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Home is where this story begins. A well maintained cared-for brick and mortar house transforms into a home that can inspire, nurture dreams and store memories. Wall aesthetics can truly open up the interiors, adding a splash of colour to life.

The Challenging Competition

In the 1990s Indian paint industry, Nerolac had a predominant proportion of sales in the industrial paint segment and a minor proportion from the decorative paint segment. Higher margins were in the lucrative decorative paint segment and its competitor, Asian Paints, dominated this segment.

Asian Paints was the market leader and had the exact opposite market composition; it controlled a significant share of the decorative paint market and had a smaller contribution from the industrial paint business. The Asian Paints television commercial featuring Jagjit Singh was popular with its customers. 

This was at a time when Ogilvy was using emotional connect with the product’s story as a messaging strategy for Asian Paints. Not only was Asian Paints running great advertising campaigns, it was also providing incentives for painters to recommend them to the customers. This two pronged strategy was working well for Asian Paints.

The Brief and the Artist’s Inspiration

Nerolac had been one of FCB Ulka’s oldest clients. Subhash Tendle, an art director at Ulka, had reworked Nerolac’s Goody Tiger logo (now discontinued) to promote the brand, way back in 1972.

With competition heating up in the 1990s, a new brief was given to Ulka, asking them to create a television commercial specially for Nerolac decorative paints for homes, emphasising the wide range of beautiful colours. Their budget was far smaller compared to Asian Paints.

Late Anil Kapoor (ex-Chairman Ulka) and Nitin Bhagwat (now ex-Vice Chairman FCB) decided to focus on the painter – the artist and the real hero when it came to decorating the blank walls with colour. Freshly painted walls in beautiful colours was his art. And people feeling great in the house was due to his effort. 


Neena Varma, the creative director, chose Subodh Poddar for the job of developing a new campaign. He was an art director who wrote…a painter of the classical school. He knew that just as paintings adorn walls, well painted walls were akin to paintings themselves. Further, he knew the value of bringing an emotional appeal to a functional product, having completed a successful campaign for Godrej Storwell, using emotional connect as a strategy.


Subodh wrote and presented the script, highlighting the joy of painting which came from the sheer beauty and colour palette of Nerolac Paints. 

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The Wall as Canvas: The TV Commercial


Min Aiyar directed the first television commercial for this campaign.


Vishwajeet was the music composer and the singer of the jingle. Vishwajeet, an up-coming singer, used to sing for Kalyanji Anandji in their shows as a substitute for Kishore Kumar. The Nerolac commercial bestowed Vishwajeet with fame, being introduced as the Nerolac singer.


Subodh Poddar directed the refresh of the popular commercial. It was shot by Rajeev Jain and choreographed by Farah Khan. Jayesh Gandhi and Uday Benegal of Indus Creed adapted the music to giving it a unique touch and was sung by KK. One of the most iconic Indian TV ad was created.


The TV commercial showed the painters singing the jingle “Jab ghar ki raunak badhani ho…”, as they paint a house in beautiful colours. The scene of smiling kids running through the house added a sense of playfulness and family, as the jingle played on “Rango ki duniya me aao, rangeen sapne sajao”. The result was a beautifully decorated home in bright colours. The jingle was melodious and lively.


The evolving Colour Palette

The commercial was successful and very popular. In fact, the jingle is one of the core brand assets that consumers still recollect. The recall was so high that Nerolac revived the jingle many times in new contemporary ways. Even after years of it not being aired, a research agency ranked it in the top 7 television commercials in consumers’ memories.

Today a customer needs to just think colour; of the many hues of flowers perhaps, “Light Tulip”, “Sweet Lavender” and “Deep Rosette”, or the many landscapes that grace our world, “Rajasthan Pink”, “Drifting Green”, or “White Cliffs”. All of these shades and more are among the evolving colour catalogue that make up the Nerolac wall paint universe. They are available in interior and exterior paints, in luxury, premium and popular range, in multiple textures and options. So painting a house stylishly is now within the grasp of a wide range of customers.

Nerolac today showcases contemporary styles in wall painting, opening a whole new world of ideas for the customers. The services of expert painters are also offered making home painting a hassle free experience. So “Jab Ghar ki raunak badhani ho, deewaroon ko jab sajana ho” it is “Nerolac, Nerolac”, as the memorable jingle plays on.

