As far as sales are concerned, almost two lakh units have already been sold. Encouraged by such market performance, last week, the brand launched the second variant of the bike - Bajaj V12, which is a 125CC variant. So, while the ex-showroom price in Delhi for V15 modal is a little above Rs 62,000, the V12 will be available at Rs 56,200.

Bajaj V is also planning to expand the 'Invincible Indians' campaign, and has called upon the public to identify and recommend more such invincible Indians. The brand has launched a website - 'www.invincibleindians.in' where people can share their stories or write about such people who are unsung heroes of India.

"We have found the first five, and now we want the public to find and nominate the next five 'Invincible Indians'. That's the purpose of our films - to tell people to look around and tell us about more such invincible Indians. And depending upon the responses, we may create more such films in the coming months," says Narang.

A Different Ride...

While not entirely new, the idea of honouring real life heroes is a heartwarming one. So, afaqs! asked the experts, 'Did Bajaj Auto get it right?'

Suman Srivastava, founder and innovation artist, Marketing Unplugged, thinks that story telling has become a buzzword in advertising. According to him, brands are striving to create interesting content that their consumers would engage with and perhaps share. The success of these campaigns has to be decided on the basis of how viral they get and the connect they have with the brand.

He says, "These films do have some connect with the brand. If consumers get to watch these films they will remember them and associate them favourably with the Bajaj V. Of the five films, I think the ambulance film resonates best with the brand."

"Having said that, I wonder if these films will get widely shared? It is always hard to make such predictions. On the one hand, this campaign is trying to play on the idea of patriotism that has become a big part of national conversation. While the other, the question is whether there is the 'X' factor in these films that would lead to it getting widely shared. I have doubts about that," he adds.