UrbanClap celebrates power of love; more CSR than brand fit, say ad experts

Augmenting its reputation as a firm supporter of equality for all, UrbanClap has launched its ‘LGBT’ campaign, championing their cause for the greater good of the community as well as the society. Known for its stance on social issues like women empowerment and education, UrbanClap strongly felt the need to come out in support of the LGBT community in India, promoting their right to love anyone they want – irrespective of caste, creed, religion, or gender. With this campaign, UrbanClap supports the right to love anyone you choose.

As part of this campaign, UrbanClap has tied up with a Delhi-based startup agency called Ufaan, which has worked on a number of social films in the past. Together, they have launched a short film titled ‘Show your Love with Pride’, which portrays a father’s struggle to accept his daughter’s relationship with another woman. With her supportive mother, the daughter proves to her father that her love is genuine, via a photoshoot organised by UrbanClap. The photos of his daughter make him realise the dynamics of modern day relationships and reminds him of the barriers he had to counter in his interfaith marriage. This realisation leads him to believe that love has no boundaries and finally accepts his daughter’s relationship.

Commenting on this empowering initiative, Abhiraj Bhal, Co-founder, UrbanClap, said, “We at UrbanClap are a simple bunch of people. We believe that everyone should have the right to love whoever they want to as it’s the most basic human right. We firmly stand with the LGBT community in India as they fight for their equal rights in the eyes of law, or society. Our past efforts with the Naz Foundation, and this film, are very small gestures towards furthering the cause of the LGBT community.”

The social film is an attempt to make people realise that love has no boundaries and should be accepted without judgment.

To further the impact of this campaign, UrbanClap is offering to sponsor five photoshoots across the country for any same sex couple who wish to opt for this service. They can easily reach out to the team at UrbanClap through its Facebook or Twitter channels. UrbanClap promises to maintain all confidentiality if that is what the participants wish for.

Founded in November 2014, UrbanClap is a leading mobile services marketplace. It provides services across 80+ categories, including photographers, salon at home, home cleaning & repairs, yoga & guitar instructors, and many more.

Client Speak

When asked about the need to bring in the LGBT element in the campaign, Abhiraj Bhal, Co-founder, UrbanClap, said, “It is important to understand that essentially UrbanClap is a brand that envisages empowerment of a new strata of society. The unassuming plumber, electrician and pest control provider is brought at par with other service professionals like beautician, wedding planner, yoga instructor, interior decorator, etc., through our bouquet of service offerings. By weaving the LGBT element in the campaign, we wanted to reiterate our brand philosophy of equality, acceptance and empowerment. About 10 per cent of our users hail from this community (about 10 per cent of India’s total population belongs to the LGBT community). Therefore, through this campaign we wanted to say that we value and treasure them as much as we value our other customers.”

He further said UrbanClap was against any kind of discrimination and segregation. “This ad highlights an inherent hypocrisy of society – while most people endorse ‘the right to love’ for everybody, sadly many among them deny this very understanding/ right to homosexual couples in love. In this campaign the mother of the homosexual woman reminds her husband that because they followed two different religions, they too had to face family opposition and dissent.”

“Many industry veterans are of the view that the theme of same sex love has been overdone in recent campaigns. However, we believe that there is an urgent need to bring out more and more campaigns along this theme. This is the only way through which, our country can hope to sensitise even the uneducated masses about homosexuality,” Bhal added.

Agency Speak

Speaking on the brief received from UrbanClap, Raj Jain, Founder, Ufaan, said, “UrbanClap is a Pro LGBT brand. So the LGBT mandate was clearly pronounced in the brief. It was actually a clear two-line brief that required us to highlight the LGBT angle in the context of the services provided by UrbanClap. But there was a conscious attempt (as communicated by UrbanClap) to depict the services very subtly.”

Commenting on the creative thought process behind the campaign, he said, “We at Ufaan make a lot of viral videos. These videos are targeted at the maximum number of people who can influence or have a stake in something (be it an object or an ideology). So we wanted to make a video for the campaign that would strike chords not just with the LGBT community but with their parents as well. We did not want to stop at saying that it is cool to express your sexuality and sexual preferences. We wanted to go a step further and involve the parents of homosexuals. This campaign is a way of telling them to let go off their biases and prejudices because true love and its challenges cannot be different for anybody. It is the same everywhere and for everybody.”

He further said, “I would like to add that a tagline for previous campaigns of UrbanClap has been – ‘Everybody deserves happiness’. So the LGBT element was also an expression of our creative endeavour to highlight this tagline.”

Peer Comments

Satbir Singh, Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Thinkstr, commented, “Brands like consumers are getting braver and engaging with issues that they might not have a few months ago. This one is a nice try, but reminded me of something similar sometime back. I didn’t quite get what they do though. And that is what advertising should do, isn’t it?”

Mangesh Mulajkar, Account Management Head of Mumbai Office, Scarecrow Communications, also felt that LGBT as a subject had been spoken in recent times by many brands, and the UrbanClap take somewhere felt like a rather opportunistic one. “In fact, their earlier ‘Mother’s Day’ film has a better message and a brand fit,” he added.

When asked whether the brand connect come through in the campaign, he replied, “Although the brand has been actively making communication on various social issues in the past, this film is unable to bring out the ‘Freedom of love’ idea. The emotions are too subtle and don’t touch you in the manner they should. And considering it is more of a CSR initiative, one can negate the brand fit.”

He felt that the campaign could have been handled better in terms of bringing out the emotions. “The father’s realisation and change of heart towards his beloved daughter could have been handled better,” Mulajkar concluded.