Why it is my best campaign
Having spent a long time in this profession, I have tried to create many ideas on many brands that may have added value to the life stage and growth of those brands. ‘Yeh Hai Youngistaan Meri Jaan’ for Pepsi, ‘Aamsutra’ for Slice, ‘Yaari Ki Gaadi’ for Hero, ‘Dil Jo Chahe, Paas Laaye’ for Airtel and the latest ‘What Makes Us Click’ for Canon Powershot cameras.
Fortunately, I am not the kind of person who falls in love with his own work. I am always unsatisfied, restless and thinking that it could have been better. There’s so much good work going around in the world and that is enough to keep me grounded. However, I do have my little moments of happiness and I would love to share them with you. The ‘What Makes Us Click’ campaign for Canon Powershot digital cameras scores as one of my best recent work.
The reason behind why it’s my best campaign is not exactly based on how well it was received by others but purely on how special it is to me. To begin with, this was the first campaign idea I cracked immediately after joining Dentsu, having left my comfort zone of many years at JWT. So a lot was riding on it. I had to prove myself to new people and gain their confidence that they had hired the right person. My insecurity is my driving force most of the times.
Brief to the agency
The brief was to position the Canon Powershot range as the preferred choice of the youth. Of course, there was also a competitive objective that this idea helped meet, as we were to find out later.
Problems and challenges
There were no challenges as such that came in the way of the idea. It received a fair share of exposure and it was adequately backed.
Various routes considered
If there were other routes presented, I wouldn’t know because I had not joined Dentsu then. I walked into this very late. I remember how the idea came quickly enough and the script was written in about 30 minutes. The next morning I internally bounced off the idea with my team and got a fabulous response. We then worked on making the idea bigger by taking it to all the platforms of communication. The very next day was the day of the presentation and we presented this idea to Canon’s marketing team.
The team loved the idea and decided not to change even a word in the script. And right then and there, I knew that I have got myself a fabulous set of people as clients and a lovely team at Dentsu who I would be working with often.
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Route chosen and why
This idea was chosen largely because it answered all the questions that were put in front of us. ‘What makes us click’ is not only a confident statement by the youth of today but it also has the product right at the heart of it and that in itself is a magical combination and a great starting point to the brand campaign.
The width and flexibility it provides can seamlessly evolve along with this ‘constantly changing, always impressive’ youth segment and also incorporate all the innovations the brand will continue to bring throughout its existence.
So, in a nutshell, ‘youth is what makes Canon click and Canon is what makes the youth click’ is what this idea intended to communicate. Also, the execution in the form of the ‘A to Z of what makes us click’ television commercial hits the bull’s eye because it showed the world as seen through the youngsters’ lens.
Will it work today?
The idea will be as relevant today, tomorrow or even hundred years on. Well, which generation would not like to tell the rest of the world ‘what makes them click’?
Soumitra Karnik
NCD, Dentsu India group