On a swing: Ascend International School

As part of the campaign to launch the school, Portland India Outdoor Advertising executed two innovative billboards and branded 14 bus queue shelters. The creative agency was Dialogue Factory.

Portland India Outdoor Advertising, a unit of Kinetic Worldwide India, executed an out of home (OOH) campaign conceptualised by Dialogue Factory to promote the launch of Ascend International School. The campaign was spread over billboards and bus queue shelters (BQS) across Mumbai.

The highlights of the campaign were two innovations measuring 40 X 20 feet and 30 X 20 feet, placed at Bandra Selection Junction and Peddar Road in Mumbai. The creative displayed a swing hung with a rope from a tree. The swing, with a 14-feet cut-out of a boy, was attached separately to the billboard and moved back and forth with the help of a motor.

Another creative showed a boy blowing soap bubbles. The creatives communicated the curiosity of children through messages that read 'Curious case of a child #83 Why does a swing keep moving back and forth?', and 'Curious case of a child #43 Why are bubbles round?'.

As part of the campaign, 14 bus queue shelters were branded with the same creatives.

The campaign targeted non-resident Indians (NRIs), expats and Indian HNIs to strengthen brand awareness and enable long-term brand building. The outdoor campaign attempted to create an impactful and innovative outdoor that could create a different identity for the school.

Amit Sarkar, national director, Kinetic Worldwide India, says, "The only way to get noticed and to create brand recall in the mind of the target audience was to be seen differently in the OOH media sphere. Hence, this innovative execution tried to build a connect with the environment the school promises for the kids."

The major challenge was to balance and stabilise the speed of the swing to enable it to swing in an open environment. A trial run was conducted for two days to ensure that the motors could take the huge load.

The campaign kicked off on November 14 and continued until December 13, 2011. Due to the encouraging responses, the client decided to repeat the campaign between January 30 and February 12.