Exclusive | Celebrities adds new dimension to the brand image: Push Integrated's Menon

V.A.Shrikumar Menon of Push Integrated Communications is a simple yet dynamic advertising person from Kerala. A leading light in the Indian advertising world and a director of repute he has more than 200 memorable films to his credit and still counting. He is a one man idea shop. He conceives brand ideas, finds expressions that help build iconic brands and directs films that go on to become benchmarks across product categories.

 

The brandscape of Kalyan Jewelers is the jewel in his crown. Big ideas, larger than life production and ensemble star cast. All this, while touching the heart of middle India and helping brands become generic to entire categories. He has shot to fame recently with his latest campaign for Kalyan Jewellers using some popular actors in the south as well as Amitabh Bachchan from Bollywood.  He has had the privilege to be the first director to shoot Aishwarya Rai after the birth of her child.

 

He is not your regular creative director who decided to leave a big agency to start his own. He has built Push with absolutely no prior advertising experience and its been 15 years of struggle.  His biggest case study has been Kalyan which has risen from a 23 crore company to 8000 crores one in 8 years.

 

The magic of Shrikumar’s creative expression lies in its subtlety hence engraving the brands core values in the hearts of millions of consumers.

 

Beyond films and the world of advertising you can discover R.K. Laxman’s common man in Shrikumar. He is rooted in culture with a mind that has taken a pledge to entertain audiences, breaking socio economic barriers.

 

Adgully spoke to V.A.Shrikumar to learn about the success story of brand Kalyan , his endorsement campaigns , his team at Push and more. Following are the excerpts from the interview:

 

 

V.A.Shrikumar is a one man idea shop. He spoke about the brand ideas he has conceived which have finally led to making films that have become benchmarks across product categories. Shrikumar shared how in the early days of the launch of the brand it was trust factor which had to be impressed upon the customer  to win over their belief in him. He said, “To start with, in the case of Kalyan Jewellers the first brand idea was an informative campaign on purity of gold called ‘Fight against impure gold’ through which we educated customers about purity in gold.” Subsequently based on a study he did to assure the customer and help them to understand about pricing in gold jewellery he introduced the concept of a ‘rate tag’ that was communicated through a campaign called ‘salesmen don't talk price anymore’.

 

He goes on to say, “When I realized our pioneering efforts for Kalyan had led to customers seeing Kalyan as a crusader for their rights and interests is when I decided to launch ‘Trust is everything’, a campaign which redefined jewellery advertising in India.”

 

In the case of Manappuram Gold Loan he realized that it was important to change the whole negative image associated with a gold loan company. It is usually viewed as being a ruthless entity. He also wanted to remind  people that their gold which they normally keep in their homes can solve a lot of their problems. Hence these were the two tasks he wished to achieve at a brand level. “Both these things we achieved with the campaign ‘ghar mein ho sona….’ with celebrities from all states.” said Shrikumar.

 

Shrikumar’s latest campaign for Kalyan Jewellers has attracted eyeballs and brought him in the limelight. Commenting on the success of the campaign he said “Yes this ad is the first of its kind because we have roped in Amitabh Bachchan and 4 southern stars viz. Shiv Rajkumar, Nagarjuna, Dilip and Prabhu to come together for the first time.  The success of Kalyan has been a combination of a powerful idea, larger than life production which involved the best in the country like my DOP Thiru and India’s best production designer Sabu Syril. He also attributes the success of the campaign to “The decision to use Mr.Bachchan as an actor rather than as a star, and touching the heart of every Indian through a relation which is dear to them, that of between a teacher and student.”

 

V.A.Shrikumar is responsible for bringing Push Integrated Communications to the level it is today and was built by him with absolutely no prior advertising experience. He goes on to explain how it has not been a smooth journey all the way to the top. “With not much experience in the ad business like most business start-ups it was a difficult struggle for 15 years. I went through my ups and downs but today I am proud of what I have achieved for myself and for my clients. There was a period of 14 years in my life, where I struggled to sustain my life and career, but not once in those years I thought of a shift in my career and goal. This determination to make our company a global agency born out of Kerala has kept me going.”

 

Push Integrated Communications has professionals from some of the biggest advertising agencies. With regard to their contribution to push the boundaries and live up to the name of your company He said, “Our belief at Push has been more liberal than hierarchical. The idea is to bring together a group of talented individuals-art directors, designers, writers, strategists, planners and overall fun people who have been there, done that, seen it all and now want to take the next step in their careers.”

 

For the Kalyan Jewellers brand campaign Shrikumar roped in the big stars from the southern film industry and bollywood industry . When asked as to  how has this campaign contributed to build the ‘Trust’ platform for the brand and the challenges he faced while shooting this ad he said, “This campaign with its finely crafted script and brand strategy finds expression through the eyes of actors like Amitabh Bachchan,  Dilip, Nagarjuna and Prabhu building the brands ‘Trust’ platform.  The fact that every one of the above stars had their own personal and professional credibility also helped to make the campaign more interesting and credible.” He explains that it was the biggest task working with a team of senior actors who were in awe of the legend they were working with. He also admits that he too was in awe of  the great man but Amitabh Bachchan’s cooperation and contributions made it easier for him and it ended up as an enjoyable experience.

 

Elaborating on the view that as of today ‘advertising is more fragmented’ he said, “I say advertising is more fragmented today because gone are the days when ads were made only in English and Hindi. To cater to a larger audience advertising has now gone regional. Ads are not only made region specific but brand endorsement by big stars has also become region specific. Brands which use a national celebrity unless he is of the stature of the one and only Mr.Bachchan are making a mistake because trust me a lot of them are not even recognized in the interiors of Tamilnadu or Andhra Pradesh. Brands have no clue what they are losing out by not going specifically rural and that to too with the right celebrities. I can vouch for this because I have seen and been part of the regionalization of campaigns with Kalyan as well as with Manappuram Gold Loan.” He is of the opinion that  in the process of looking at minor cost constraints brands are losing huge opportunities. Shrikumar also adds, “The entry of digital and online is slowly becoming a powerful medium.”

 

Recently a celebrity endorsement campaign for Kalyan Jewellers had Aishwarya Bachchan on board. Explaining how roping in a celebrity to endorse their brand keeps them a step ahead where competition is concerned he said, “Yes, Kalyan has signed Aishwarya to endorse their brand. In the case of Kalyan and it being a south based brand, celebrities add a new dimension to the brand image when the brand is expanding into newer horizons. With celebrities there is instant brand credibility, awareness and recall.”

 

On an end note V.A Shrikumar says, “The only task is to find the right celebrity-brand fit which is where a lot of brands fail. I think there is more to it than just the popularity of the celebrity to this. We have a tool to match the celebrity brand values with the brands traits which we have used to good effect with our clients.”