Subodh Tagare is an Associate Professor at IMT Nagpur, where he teaches courses on marketing. Prior to IMT, Subodh was the marketing director at American Power Conversion/ Schneider Electric for South Asia. 

S Vejay Anand consults with organizations on business strategy and marketing. He has also been an entrepreneur in the food and pet care spaces. Earlier he was President at Coffee Day and COO at USPL.

Nerolac’s classic TV ad and jingle put the shine on the brand

Ever thought how the iconic Leonardo da Vinci’s muse Mona Lisa would be dressed if she were Indian? The unique yet bizarre idea is now a viral campaign of direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand ReshaMandi. The brand’s viral campaign featuring a desi adaptation of the iconic Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is an epic mix of cultural assimilation and creativity.

The campaign features Mona Lisa in various traditional handloom sarees belonging to different Indian states such as Gujarat (Lisa Ben), Shona Lisa (Kolkata), Maharashtra (Lisa Tai) and Lisa Devi (Bihar) among others. It’s for their Mona Lisa collection.

One of the most famous paintings has now become a meme-worthy material for the millennials and Gen Z who in turn are also getting introduced to the rich handloom heritage of India. ReshaWeaves wants just that.

The latest addition to the house of ReshaMandi brands, ReshaWeaves is the D2C division of ReshaMandi bringing traceable, sustainable and original natural fibre sarees, fabric, apparels, kidswear and home furnishing direct from weavers to consumers.

“To introduce the traditional beauty of sarees to the world that finds it orthodox, we had to communicate with our audience in a language that is most effective of our time, Memes. And Mona Lisa stood as the ideal icon that could convey the story of a Pop Culture Icon travelling across the nation and being draped in the ethnic beauty of the land,” Krishna Maniyar, director, branding & experience, ReshaMandi, tells Storyboard18.

[caption id="attachment_2343" align="aligncenter" width="768"]<img src="https://images.storyboard18.com/storyboard18/Mona.jpg" alt="ReshaMandi's campaign showing Mona Lisa in different traditional attires" width="768" height="1024" class="size-full wp-image-2343" /> ReshaMandi's campaign showing Mona Lisa in different traditional attires[/caption]

Making handloom heritage cool 

Created by ReshaMandi’s in-house team, the campaign was conceptualised after studying all the drapes around the nation, and the most popular names that can go with them. One of the employees Mansi Bajaj became the model who draped her in the specific weaves and styles. The illustrator Sooraj SS created the BGs and superimposed the iconic facial expressions on the portraits, the content team defined the captions.

 
<blockquote>Mona Lisa beat contenders such as Shakuntala by Raja Ravi Verma, The Statue of Liberty, and different art styles (Van Gogh, Dali, Warhol) to become the face of ReshaMandi’s latest campaign.</blockquote>


The objective behind the campaign was to establish ReshaWeaves social presence by finding and connecting with the target audience. 

“The images were more of a mirror than a post, every minute detail was planned to meet something that the users would be able to associate themselves with, e.g. the bindis, the flowers in the hair, the iPhone and sunglasses, the nose rings were all very characteristic to the persona,” says Maniyar.

The campaign has helped ReshaMandi add 15 organic followers per hour across its social media platforms. The brand says that its web traffic had approx. 4,200 organic visitors on their webpage every day. Apparently, not just interest, the campaign has impacted sales too with average bucket size going up from Rs 4,850 to Rs 6,380.

Fresh Mona Lisa avatars on anvil

While the campaign scores high on originality and creativity, the team key challenges include defining the right Mona Lisa persona, finding the right name for the persona, finding the right drapes and styling (the entire photo shoot was done in a single day) and photoshopping the right facial expressions and jewellery to meet the ethnic look.

The brand did receive criticism too.

“People weren't happy we missed out on Karnataka after being based out of here, Tamil Nadu was not happy about the depiction of Mona Mami as they voiced that it represented only 3percent of all Tamil Nadu. Honestly, we are happy we received the feedback, this proved that people were connecting to the idea and also helping us define what the next set of Mona Lisas should be catering to,” concludes Maniyar.

Also, we can't help but wonder what the great master, Leonardo Da VInci himself, would have thought of his saree-draped muse.

