What makes Tata Docomo's KISS ad guru KS Chakravarthy's pet campaign

Which is your best campaign and why have you chosen it? Which year was the campaign launched?

No creative guy is ever going to be able to pick one campaign he would unequivocally call his “best”. But one campaign I certainly remember very vividly is KISS — the stand up comedy series featuring Ranbir Kapoor that we did for Tata Docomo in 2011 during the Indian Premier League. For starters, we shot 43 ads in the series — in two days. For another, once the idea was cracked and approved (I shared the idea — Keep It Simple, Silly — with Gurinder Sandu and Ritesh Ghosal on the phone, actually) we really struggled to turn out that many situations. The toughest part was keeping the jokes funny without making it controversial — no overt sexual innuendo, no taking digs at any particular community, no political wisecracks. In short, none of the staples of everyday Indian humour were used. But more than anything else, it was the perfect storm in a creative guy’s life — great brand, wonderful client, an incredibly talented actor and a fantastic creative team, headed by VasudaMisra, that delivered the impossible under pressure.

What did the campaign achieve for the brand? Could you also share some numbers to corroborate your claim?

It was too long back for me to give you specifics, but with Tata Docomo in those days, the challenge was simply staying as far ahead in image and preference terms as the brand had consistently been from day one. The added challenge was, to bring those scores among the older generation on par with what we enjoyed with the youth. In fact, people thought stand up was a wonderful creative idea we used before anybody else. The truth is it was a very smart strategic and creative solution to the challenge of using a youth icon for a youth-centric brand, to radically broaden our appeal among the mature post-paid user. And the campaign did that effortlessly, in a way the whole world loved.

What was the key idea behind the campaign?

Mobiles had become an integral part of everyday life and luckily for us, mobile operators made sure that it was by far the most maddening, irksome part. Everybody loved to crib about something or the other about telecom operators — the way they fleeced the consumer, the appalling service, the utterly illogical tariffs and a hundred other things. And Tata Docomo was one brand that was clearly seen as different from the rest. So a series of jokes about mobile phones was just begging to be written.

What was the industry response to the campaign?

The response was almost uniformly, overwhelmingly positive. Most people were fulsome in their praise. Of course, a few writers cribbed a bit about it being “a great idea, but could have been funnier”.

What were the execution challenges?

Apart from my sheer lunacy in deciding we could do 40-plus films in two days, nothing, really. Ranbir isn’t just a brilliant actor and a phenomenal improviser, he is also a wonderful guy to work with. No airs, no starry tantrums, nothing. In fact he didn’t believe till the end we could actually complete all the scripts we had ready. The sad thing was, some of the funniest films never got aired because certain products and offerings never happened.
 

Given a chance, what would you do differently?

Not a single thing.

MY TAKE

KS Chakravarthy

Everybody loved to crib about something or the other about telecom operators. But Tata Docomo was one brand that was clearly seen as different from the rest

Brand: Tata Docomo

Year: 2011 

Agency:  FCB Ulka