Google India has rolled out a digital film in support of a new initiative ‘Helping women get online’. The film has been conceptualised by Lowe Lintas and Partners and went online on 18 May.
The initiative, carried out in collaboration with brands such as HUL, Intel, Axis Bank and Future Group, looks to increase digital literacy among women and to that effect a website is in place. Besides which, the initiative is supported by a toll-free helpline (1800 41 999 77), for women to call in case they get stuck while on the web. On-ground activations support the initiative.
The film begins with a young woman heading out for the day. She calls out to her mother, asking if she remembers everything she's said. They bid each other goodbye and as the daughter steps out, she hears the sounds of a children as a school bell rings. This takes her back to her own first day in school. She recalls the new clothes, bag, lunchbox... she remembers how her mother had taken care of everything, even the instructions before she entered class. The daughter further recounts how hard it was, both for her and her mother, to be away from each other even if it was only for three hours on the first day of school. She remembers running to her mother as the bell rang, signaling the end of the first day at school. She turns around and re-enters her home to find her mother about to attempt using a laptop. The young woman watches from a distance as the mother, very cautiously, switches it on. She decides to join her mother pegging, it as her first day of ‘school’. The film ends with both women celebrating the elder’s foray into accessing the online world. A super reads ‘Help your mother discover a new world. Help her get online’.
Speaking with Campaign India, Amer Jaleel, national creative director, Lowe Lintas + Partners, said, "We love the fact that Google has this process of identifying and inducting partners. It's a more confident and interactive approach than a pitch. So that's what happened between us and that's resulted in friends and fans on both sides. It's been just a month and a half or so since we got talking on this project and very luckily the solution came almost at the first attempt."
He added, "We haven't planned another film but there have been hopeful conversations that depending on how this one goes we would certainly have more interpretations. Because there's lots to tell on this subject and we are not done telling it all!"
Jaleel, in an official statement, informed, "We wanted to encourage hand-holding. Our target is the internet-savvy young, who often get easily discouraged when they have to take someone through the basics of online. The barrier is this thought that runs through our heads – ‘Mom don’t worry, tumse nahi hoga, I’ll come and do it’. We wanted to present the reward of not giving up, going through with the teaching and converting them into independent onliners.”
Sandeep Menon, director - marketing, Google India, said, “While there is low awareness about the benefits of Internet amongst women in India, but there are many who want to get online to succeed in life. We’re working with various partners to help spread awareness about the benefits of being online amongst women. And today, we've launched a new film to inspire young digital natives to bring their mothers online. There are large number of educated women in India with internet access in their households, but they still do not use the internet. We are making an appeal to their children to hold their mom's hand as she discovers a new world online.”
Shayondeep Pal, executive creative director, Lowe Lintas Delhi, commented, “Busy youngsters don't have the time or energy to teach or guide their mothers when it comes to something as alien as the digital world. The only way to connect to them was to tap into an idea that could move them. The task was to capture the correct emotion that would drive young people to give back whatever they could to their mothers. We thought the trigger could be this. A kid's first days at school had an emotional similarity with mother's first days on the Internet - the nervousness, the hesitation, the alien environment, it's the same. This realization is the basic premise of the script.”
Naveen Gaur, president, Lowe Lintas, added, “#TogetherOnline is the first campaign from our association with Google and soon you will see a lot more work in the coming months on various other projects. This campaign gave us a unique opportunity to present mother-daughter relationship in a really different way. It’s beautiful to see how roles are reversed as we grow up and as our parents grow old. They need as much support and patience from us as we demanded out of them when we were young. I hope that we manage to motivate the younger generation to spend some time with their mothers and help them break the barrier of initiation into this somewhat intimidating world of Internet.”
Read more on the initiative here
Credits
Client: Google India
Creative agency: Lowe Lintas and Partners Delhi
Creative: Amer Jaleel, Shriram Iyer, Shayondeep Pal, Nisheeth Srivastava, Manzoor Alam
Account Management: Naveen Gaur, Nikhil Mahajan, Dallbir Singh, Naman Pal
Planning: Anurag Prasad, Sumant Bhattacharya
Production house: Chrome Pictures
Director: Amit Sharma
Producer: Prafull Sharma, Azad Anesh
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