Shona Lisa to Lisa Ben: Meet the team behind the viral Mona Lisa campaign for ReshaMandi

A glass of milk. A drink that kids in the 1970s and 1980s remember gulping down as they rushed to school. A breakfast was incomplete without it. For some it was a quick quench-my-hunger drink in the evenings. Then came winds of change. In the post economic liberalization era of the 1990s, Indians were spoilt for choice with many alternatives like health drinks, juices and colas, jostling for shelf space. These soon became formidable competitors taking attention away from milk….and kids were especially drawn to explore these new tempting offerings.

With economic growth and privatization, came more job opportunities, competition and also stress. Being healthy and fit gained importance. So adults, especially in urban India, also needed to supplement their diet. Milk was an age-old choice.

Against this backdrop, there was a need felt by NDDB (National Dairy Development Board) to reposition milk as a preferred choice of drink, for all ages, for all seasons and for health or fun; a drink that was for all.

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NDDB and Operation Flood

The visionary, Dr. Verghese Kurien, was the Founder Chairman of NDDB from 1965 to 1998. NDDB was founded with a vision to empower rural milk producers and transform milk production into an instrument of rural development and employment, nurturing the core values of cooperation and self-reliance. 

Under the leadership of Dr. Kurien, Operation Flood was launched in 1970 to form a milk grid connecting milk producers and customers across the country. This was to increase milk production and regulate variations in prices. A win-win for milk producers and customers.

Sustaining the appeal of milk as a drink was vital in this effort.

The Brief

Dr. Kurien’s brief to FCB Ulka was very simple - to create advertising that made milk relevant. 

Amidst the competition of glitzy FMCG soft drink advertising, milk had to stand out. Shashi Sinha led the team, and Haresh Moorjani (who led the creative team of Gayatri Chauhan and Jovan John), struck upon an idea, novel at that time. They imagined milk like a trendy cool soft drink, and decided to use Hindi and English words. (“Hinglish” was emerging as a lingua franca amongst the hip crowd.)

The resulting lyrics written by Haresh, Gayatri and Jovan were an interesting mix of Hindi and English. The lines, often ending with English words, added spunk and fun, while they playfully conveyed the many benefits of milk to the audience, “Doodh, Doodh, Doodh, Doodh hai wonderful, pee sakte hai roz glassful.”

Leslie Lewis envisaged a reggae style music that had a fun beach feel, depicting happiness and energy. The repetition of Doodh Doodh was included to give it a contemporary hip feel. Kunal Ganjawala sang the jingle and gave it a cool vibe.

The “Piyo glassful doodh” ad film

Against a black and white backdrop that showcased milk the best, various models of all ages danced, exercised, and celebrated dahi-handi festival, even romanced over a glass of milk. Devan Khote directed the film and also worked on the backdrop with the Ulka team.

The ad film is fun to watch, with an energetic ensemble of people from all walks of life: children, mime artist, a policeman, a young couple, an office goer, a body builder, a dancing old couple, even a Kathakali dancer. The jingle plays on. Some models even flaunt a milk moustache giving the ad a very “real’ feel.

There is humour too. A glass of milk is dressed in sunglasses, holds an umbrella and adorns a woolen muffler to depict milk for all seasons. “Doodh hai must in every season, piyo doodh for healthy reason.”

A theme of national integration and unity runs through the ad as well, giving it a pan Indian feel. 

The film ends with the logo of Operation Flood, shaped like a drop of milk, and a delightful sound of a cow “Moooing”. In an era where changing TV channels during ad breaks was common, children would often wait till the end for the “moo” sound.

Change in consumer perception of milk

The television commercial was a big hit. The jingle was memorable and easily hummable. The advertisement was able to change the perception of milk from boring to a fun, youthful and healthy drink, driving up milk consumption. Youngsters at that time would even sing the jingle spontaneously. Some even felt like reaching for a glass of milk right then as they saw the ad. Such was the pull.

As for Operation Flood, it went from strength to strength. And India has emerged as the largest producer of milk globally.

In the words of the ad, “Charo aur much gaya shor, Give me more, Give me more, Doodh Doodh Doodh”.

Subodh Tagare is an Associate Professor at IMT Nagpur, where he teaches courses on marketing. Prior to IMT, Subodh was the marketing director at American Power Conversion/ Schneider Electric for South Asia. 

S Vejay Anand consults with organizations on business strategy and marketing. He has also been an entrepreneur in the food and pet care spaces. Earlier he was President at Coffee Day and COO at USPL.

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