On the WINGS of a DREAM

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Future Group's corporate campaign harks back to a golden age.

Future Group's brand new corporate campaign, in fact, its first ever, is very close to its Chairman Kishore Biyani's heart. He is armed with statistics to explain the idea behind the two-minute-long advertising film that sells the philosophy of India becoming a "Sone Ki Chidiya" (Golden Bird) all over again.

Biyani quotes economists and historians to highlight India's days of glorious wealth: it was the world's largest economy in the first century with a 33 per cent share of world GDP. In 1750, the country's share of the world trade was nearly 25 per cent, he points out.

"During the ancient and medieval ages, foreigners were lured by India's fabulous wealth. The Indian economy is once again at the centre of global attention. As domestic consumption drives economic growth in India, Future Group hopes to play a pivotal role in bringing back the 'sone ki chidiya'," says Biyani.

To convey the idea, he sought help from Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and national creative director of ad agency Ogilvy, which created the Future Group's corporate campaign. Biyani and Pandey first discussed it when they met on a flight.

A few nights later Pandey called Biyani "" at 4 am "" with his idea. "When he talked about India being 'sone ki chidiya' , the image of children flapping their arms came to me, reflecting hope and cheer. I worked on the idea backwards from there," says Pandey.

The film opens in a classroom full of little children. Their teacher is drawing a bird on the blackboard. She breaks into a little story about India being called "sone ki chidiya" long ago. As the children's interest in the story increases, they rise on their benches, flapping their arms like wings.

The teacher carries on the tale, involving children by naming some of them who might be interested in riding on the "golden bird" as it flies in. By the end of the film, all the children are standing, flapping their wings "" oops, arms "" and a voice-over states that the Future Group is making an effort to bring back the golden bird.

At 120 seconds, this is one really long ad. "That's because we have a long story to tell," says Pandey, who claims the SMSes haven't stopped coming ever since the ad broke on television a few weeks ago.

"Inspiration, hope and joy are central to the theme. So is the idea that the Future Group is offering more and more people a better life," says Pandey. Adds Biyani: "We are bringing a new thought into the country that your consumption will lead to development." It's also a neat way of establishing a connect with the Future Group's logo "" what else, a golden bird.

The campaign ties in with the Future Group establishing itself as a diversified business group with interests in not just retail, but also insurance, consumer credit, mall and property management, consumer brands, logistics and retail media.

The message: the company has ventured beyond Pantaloon Retail and now straddles the consumption space as Future Group. "If you want to buy something, we have a retail format, if you want funds, we are there and you could invest in us as well," says a Future Group executive.

The company has also launched new campaigns for its apparel brands John Miller, Scullers and Indigo Nation, as well as for Pantaloon Retail and e-zone, the home appliances store. "The ads reflect a shift in marketing strategies for individual brands," says the executive.

In fact, the TV commercial is just the beginning of a series of multiple communication, advertising and design initiatives the group is undertaking around the golden bird theme. It will soon be extended across print, outdoor, online and in-store retail. Biyani adds that radio jingles and other "innovative media vehicles" are also being considered.

For its part, the TVC was well-timed "" the film broke during the recent India-Australia series. The company declined to state media spends, but it's no secret that two-minute ad films during high-viewership cricket matches don't come cheap.

The investment made sense, reasons Biyani. "There is hardly any other vehicle that has a similar reach. Considering our big plans to build this brand, we found cricket the perfect medium to launch the campaign," he adds.

The film by Prasoon Pandey of Corcoise Films, wasn't expensive to produce. But coordinating and coaxing 40 youngsters and a real school teacher "" no trained actors "" to work in tandem did play havoc with shooting schedules.

Pandey adds that the children weren't trained to synchronise actions. "The message was delivered with a grassroots touch, just like the client wanted it," he says.

Still, the commercial has its share of critics. The film is too long and the brand is revealed much too late "" right at the end, in fact. That won't help brand recall, they say. Not true, declares Future Brands MD and CEO Santosh Desai, himself an ad industry veteran.

"That's too simplistic a view. If you are telling a story, you need to be true to it. We are not selling a product here that the brand needs to come in quickly. We are selling a philosophy."

Biyani agrees. The objective of this campaign, he points out, was not to sell more of a product or service. "It was a unique initiative to bring back a popular icon that was associated with the country and we believe that we are succeeding in that," he says.

The feedback for the campaign has been tremendous, Biyani adds. "Customers, business partners, stakeholders, agencies and investors have called us and expressed the strong emotion they personally felt after viewing the ad," he insists.