INDIA — The country’s pioneer travel company, Kuoni-SOTC, in an effort to help people realise that they are holiday deprived have recently launched a brand campaign spearheaded by a new TVC.
The campaign communicates a strong statement of looking at Vacation Deprivation as a disease and a holiday as the only medicine to cure it. The strategy and communication designed by TBWA\India for Kuoni-SOTC, helps working individuals realise that there is new illness that is sweeping through the country, and professionals are most vulnerable to it.
The 45-second film captures the Vacation Deprivation phenomenon in a humorous way where employees are seen moving about in their organisation in stooped postures that they’ve acquired because of sitting at their workstations for hours. They are seen completing their tasks in this funny pose. Amongst the stooped postured employees, a man walks in upright and back from his holiday impressing his colleagues. Holiday packages have been replaced by medicine packs with destination names as their labels moving away from a template approach.
The Kuoni-SOTC website will be transformed into an online clinic where destination packages are the cure for Vacation Deprivation. Hand outs that look like Doctors’ prescriptions along with squat x-rays will be handed out on ground, encouraging people to take a holiday. In a category where traditionally, travel packages are sold on the basis of catalogue advertising, Kuoni-SOTC takes a left-of-field approach that breaks clutter with communication that brings a smile to the audience as they realise their unwitting folly. This core idea has been effortlessly translated into outdoor, web and activation renditions. Kuoni-SOTC will also be present on radio with campaign extensions.
Speaking on the TV Commercial launch, Vishal Suri, CEO – Tour Operating, Kuoni India, adds “We at Kuoni-SOTC want the hard working Indians to prioritize their holidays. The research insight is that Indians are vacation deprived and see holidays as a guilty pleasure. We believe that vacation deprivation is the number one cause of dissatisfaction across organizations and relationships. This rapidly advancing phenomenon had to be addressed by Kuoni India, the market leaders who strive to make holidays a priority for every Indian. It is this very thought that forms the basis and foundation of our new TV Commercial, to make people aware of this important behavioural aspect that they are trapped in. The spirit that underlines every offering and innovation is our undying passion for making more and more people see a little bit more of the world.”
Commenting on the campaign, Parixit Bhattacharya, Chief Creative Officer at TBWA\India Group said, “When your brand stands for holidays you attack its biggest enemy first. In this instance, it is the notion that holidays are dispensable. The harshest victims of this fallacy are jobbers who think holidays make them seem insincere at their workplace. The truth is, holidays make us more productive at work. Many researchers conducted in diverse parts of the world have proven this. Kuoni’s Vacation Deprivation campaign will serve as a timely reminder to look at your unused leaves and pack your bags, hopefully, with Kuoni.”
“In a country that is vacation deprived, Kuoni stands for holidays. And our constant endeavour is to turn around the age old Indian belief that work is worship and inculcate the habit of vacations among Indians. The campaign is based on the proven fact that vacations can increase productivity at work and we express that thought in dramatic visual metaphor” says Aejaz Khan, the EVP at TBWA\ India.
