About the company: Havell’s India Ltd, a US$1bn company, and one the largest & India’s fastest growing electrical and power distribution equipment company, manufacturing products ranging from building circuit protection, Industrial & Domestic switchgear, cables & wires, energy meters, fans, CFL lamps, Luminaires for domestic, commercial & Industrial application and modular switches. Havells owns some of the prestigious global brands like Crabtree*, Sylvania, Concord: martin, Lumiance, Claude, Sylvania: Linolite, SLI Lighting & Zenith
Company website: http://www.havells.com/index.htm
About the Product: CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps)
Ad Agency: Lowe India
Watch the ad on You tube.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKvlDGF1vEE
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKvlDGF1vEE
Tag line: Havells CFL. Bright. Truly Bright
Storyline:The ad begins on a shot of an old village woman (probably a Buddhist), returning to her house early in the morning from somewhere. The moment she enters her room, she drops the things in her hand out of shock, and bends down in reverence towards what is in front of her. Mechanically, she starts chanting a prayer. Hearing her, other villagers run up to the house and join her in the chantA while later, the object of their attention is revealed – a young, monk-like boy sitting in the room with a book in hand, with a visible halo around his head. The boy suddenly gets up and joins the villagers, chanting some prayer himself. Shocked, the villagers look at what caused the halo – a CFL placed right behind the boy’s head. The voiceover concludes, “Havells CFL. Bright. Truly Bright
Creativity: 3/5
Lowe drew a parallel between the light of a CFL device with that of the light of wisdom, or ‘enlightenment’. The analogy is especially credible with the Indian population so it reflects a very good understanding of the Indian consumer. The advertisement is quite creative as it manages to retain the television viewer’s interest, though I personally like the Havells switch “Shock Laga Laga “ad better.
Execution: 4/5
Execution: 4/5
The characters are quite good and believable. The sets are also reasonably realistic. The villagers getting fooled by the boy, the wooden houses and the monastery-like setting was added for the entertainment value and relatable quotient. The chants of “Rinpoche” serve the point because even though we don’t understand what it means, we can infer the meaning in the context. On the whole a well executed advertisement. Good job Lowe.
Relevance: 2/5
Relevance: 2/5
CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps), which are more expensive than conventional bulbs, but save on electricity. But the Havells did not want to concentrate on this quality. “Everyone knows about this inherent quality, there’s nothing new in it,” says Vijay Narayan, vice-president, marketing and communications, Havells India. A study conducted by the company threw up the insight that although viewed as electricity saving devices, people shy away from installing CFLs in their homes because they feel they aren’t bright enough. Thus, this concern area was made the core focus of the communication.
The main purpose of this advertisement is to convince the increased brightness benefits of a CFL Vis a Vis normal lamps. But the portrayal is very contrary. The CFL in the advertisement shown is certainly bright enough, but only the area surrounding the CFL is very brightly lit whereas the remaining areas are quite dark. The layman comes to the conclusion that the Intensity of light is good only close to the CFL and the dispersion is uneven, which is erroneous. Thus the myth that CFLs are less bright than the normal lamps remains, or rather is reinforced.In fact, CFLs are any day brighter than a bulb, and have the capacity to light up even a large area,” says Brijesh Jacob, creative director, Lowe. What we would like to ask Mr Brijesh is ,why it doesnt light up a large area in the advertisement? The point is lost isn’t it?
Recollection: 3/5
The main purpose of this advertisement is to convince the increased brightness benefits of a CFL Vis a Vis normal lamps. But the portrayal is very contrary. The CFL in the advertisement shown is certainly bright enough, but only the area surrounding the CFL is very brightly lit whereas the remaining areas are quite dark. The layman comes to the conclusion that the Intensity of light is good only close to the CFL and the dispersion is uneven, which is erroneous. Thus the myth that CFLs are less bright than the normal lamps remains, or rather is reinforced.In fact, CFLs are any day brighter than a bulb, and have the capacity to light up even a large area,” says Brijesh Jacob, creative director, Lowe. What we would like to ask Mr Brijesh is ,why it doesnt light up a large area in the advertisement? The point is lost isn’t it?
Recollection: 3/5
So will this advertisement come to mind while I go shopping for my next bulb? The advertisement does reasonably well with its original concept, increasing the brand recall value of Havells .The association between Havells and brightness is also well emphasized and easy to remember. The concept and the creativity per se are faultless. The portrayal as bright light only over the closer areas may affect the logic behind people switching from the conventional product area of normal bulbs to the newer product area of CFL. But that was the necessity of the story line of the ad. Will I buy the product because of the ad? Not really.
My twist: Maybe Lowe could have showed the whole room bathed in a white light. The old woman and others are blinded by the light and close their eyes and fall on her knees. Maybe an overhead shot of bright light streaming out of the windows and lighting up an entire countryside filled with awestruck Buddhists. That would truly emphasize the brightness wouldn’t it?
Overall Score : 3/5
Trivia:
My twist: Maybe Lowe could have showed the whole room bathed in a white light. The old woman and others are blinded by the light and close their eyes and fall on her knees. Maybe an overhead shot of bright light streaming out of the windows and lighting up an entire countryside filled with awestruck Buddhists. That would truly emphasize the brightness wouldn’t it?
Overall Score : 3/5
Trivia:
· Rinpoche is a Tibetan Buddhist religious/theological honorific title. "Rinpoche" literally means "precious one". The title is generally reserved for tulkus (incarnate lamas) and those recognized by the proper authorities within a lineage as "choje lamas" ("superior dharma masters").
· The ad has been shot in Ladakh by Shivendra Singh of Dungarpur Films.
· To showcase the light from the CFL more prominently, the rest of the film was shot in low light.
References:
http://www.agencyfaqs.com/perl/news/index.html?sid=19047
http://www.youtube.com/
http://www.havells.com/
http://www.wikepedia.com/
· The ad has been shot in Ladakh by Shivendra Singh of Dungarpur Films.
· To showcase the light from the CFL more prominently, the rest of the film was shot in low light.
References:
http://www.agencyfaqs.com/perl/news/index.html?sid=19047
http://www.youtube.com/
http://www.havells.com/
http://www.wikepedia.com/
