"Today, digital creates a beautiful opportunity at a very low cost..."

...says Lalatendu Panda, marketing head, Reliance Value Format, in the context of his Eid-themed film.

The retail store brand Reliance Fresh, from the stable of Reliance Industries, recently released its new Ramadan campaign, #ChhotiSiAchhai. The digital ad has been conceptualised by Utopeia Communicationz, a Mumbai based ad agency, produced by Ignition Films and directed by Rensil D'Silva.

Recently, Lowe Lintas released its Ramadan campaign #NekiEkIbadat for Surf Excel Pakistan. The ad focused on a child being kindhearted and helping an old man in his neighbourhood during the period of Ramzan. This ad, #ChhotiSiAchhai by Reliance Fresh, made for the Indian market, also focuses on a child showing the true spirit of Ramadan by trying to make the world a better place with his good deeds.

Reliance Fresh in the recent past, has mainly focused on topical ads and mainly on the digital platform. We asked Lalatendu Panda, head of marketing, Reliance Value Format about the reason behind mainly doing topical ads and not being on TV on a consistent basis.

He says, "Today, digital creates a beautiful opportunity at a very low cost. Without spending too much of money, you can leverage various occasions. If you look at the latest trends, mobile is the biggest medium and not TV anymore, if you want to reach people. As a brand, we have been celebrating each and every event in our store since ages. We have a very strong customer activity plan. Be it Eid,
Diwali
, Pongal or Sankranti, we celebrate via in-store communication."

He adds, "There are various big events like Diwali where there is a large audience and that's where we end up doing a TVC and you also see that it reaches a large number of people. But a Women's Day, Mother's Day or a Father's Day, these are highly emotive issues. These don't have the business or number guiding objective. As a brand we feel we are in the right space and have been using a mix of both on such occassions."

The core target audience for the brand is housewives and immediate family members which is primarily the kid and the husband. Currently, there are more than 500 Reliance Fresh stores across 14 states in India.

Sean Colaco, managing partner and head of creative, Utopeia Communicationz, says, "We wanted to tell the story of Roza and this whole period of Ramadan. What the small boy in the film does is excatly that, because he can't keep the Roza, instead in an ingenious way, he interprets what it stands for. The message is a very universal one, not necessarily in religion per say."

Ad Review

Prithviraj Banerjee, head of agency, DigitasLBi India, says, "The thought of 'ChhotiSiAchhai' is extremely powerful and makes for great story telling. This specific piece of creative has successfully brought this thought alive. It's a mix of great casting, well written lines, high production quality, good emotional tempo and seamless brand integration. Additionally, the topical nature of the video allows for immediate relevance. With all of this together, I see no problem with it becoming popular online."

He adds, "It would be interesting to see how this overall thought is further explored across the digital medium, as it is perfect for extensions."

Honey Singh, co-founder,#ARM Worldwide, says, "The recipe behind making good content go viral is an exact and opportune mix of timing, audience targeting, distribution channels, amplification, seeding, and cross promotion on multiple platforms. The creative and production quality is good as it touches human emotions, a little bit inspired by Surf Excel's #NekiEkIbadat."

According to Singh, the video could have garnered much more attention if it would have gone live at the beginning of Ramzan. "Parents (especially moms), relatives and neighbours are the perfect choice in terms of audience targeting. Amplification and seeding via third party Facebook groups or platforms could have given triple the reach to the video," he adds.

Singh says, "Velocity is something that defines the probability of any content going viral, which is = (views + articles + conversations + impressions + share) / time. In terms of execution, the same video could have received much better results if the timing would have been better and there was scope for amplification too."

Giving his views on whether it is well directed and on the challenges faced while shooting such films, Luv Kalla, an ad film maker and director at Bubblewrap films, says, "In films like these which have multiple scenes, it's always tough to find distinct imagery in the same location for each of the scenes. But here, the director and production house have used the space very nicely by finding interesting nooks and corners for each of the scenes."

He adds, "The film has been shot really well. Everything could be directed differently. I feel the director has done justice to the script, casting, performances, music, cinematography. Everything works!"

Here is a look at some of the Ramzan based ad films done by other brands this year.