Samsonite's #EkDinKiChutti gets a thumbs up from experts

This election season, Samsonite's #EkDinKiChutti encourages people to take a day off and travel home to vote.

“We travel back home for love. The love of friends & family, the love of home cooked meals and memories. This time, let's travel for another love. The love for our country”- Samsonite

The ballot battle is still on with half of the constituencies left to cast their vote. The 2019 Indian General Election currently being held in seven phases from 11 April will culminate on May 19. With over 900 million citizens eligible to vote in this year’s elections, India has yet again earned the title of the world’s largest democracy. Of the many rights and freedoms afforded by a democracy, the ability to vote is the most precious. Indeed, it is estimated that over 91% of people do not return to their home town to vote.

With this insight, Samsonite weaved a thought-provoking film titled #EkDinKiChutti encouraging people to take a day off and travel home to vote. With a quest to create a better society through the principles of responsibility, honesty, and integrity, Samsonite claims to have committed to upholding the building blocks of the nation.

The objective behind the campaign

Elections are not just a process but also a celebration of democracy in our country. Living in the world’s largest democracy, we must take our role as citizens seriously and exercise our right. Samsonite hopes to remind everyone that the chutti that they might have been ignoring all this while, shouldn’t be disregarded at all. “Reinforcing this thought process, we have announced an official #EkDinKiChutti for all outstation employees who are registered in their home towns, giving them an opportunity to #TravelToVote,” shared Jai Krishnan, CEO, Samsonite South Asia.

The 2-minute film features a man taking a day’s leave from work to visit his home town. Over the course of his inspirational journey, he savors the sights and sounds of his birthplace, reconnecting with old friends and spending time with his loved ones. But these reunions are short-lived as his motive to take the chutti is different. The next scene opens with a close-up, as the man is recognized by an old acquaintance. As greetings are exchanged, the man informs us that he’s only in town for a day. With this revelation, the camera zooms out to reveal him casting a vote in a polling booth. As the film draws to a close, the audience is reminded that every vote matters on the path to building a brighter, more prosperous future.

Also Read: This election, BookMyShow urges nation to #ChooseWisely

The creative thoughtprocess

As the creative team at Autumn Grey was brainstorming on finding a real insight for the election campaign, they realized that none of them had the moral high ground to speak on the subject. Bodh Deb, Vice President & Branch Head, Autumn Grey shared, “Most of us have migrated to another city for work years back and had never made an effort to go back home to cast our vote. Instantly we knew that we have hit upon an insight that will strike a chord with millions like us and thus came up with the campaign.”  

After the heart-touching #KerelaIsOpen narrative last year, the brand-agency duo is here with yet another hard-hitting campaign which has garnered 3.5 million views on Youtube and has been shared 24k times on Facebook - is a huge hit among netizens.

Experts Take:

Porus Jose, Creative Director, IdeateLabs

From the makers of #KeralaIsOpen comes yet another digital blockbuster, #EkDinKiChutti. (Although not in the same league as the former). Lyrical narrative (flawlessly voiced by Vijay Raaz) is laid on a Hindustani ballad (Rekha Bhardwaj?) music bed. What’s more, it keeps the audience guessing - what's with this 'one day holiday'?

No product window, no technology one-upmanship, no ‘buy today’, no ‘choose from our wide range’, no ‘world’s largest luggage manufacturer’, no pressure. In fact, it barely hints at the product category. When did products start doing cameo roles in their own ads? Come to think of it, is it even advertising?

They are not selling products. They are selling experiences. They are locking the brand with ‘India-Travel’ narrative in the consumer’s mind. With its sub-2 min videos, it is paving the path for a different kind of brand recall.

From an out-of-reach, ‘foreign’ brand, they’re redefining themselves and adapting to the new ‘Indianism’.

Nakul Pingale, ECD, Grapes Digital

Winston Churchill’s quote, "The price of greatness is responsibility." perfectly sums up Samsonite’s thought in their new film #EkDinKiChutti. Apart from the communication being brilliantly executed and to the point, it is very much NEEDED! Because in today’s times, many of us tend to shy away from our responsibilities and consider ignorance blissful. The message clearly invokes that voting is not just our right, but also our responsibility.

Moulik Jain- Co-Founder, 3 Minds Digital

Samsonite understood the need to create one such campaign that would act as a catalyst to bring people to the polling booth this general election. And that’s how they came up with the #ekdinkichutti campaign that encourages people to take one day off to vote, to contribute to the development of our country.

They took a fresh approach and a little support from the social media frenzy youth which is growing faster than ever. They joined the bandwagon of encouraging voters to come out and vote alongside promoting its product too. The video posted by Samsonite, which is a little less than 2 minutes, is winning hearts on YouTube. It has already garnered around 3M views which shows people are loving it. The video shows a young man who is visiting his hometown, traveling with a cabin bag size Samsonite suitcase. Along with the voiceover, beautiful poetry narrated in the background makes you curious about what is the idea behind this man’s visit. A one day trip, where he has no time to chill with his family or friends or stop by at his favorite restaurant, the motive is revealed towards the end. He is here to vote. Along with #ekdinkichutti the other punchline in the video is #traveltovote and considering the fact that people from small towns migrate to big cities to work, this thought definitely makes a lot of sense.

With the talk of farz and duty, the video can be a good motivation for people to come to their polling booths. But is this something new? A campaign before the elections urging the voters to come out and vote is something that has been done before. Celebrities such as Rahul Dravid, Amir Khan and many more have asked voters to get their index finger inked. Even before the #EkDinkiChhutti campaign, one other attempt at tempting voters through digital media was the voting selfie contests. People were asked to take a selfie after voting and this also became a very popular and effective way to actively involve the youth in the elections. Despite such strategies, the voter turnout is hovering around 66% which shows that these methods have not been entirely successful.

Although this campaign by Samsonite is getting lots of love and appreciation in the nooks and corners of social media, if it can really influence this year’s election turnout, we are yet to see. So, go and ask for your #ekdinkichutti and vote.