New Kingfisher outdoor campaign makes veiled dig at IndiGo

A new outdoor campaign launched by Kingfisher Airlines makes a veiled dig ostensibly at low cost carriers although Rediffusion Y&R, the agency that created the campaign denied that there is any obvious reference to IndiGo, maintaining that the ad is a tongue in cheek reference to all low cost carriers in the market. 

The outdoor campaign features a series of hoardings, each of which juxtapose two opposing styles of service as offered by airline brands. While the one on the left is an obvious dig at competing brands’ customer service, the one on the right refers to the quality of service that Kingfisher says it offers to passengers. So while one hoarding has the word “Indi-gnity” on the left and there is the word “Respect” on the right, along with the copy ‘Why fly low cost carriers? Fly Kingfisher.’ Another has the word “Indi-fferent” on one side and the word “Different” on the other, along with the copy ‘Why fly low cost carriers? Fly Kingfisher.’ Yet another reads ‘Go like a passenger’ on one side and ‘Fly like a guest’ on the other. 

Nisha Singhania, executive vice president, Rediffusion Y&R  Mumbai (pictured) comments, “The idea behind the campaign was to address the current market reality. What we have observed is that given the market sentiment, companies are making senior management downgrade to low cost carriers to cut costs. So people who are used to a certain kind of quality service are feeling the impact of having to cut back on the quality of their flying experience. We wanted to address this in a tongue-in-cheek manner.”

Singhania denies that the campaign is directed at any one particular airline in the market, although the references to IndiGo are fairly obvious. “This is a tactical campaign that we will be running for a short while. It was a joint effort that we came up with the client.”   

Reacting to the campaign, V Sunil, executive creative director, Wieden+Kennedy, the agency handling the IndiGo account, says they won’t be reacting to the new outdoor campaign. He adds, “I believe it is a big compliment for us if Kingfisher is making digs at the brand. IndiGo is flying to full capacity and if a full service carrier is taking the trouble to talk about us, it’s great.”   

It may be recalled that Kingfisher had earlier taken on Jet Airways back in 2007 when the latter had put up hoardings stating ‘We Have Changed,’ a reference to the repositioning that Jet had undergone at that point of time. Kingfisher’s ad agency back then, Equus Red Cell had created an outdoor campaign positioned right next to the Jet Airways one, saying ‘We made them change.’ Jet Airways had changed the outdoor campaign soon enough to a generic one, but not before Kingfisher managed to garner some amount of publicity on the back of the cheeky move.