Innovate to stay ahead. Review on Toyota Innova 'Aamir Khan' commercial

A not so celebrity friendly brand signing up a not so ad friendly celebrity for its product endorsement, now that’s bound to generate some media bytes and that’s precisely what has happened in the case of the brand Toyota Innova and the celebrity Aamir Khan. Only a handful of celebrities like Brad Pitt and Britney Spears have endorsed Innova while Aamir on his part has endorsed very few products like Coke, Titan and Pepsi apart from Innova. The perfectionist that we all know Aamir to be, the adverts had to be good.

This review goes out very especially to all my buddies here on MS who have been continuously asking me to write it, thanks to all you guys for persisting on with it.

Storyboard of the ad is indeed simple yet very catchy, with an actor like Aamir as their brand man they had the choice of versatility much like the roles that he plays in his different movies. I am not going to repeat the sequence of the entire ad as I assume that by now every one of you would have seen the ad many times. The storyboard of the ad tries to establish sync between the brand’s core values and the virtues for which Aamir has been a brand ambassador for many years in his own right. Aamir is a perfectionist, one who innovates with every role that he plays, exhibits versatility and is a wonderful performer; these are some of the values that Innova has sought to build over the years.

Concept of the ad was to make sure that the changing facets and versatility of the Innova was addressed and shown to the audience in a manner which was both entertaining and had a recall and repeat value. With an entertainer like Aamir in the lead role that was easy, the tough part was to make sure to conceive of a storyboard, which did not get too overpowered by the star power of Aamir per se and one, which ensured enough visibility for the product also. As the Aamir of Rang De Basanti says when quizzed by Ajay Singh Rathode of Sarfarosh on where he is going, “Me, I just need to keep moving ahead”, that is indeed the core idea of the Innova as well, a brand that moves ahead of the times and keeps innovating itself for better and improved comfort and value for money to its consumers.

The ending of the ad is where the brand message comes across, Toyota Innova. Desire to stay ahead. Super: Innova, All you desire implying it is a multi faceted car one which is a SUV, MUV and a personal car all rolled into one. Today the consumer is more aware and conscious of what he wants from a product and what his desires are before he chooses to buy a certain product. When we venture out to buy a car we not only desire top of the line comfort and quality assurance we also want a car which can not only move around comfortably in the crowd of the city but one which could easily double up as a family car on a weekend outing or picnic. The car that we drive is an indicator of our inner selves also, with a moderately high-end car like Innova one needed to have his own mental space, where he could feel at ease with himself and his family.

What is indeed catchy about the ad is that almost 90% of it is pure entertainment with Aamir playing different characters in the same space i.e. car and the last 10% is where the brand message comes in. This ad is in ways more then one a continuation of the previous adverts, which concentrated only on the features and technical specifications as such. The stay ahead tagline is synonymous with the product implying that it is ahead of its times with new features and one which is continuously evolving. The ad is made specifically to cater to the upwardly mobile entrepreneurs and successful young executives who always strive for achieving more out of their lives and staying ahead of their peers and competitors ensuring an edge in their professional lives.

Dentsu Communications of Bangalore is handling the advertising of Innova in India.

What adds to the charm of the ad is the fact that Aamir does not endorse many products in the mould of Big B or King Khan, thereby making every product that he promotes special in its own ways. Also since over the years Aamir has been synonymous with perfection, innovation, versatility and performance automatically any product that he laps up is seen to be associated with the same qualities. Now that’s some brand ambassador to have in a market which is looking for faces and figures who can give the product an edge over the rest. Especially with all the other leading faces like Big B, SRK, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sania Mirza endorsing so many stuff it becomes very tough to remember the product, thereby resulting in no movement for the sales of the products as such. Just having a big name does not guarantee the success of a marketing effort for any product, but to have a celebrity used in such a way that he/she becomes a part of the brand recall is the key to success and Aamir for one does ensure that for any product he associates with.

Dentsu is planning another ad with Aamir for Innova, here is hoping it is as good as this one. And as when it does come out I promise to write on that faster then I did for the current ad.

Questions

Which are the celebrity starring ads that you recall and why?

Will the ad actually inspire you to go out and buy the Innova if you had the money for it?

As has been pointed out by bharate aka Sourav I have written only on ads which I recommend, it is time I wrote about some that I do not like, your suggestions for this category are always welcome. Is there any ad that you hate/dislike and would want me to write on?