Amul looks to cut through, with a slice of life 'in every home'

Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) has launched a digital film in which a new theme 'Har ghar Amul ghar" (Every home is an Amul home) has been introduced. The film was uploaded on the brand's YouTube channel on 18 January 2014. The film conceptualised by daCunha Communications is the first in a monthly series of digital films.  

The film features a family comprising a young boy and his parents. The parents look at him sleeping on the eve of him going to first standard. The father notes that from the next day, he'll have early morning school - bringing a worried look to the mother's face. The film goes on to reveal why. From the next day, they take turns waking up to the alarm and getting him ready for school. On day one, the lady goes back to sleep after asking the boy's father to do the job. The process of getting ready also involves giving him a glass of Amul Milk, and bread with the brand's butter packed for the tiffin box. After he gets ready, the boy waves out to his mother, who waves him goodbye while still in bed as the father looks on with a hint of jealousy. The sequence repeats itself the next day with the mother and father's roles interchanged. As the days go on, they continue to get the boy ready, but the joys of the first day are replaced with impatience. The boy notices this change and is visibly unhappy with it. One fine day, he removes the battery of his parents' alarm clock. Getting up before them, he gets ready by himself, butters his toast, drinks his milk and even packs his tiffin with an Amul cheese slice. Meanwhile, his mother checks the clock and is shocked to see that it is not working. Aghast at realising that it is 7 am, she wakes up her husband. They are shocked to see their son fully dressed and waving goodbye to them. The boy then walks out confidently with a bottle with an Amul logo on it. The film ends with the super 'Har ghar Amul ghar'.

RS Sodhi, managing director, GCMMF (Amul), said, “The thought is basically that we wanted to show people that Amul is consumed throughout the day by everybody. It’s a part of everyone’s daily life. We wanted to show it in a very witty way so that people can identify with themselves.

“The film was made without any brief from our side. Rahul (daCunha) just made the film, showed it to us and we liked it because nowadays brands are going big on digital. This film is made only for the digital medium. On Facebook we have 1.2 million fans and 20,000 followers on Twitter,” he added.

daCunha, managing director and creative head, daCunha Communications, said, “We thought that we should try the slightly longer format of film that goes beyond 40 seconds. And when you have a slightly longer format, then you need a story that is more emotional. Further, Amul is the last of the great Indian brands as most of them have either been taken over or merged or shut down. And Amul is a very emotional brand because it involves food. So we decided to do a series of slice of life bitter-sweet films where each film will attempt to sell the brand and also tie into an emotion that is quite seriously Indian which is why the tag line is “Har ghar Amul ghar.

On the film, he said, “This is the first film where there is such a typical scenario. In early India, it was always the mother who had to do all the household work but here both the parents are working and there is equality at home. At the same time there is a kid who is independent to do things himself. The film has been successful as the brand is coming in subtly. The mood, emotion and the insight is stronger.

As on 24 January (11 am), the film had garnered over 1,30,000 views on the brand's YouTube channel.

On the response, daCunha said, “It is encouraging to see how viral works. We will try and average one film a month.”

Credits

Client: Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation
Creative agency: daCunha Communications
Production house: Still & Still Moving Pictures
Director: Anand Tiwari