| Title | A GIANT'S STORY |
| Brand | AMBUJA |
| Product / Service | AMBUJA CEMENT |
| Category | B09. Celebrity Endorsement |
| Entrant | PUBLICIS INDIA Mumbai, INDIA |
| Idea Creation | PUBLICIS INDIA Mumbai, INDIA |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Bobby Pawar | Publicis Communications Pvt Ltd. | Chief Creative Officer |
| Jigar Fernandes | Publicis Communications Pvt Ltd. | Executive Creative Director |
We simply told a story about The Great Khali's struggles of living in a home incapable of handling his strength. And how Ambuja Cement came to his rescue.
The execution saw The Great Khali, a world-renowned Indian wrestler and WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) champion taking centre stage. While other Indian brands spent a fortune on roping in international brand ambassadors like Lionel Messi, Khali was not used as just another brand ambassador. Khali’s presence was essential to the idea and his popularity only added to the success of our campaign. Moreover, an India endorsing an Indian brand made a lot of sense.
“Our favourite ad of 2015” – ScoopWhoop “Think superhuman strength makes life easier? Think again.” – Mashable “India’s most viral ad of 2015” – Buzzington Post “The best ad we’ve seen this year” – Economic Times • 1 million (unpaid/organic) views within 3 days • 5 million views to date (including views on FB, Mashable etc) • Though competition spent 3 times more on media, Ambuja Cement occupies top of mind awareness* • Over 18 Million USD in earned media from Reddit, CNN, The Huffington Post, Fox Sports, Mashable, The Independent, USA Today, Business Standard, Economic Times, First Post, NDTV and IBN7
Our film for Ambuja Cement featuring, 'The Great Khali' won hearts everywhere, all thanks to the public. Both online and on ground. Shares, memes, conversations and comments poured in organically from all corners of the world. And all that we had to do, was make it available to the public.
The strategy behind the campaign needed to look at a new narrative to tell the strength story. So to communicate the cement’s giant compressive strength, we simply used a giant. Enter The Great Khali, a world-renowned Indian wrestler and WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) champion. We told a story about this 350 lbs giant’s struggles with living in a home incapable of handling his strength. And how Ambuja Cement came to his rescue. To reach out to customers as well as 2.5 lac cement dealers across India and socio-economic segments we used television as our lead in medium. Next, the film was released on Ambuja Cement’s official YouTube channel. While television helped our ad become popular within the nation, YouTube and social media made the film available to a global audience. Both the brand and the endorser fed off each other's reputation for strength. And the film went on to win many hearts