MTS keeps caller Imran Khan ‘waiting’ with ‘Always Talk’ plan

Telecom services brand MTS has rolled out a campaign to promote its ‘Always Talk’ plan through a series of humorous TVCs featuring Bollywood actor Imran Khan.

The four-TVC campaign created by Rediffusion Y&R went on air in the last week of June and will run for six weeks. The commercials will be dubbed into Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Bengali.

Each film campaign features Khan in a different role - as a politician, a friend, bridegroom and a person who has been held kidnapped.

In films, Khan attempts to call someone when he needs to reach them urgently, but is unable to do so and gets a busy tone. As a politician, he is trying to contact a higher up to pull strings when a cop stops his procession. Dressed to the occasion with friends enroute to a costume party, he is trying to make a call as his car breaks down. As the bridegroom, he tries to call his wife-to-be while awaiting her arrival for their wedding. When he is kidnapped and held at gun point, he tries to call someone – again, without luck. A catchy tune in the background adds to the humour quotient of the situations.

It is revealed that the person on the other end is busy on the phone using the ‘Always Talk’ plan on MTS. The films end with a shot of Khan, frustrated after repeated attempts at trying to reach the other person, saying “MTS ‘Always Talk’ plan ke saath yeh to hona hi hai’ (This is bound to happen with the MTS ‘Always Talk’ plan).”  

Amitesh Rao, director for brand and media, MTS, said, “With the ‘Always Talk’ plan our proposition is to enable MTS customers to enjoy voice calls without having to worry about the cost. The plan provides free unlimited voice calls to MTS numbers and up to 1000 minutes of free voice calls to any other network. The intent of the ‘Always Talk’ plan is to allow customers to leverage their connected time to the maximum extent possible.”

On the films, Sam Ahmed, CCO and vice chairman, Rediffusion Y&R, said, "MTS was launching a simple, hassle-free ‘Always Talk’ plan that was being priced aggressively in the market. So, we knew that our creative execution had to be as simple and memorable. We chose the approach of humour combined with a twist in the end. In the ad, everyone that Imran Khan tries to call is busy on another call, and in the end, Khan is frustrated with the situation. So, for the first time we see a brand ambassador being upset with the brand he is endorsing. The idea being that MTS consumers can keep on talking on an MTS network. The client was brave enough to trust us on this idea and I think it has turned out beautifully.”

The campaign will be supported by digital, radio, road shows, and outdoor media. 

Credits

Client MTS

Creative agency Rediffusion Y&R

Chief creative officer Sam Ahmed,

National creative director Komal Bedi Sohal

Account: Bhaskar Gosh

Production House: Old School Films

Director: Piyush Raghani

Director of photography: Deepti Gupta

Music director: Dhruv Ghanekar

Producers: Surashmi Basu, Annie Sukheshwala