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Ajita Shashidhar

Ad films shot abroad offer quite a few benefits, such as enhancing brand image, value for money and even makes for leaner budgets, as some ad agencies found out.

WHAT do you think is common to the latest Raymond commercial which shows a man walking into his garden and being welcomed by a litter of golden retriever pups and the young man in the Bajaj Wind commercial, zipping on his bike through lush green countryside? Or for that matter, the Airtel commercial which featured musician A.R. Rahman and a little boy?

If you look at the storyboard or the brands per se, you wouldn't find a common thread. However, what sets these ads apart is that all three of them have been shot in foreign locations: while the Raymond commercial has been shot in Australia, the Bajaj Wind ad has been filmed in Prague and Amsterdam and Airtel in London.

It could be the pastoral Swiss countryside, the Australian outback, the exotic beaches of Mauritius or even the classic Eiffel Tower or Buckingham Palace as the backdrop - Indian advertisers are increasingly looking at foreign locations to shoot their commercials.

"A foreign background gives an international look and the image of the brand instantly goes up," says U. Jairaj Rau, Vice-President and Client Services Director, JWT.

Ad-filmmaker Rajiv Menon, who shot the Raymond commercials, agrees. He says an advertisement has to be visually rich and endearing and should be able to hold the attention of the target audience for a considerable period. "Therefore, shooting in a European countryside, for instance, definitely adds sheen to the commercial and makes it look more sleek."

Storyboard matters

On the other hand, Suguna Swamy, Former Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather, says the decision to shoot a commercial at a foreign location is largely driven by the storyboard. "If the story requires great outdoors, say for a car or bike, you often need uninterrupted views. Or for mobile phones, a particular ambience ... maybe open European countryside or downtown Manhattan at peak hour."

"In overcrowded India you get a lot of information that you don't want or can't control, stuff which misrepresents the story — crowds, hoardings, garbage, clumps of villages, dhabas, other traffic. Besides, just bribing officials to get rid of passers-by makes the local production expensive and tiresome. Overseas you can get formal and fast clearances and you are left in peace to shoot," she adds.

The Bajaj Wind campaign, for instance, says a spokesperson of Lowe Lintas, was shot in Prague and Amsterdam. The locales are wide expanses of countryside/ roads which helped highlight the concept of `wind biking', which signifies the pleasure of experiencing a good pleasurable ride. "The decision to shoot the campaign abroad was purely creative-driven," he says.

Shooting an ad film abroad could also well be cheaper. Says Indu Balachandran, Vice-President & Creative Director, JWT, "We shot a Pond's Magic Talc film in Russia because it was cheaper!" Hard to believe but true. "My script was about a romance in a Goan carnival. But the director (Manav Menon) worked out such a good deal for shooting at a real Moscow fair, complete with jugglers and clowns, it was cheaper than taking a whole crew and cast to Goa," she elaborates.

Moreover, foreign shooting crews, says Balachandran, operate with about a quarter of the number of people hanging around a shoot here in India.

"Shooting at a foreign location could be almost 25 per cent cheaper than shooting in India," says Rau of JWT. "Moreover, the production facilities available there are much superior."

Though Kaushik Tiwari, Branch Manager, Grey Worldwide, Chennai, doesn't agree that it is cheaper to shoot overseas, he says it is definitely better value for money, considering that the production teams, say in Europe, are much more professional and the quality is unquestionable. "It is quality which is the driving force, not cost. The overall ambience, the sound and picture quality and the colours ... everything is much better," he says.

"In pure money terms it may cost a bit more but an enthusiastic Indian director may forego some of his profit to shoot abroad, do the post-production back to back, give you a better film, get the experience himself, get a good film on his show reel. If he wants the film done this way badly enough, he will match the cost of a local shoot or give you a look that is sure to make the film more watchable. Which client can argue with that?" questions Swamy.

