TVS-Srichakra Tyres - Roadsense & Commonsense !

This is probably not the ads I wanted to start 2010 with, but after the hangover of the new year and its effects on me, this was the first one which got my attention..they already have a series of ads in their ROAD SENSE campaign… First I was like “Hey what is it all about?” .. Then I got awestruck with the graphics part.. and then with the Superman/Spiderman/Batman kinda creature coming in I knew the kid in me waking up and jumping into the tip of my beanbag and shouting "hurray" !!!! And when I realised that it is and ad for a tyre which proclaims road sense, frankly I was amused more and I was disappointed a bit as well ….I thought some thing called common sense makes this ad a bit different……

It is not easy to sell tyres.. ……Tyres are awfully dissimilar from the majority of consumer stuff that we sell and buy, so the function or a tyre ad is also totally different. People don't buy tyres every day…( except the political parties who go for tyre burning rallies). Neither do they buy them on a whim , “its boring today ..chalo let us go and buy a tyre”– people only buy tyres when they need them. And many of them buy new tyres after long years of having never thought about them…( stuck in the road with a flat tyre and when the re treading guy refuses any more cosmetic works on the flat tyre)…. This simply means that an average tyre ad doesn’t have a stimulating and direct action function as in saying "Buy me now! I'll never be this gorgeous and inexpensive (at the same time) again!"

The function of tyre ads is much more to do with reminding… keep reminding the buyer so much so that when he buys next time he should have your name in mind…. In that wisdom, continuity, constancy and connectivity is of great significance.



Brands need to be stored in the database of brands a consumer has in their head… the ladder as they call it… for a moment, if we close our eyes and think about brands that top our mind, who all makes the parade? … Coca-Cola? Calvin Klein? Nokia? Harley? Well and may be more but probably not a brand of tyres. Tyres aren't sexy; they don't necessarily make you more stunning and awesome, wealthier or more celebrated and hence people don’t have to keep them in top of mind recall…. That's why the function of communication is so important: Tyres also should walk in to ( and remain) in the customer's inner circle of brands…

This being the key ,something very memorable, what ad guys traditionally called as the "key visual" becomes very imperative for the ad and the brand name to be remembered….All the tyre men- be it the Michelin man ( a classic) , the MRF man (Indian classic) and the like, are shaped on this basic premise… TVS Road sense is a brave attempt in this direction, except that they could have named their man – say the idea of ROAD SENSE is well imparted but the MAN part is missing some where …

Nevertheless it is different as a communication and its stands out.. kudos to TVS- Sri Chakra and Vertebrand, the brand management and consulting firm which is behind the creatives….. Only thing to be seen is how far they remain consistent with the idea …( dont forget the pink rabits of Duracell and Energiser which the companies dumped , the agency forgot it as an outdated icon but the people remembered it.)..How soon they get bored of their own idea, even before the market does..? How soon they will waste the opportunity to have cashed in on the great Indian vaccum of brand icons?

Credits:-
Director : Ravi Udyawar
Production House : Ravi Udyawar
Agency: Vertebrand
Client : Tvs Srichakra Ltd
Music : Clinton Cerejo