A-Z of life makes Canon click!

The new campaign launched by Canon India speaks about clicking all the interesting moments of everyday life.

How many times do you encounter an interesting event and think about capturing it or framing it? With the coming in of mobile phone cameras, digital cameras and Pads, the desire has indeed become a reality.

Canon India attempts to capture this particular need of the consumer with its new campaign for its PowerShot brand. Created by Dentsu Marcom, the television commercial encapsulates the memorable events in a normal day, in the A-Z of what makes one click with Canon.

The campaign is called 'What makes us Click' and is aimed at the youth, highlighting spontaneity.

Earlier this month, Canon India had roped in Bollywood actor Anushka Sharma as the youth icon. It was a part of the company's strategy to reposition the PowerShot sub-brand. This move coincided with the unveiling of the new series of PowerShot Digital Cameras, which are aimed at the youth.

"PowerShot is a brand that we would like to attribute to the youth," says Alok Bharadwaj, senior vice-president, Canon India. On the other hand, Canon India has positioned IXUS Digital Cameras as a brand in the premium and luxury space, with model Indrani Dasgupta as an endorser. The performance-based Canon DSLRs will continue to have Sachin Tendulkar as its ambassador.

Targeting the youth in the age group of 20-30 years, the PowerShot campaign aims to connect the new concept of image capturing with the youth. The company does not plan to focus on any specific feature or product in the category, but on the PowerShot brand as a whole.

"The PowerShot is an easy-to-use yet powerful camera made to click all that's special around you everyday-- which means that every feature, not any specific one, makes it what it is. That led us to the road where we wanted it to be about what you can do with the camera, with life, rather than what the camera's features are," says Narayan Devanathan, senior vice-president and national planning head, Dentsu Marcom.

Devanathan adds that if a potential consumer is engaged and interested with the storyline, there are many destinations where one can find out about the camera's features in detail -- the website, at a Canon Image Square or at a multi-brand outlet. "Besides, in a category that has been so inward-focused, it was refreshing to turn the focus onto people and their lives -- the subject of photography," he adds.

The TVC is directed by Koushik Sarkar and the production house is Apostrophe Films.

Speaking about the creative thought, Soumitra Karnik, national creative director, Dentsu India Group, tells afaqs!, "What makes us click is a statement from the young generation." Karnik says that in past few years, the most important word in the youth lingo has been 'whatever'. "The fact is that even a youngster does not know what makes him click. Everything is random to them."

Photos and social media

One big noticeable change, made more visible by social media, is that we're all photographers now. Devanathan says, "Photography is no longer the domain of the Ansel Adams and Raghu Rais of the world. And, we're capturing the speciality of every day. Coupled with this is another cultural truth about what inspires us in a world of sensory overload -- basically, inspiration and motivation lurks anywhere and everywhere." And, that's how we arrived at 'Anything and everything makes us click'- with a Canon PowerShot, of course.

Actors and cameras

Who says actors are only in front of cameras? If digital imaging companies are to be believed, you find them posing for the cameras, as well as behind the cameras. Actor Deepika Padukone is the brand ambassador of the new Cyber Shot Digital camera, while Priyanka Chopra has been performing the dual role of clicking and posing for Nikon cameras for quite a few years.

Karnik feels that a celebrity gives you instant eyeballs. "Also, the competition is using it," he adds.

Devanathan says that Anushka Sharma brings to the picture vivacity and joy of personality that amplifies the power of the idea. "At once, the idea is bigger and she's more than just a pretty mannequin to frame a photo around," he adds.

Threat from phones and Pads?

Camera companies are increasingly facing threat from the telecom offerings, with almost every product having an in-built camera feature. Whether it is a phone or a tablet, the camera is present and one can take pictures on the move. Dismissing such a threat, Bharadwaj says phones are used to take pictures on the move, but a camera is used to cherish vacation memories and can never be replaced by a phone.

For the PowerShot brand, TV is bolstered from the start by a surround campaign including digital, print, outdoor and in-store, with activation in the works as well. The current 60-second commercial running on television will later on be reduced to a 20-second spot. But, the brand will dedicate 2/3rd of its media spends on TV.

Does it click?

Meraj Hasan, vice-president, strategic planning, Everest Brand Solutions thanks the social networking (largely Facebook) for making today's youth 'camera crazy'. "They want to shoot every part of their life with their gang of friends, all the time. Hence, the insight is highly resonating and so is the execution of 'A-Z of life'. The creative hook of 'Makes Us Click' is re-enforcing the 'gang of friends' bit."

To Hasan, the very fact that the ad deviates from the so far mundane campaigns in the category (Canon included) has the potential to make it catchy as well as effective. "Because features are similar and hygienic across brands, this seems like a more interesting approach," adds Hasan.

Hasan says that the only irk for him was the length of the film.

Satbir Singh, managing partner and chief creative officer, Euro RSCG India agrees with Hasan and adds that today, every kid out there has a camera.

"They have at least a phone that doubles up as a camera," Singh says and adds that since photos nowadays are pasted on social network sites and not in albums, they shoot anything and everything.

"Every photo is a status update. Every moment is shared. This ad captures that," he elaborates.

He also appreciates the way in which Canon has used the Bollywood celebrity. "Canon hasn't used Anushka as the others have used celebs. She's one of the many youngsters in the ad. It's clearly a 'moments' commercial and not an Anushka one.

Singh also feels that pure features-led communication in this category runs the danger of the features being upstaged the next week by someone else. "The need for capturing moments remains. You cannot limit yourself to megapixels," he concludes.