Inside: #WeOweYou: Reliance Jewels & Scarecrow M&C Saatchi’s musical ‘Aabhar’ for customers

Social Samosa gets in conversation with Reliance Jewels and Scarecrow M&C Saatchi to explore what went behind the making of the brand's latest campaign- We Owe You.

Every year, in the month of August, Reliance Jewels celebrates its anniversary by launching an exclusive range of diamond, gold, and silver jewellery called Aabhar Collection. It’s a special collection dedicated to showing gratitude to all the customers who stood with the brand for more than a decade.

To express this special gratitude, Scarecrow M&C Saatchi came up with a campaign under the umbrella #WeOweYou. It’s a multimedia campaign that was unveiled with a heart-warming 4-minute film which is inspired by moments and experiences the brand has shared with its customers. 

Campaign
Insight and Brief

The campaign had to communicate Reliance Jewels’ gratitude towards its customers while showcasing the new collection. The communication had to not just essay these select incidents that exemplified the brand attributes as an expert jeweler but help establish it as a relatable brand that participates in the lives of its consumers.

The humble expression ‘We owe you’ that culminated through the brand-agency discussion.

About the film

To give the story-telling an emotional touch,
Scarecrow created a narration cum song which has been composed by  National award-winning composer Monty Sharma
(Black, Devdas, Ram Leela, Sawariya). 

The ad film not only pays tribute to the beautiful memories but also features the legendary voice of Veteran Bollywood actor S. M. Zaheer (Veer Zara, My Name Is Khan, Maachis, Humlog, Buniyaad to name a few). To make it visually appealing, the narration cum song is supported by aesthetic shots of the entire collection throughout the film. 

Since the collection is inspired by intricate lanterns, which also symbolizes the light of hope in these challenging times, the beautiful static imagery with miniature lanterns in the backdrop has been shot by renowned photographer Avadhut Hembade of Qench who has also directed the film.

The campaign is brought alive through various mediums including print, outdoors, in-store, and digital. 

Campaign
Objective

Reliance Jewels being a national brand has always faced stiff competition from local jewellers that have presence and equity in their respective markets. This campaign helped the brand reach out to customers across various segments and cultures with this unified message and helped build relevance.

The  Journey- From conceptualization to execution

To uncover
real-life insights and moments that the customers have experienced, the
brand-agency duo arranged for a small informal survey through video and
telephonic calls with our customers.

Based on the research the agency shortlisted a few interesting insights that were converted into a narration via a song. Sunil Nayak, CEO, Reliance Jewels shares,  “This song was the soul of the campaign that helped create the right tonality and mood for the campaign. The jewellery was interestingly juxtaposed against different shapes of origami lanterns to subtly build connect with the inspiration of the collection.”

Since it’s a jewellery brand, for the static imagery and film production, Scarecrow wanted someone who’s well-versed with the intricacy and beauty of jewellery. “And when it comes to enhancing the beauty of a collection, Avadhut Hembade is your first go-to person. He has done over 5000 shoots and is known as the brain of product photography,” Bhatt shares.

Taking us through the campaign execution process amidst the lockdown, Manish Bhatt, Founder-Director, Scarecrow M&C Saatchi says, “After creating the song cum narration, first, we internally created a reference visual treatment by putting together different jewellery shots to give us an idea of how visually stunning the final film can look. This internally created video also became our briefing deck for the production houses.”

After a couple of production meetings with Team Qench, the team finally
arrived at exactly what it wanted to achieve in terms of the look & feel
and treatment. 

Creative Brainstorming while social distancing

Bhatt informs that the teams followed all the standard operating
procedures and preventive measures while shooting the film. Unlike the normal
days of attending the shoot in a studio, the entire team logged in on video
calls and was contactless for three days straight.

“From giving our point of view to giving suggestions, from giving changes to the assistant to approving the final shot, the entire process right from briefing the production house to presenting the film to the client was handled remotely,” he highlights.

Nayak pitches in, “When you have an exciting idea to execute, there are always ways to circumvent any kind of problems. And that was just the case with this campaign,” The brand and agency, through multiple zoom calls initially discussed and clarified the brief and approach with and eventually the idea took shape.

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Social Media Plug-In

Reliance Jewels is active across social media platforms and claims to keep the dialogue going not just to announce its new collections or send out festive messages but create opportunities to engage with its audience.

“We have a calendar of activities planned out to leverage conversations through various interesting hooks; be it about taking care of your precious jewellery in different seasons or tips on fashion or simply doing contests. The younger audience is out here on social media and we have to engage with them,” informs Nayak.

The brand can be seen sharing customer stories under the #WeOweYou umbrella and collecting #OwesomeMoments from its customers to amplify the messaging further.

Apart from indulging in some moment and occasional marketing, Reliance Jewels are also known for engaging influencers and known faces to bring in reliability and make share-worthy content.

Reliance Jewels-
Media Mix

During the pandemic, many brands have upgraded their business strategies digitally including e-commerce in the jewellery industry and we understand the benefit that an eCommerce channel offers.

“Social media has also revolutionized the jewellery sector. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook help us engage with the younger and online savvy TG enabling immediate & instantly connect along with a huge possibility of selective targeting based on our TG, Customer behaviour, interests, Geo-Targeting, etc. Apart from Social media, online news, entertainment, trade, and lifestyle affinity sites also gives an opportunity to be more interactive and accessible to the customers,” observes Nayak.

This year, while ad spends were low in the last quarter, a lot of expectations are on the wedding and festive season coming up. Nayak feels this new period will fetch in new chances for the brand to show unique creativity and storytelling by incorporating messages that are in line with hope and a fresh and stronger start, gratitude, safety & well-being, convenient shopping modes, unique & new offering, and all of it by incorporating the new normal positive vibes.

While the brand will continue to advertise via Traditional ATL Media like Print ads and Outdoor Hoardings, there is a significant increase in spending online due to the engagement.  

Working in the new normal

“Working from home has its own pros and cons. You will fall in love with the digital way of working, but you will soon start missing the analog style of cracking ideas.  The impact of social distancing on category and the brand is inevitable. But no relationships were affected. Be it one with the client, production house, or music composer,” says Bhatt.  

For every project, Scarecrow M&C Saatchi has multiple rounds of brainstorming sessions, where there’s laughter, ideas, pranks, and general leg-pulling.

“But there are also times when we miss the chaos and the usual chai breaks.  Everyone is easily accessible, available throughout the week. But the constant beep-beep of WhatsApp messages and phone calls can take away your peace,” he shares.

Sharing the brand perspective in terms of changing marketing and communication strategies Nayak opines that the challenge today is not to get them to buy the products but to change their mindset and enable them to carry a positive outlook towards the future and the brand has to aid them in doing that.

“Hence the first task for us will be to reframe the perception of the buyer and give them reasons to look at jewellery differently. And hence campaigns like ‘Aabhaar’ collections help us create such communication opportunities for the brand,” he signs off.