Similarly, Sangeetha Shetty, Executive Vice-President, RK Swamy BBDO (the agency which handles the Raymond account), also says that besides the image boost, shooting the Raymond commercial in Australia also proved to be more cost-effective. "In the case of Raymond, we got very good offers and the best selection of the main model, the girl model and the puppies from Australia. The cost was reasonable, and therefore it made for the best price/quality equation. Our decision has been vindicated by the outstanding quality of the final creative work which has received universal acclaim."

"In all Raymond brand TVCs, the focus is on the feeling. The `Feels like heaven' tagline, for instance, indicates the soft feeling of the fabric just as it is while playing with puppies or a little child. These feelings are universal and common to people of all nationalities. So this gave us the opportunity to evaluate options of quality production houses, directors, locales and good-looking models with fine acting ability across the world," adds Shetty.

R. L. Ravichandran, Vice-President (Business Development & Marketing), Bajaj Auto Ltd, has, as a client, experience of having several of his product ads shot abroad. It started with the Bajaj Legend, the four-stroke scooter ad being shot in South Africa. While the Caliber Hoodibabaa ad too was shot in South Africa, a couple of ads for its power bike, Pulsar, were shot in Chile and Malaysia. The recent Wind commercial was shot in Prague while the first ad for its Bajaj Spirit was shot in Australia.

Says he: "As a client, we don't say an ad has to be shot abroad. We discuss a concept with the agency and if it insists the look and feel of an ad can come only from shooting it abroad, it goes ahead. Of course, we set the budgets the agency has to operate within and they deliver." He points to the Caliber ad shot in South Africa, which shows a boy missing his bus to a picnic. His father drops him on the bike to the picnic spot, a lighthouse. The ad also had several shots taken from a helicopter. "The style and overall effect of the ad was mind-blowing, an effect we could not have got in India," he adds.

Do all commercials that need a sophisticated look require to be shot abroad?

Though O&M's Swamy feels production standards abroad are definitely superior, she also says that some of the Indian film production technicians are as good as the best in the world, though they don't have the exposure, the opportunity to work on varied subjects on substantial budgets, the freedom to experiment and therefore the experience of their foreign counterparts. "I have seen a whole lot of fraudulent productions come out of foreign shoots. You look at it and say to yourself - I could have done that at AVM, and better!"

Swamy says that both the client as well as the ad filmmaker should, in the first place, make sure whether the ad actually needs to be shot abroad. "Shooting a garam masala ad for instance, in Switzerland can be quite ridiculous as garam masala and Switzerland have nothing in common."

She also points out that there are upmarket international brands which have tried to portray an India-friendly image in their commercials which again is a wrong strategy. A classic example, she elaborates, is the Nokia commercial, which has featured truckers and cleaners using Nokia handsets. "Nokia, worldwide, is an upmarket product and consumers pay a premium to own a Nokia handset. Showing a trucker using one could well be an insult to its premium users. Brands such as Nokia should shoot their commercials at foreign locations to retain the international flavour of the brand," she adds.

There are also a number of commercials which have been shot in India but have tried to retain an international look. "Some of the most `foreign' looking locales in ad films have actually been shot in Famous Studio, Mumbai! For instance, the Lakme `peaches' and `Chinese silk' films with Yana Gupta, which look like they've been shot in France and China. But yes, a `shot-abroad' look adds sheen to some brands," says Balachandran of JWT.

Mumbai chalo!

To coincide with Business Line's launch in Mumbai, Catalyst presents its readers with an all-new reader-friendly and visually rich look. Apart from our regular complement of articles and columns, to give a wider sweep to our coverage, new sections such as Ad Scan and Mumbai Mosaic have been introduced. Ad Scan discusses the rationale and storyboards of current on-air and print advertising in the media while MM will take a bystander's view of the events that shape the city's exciting advertising industry.

Brand consultant Harish Bijoor shifts gears to kick off a unique new column on sales and distribution which will explore the whole gamut of this essential but little discussed function of a marketing game plan and Mumbai's feisty marketer Jagdeep Kapoor returns to the Catalyst pages. This edition onwards Catalyst gets a sharper focus with a BAM (branding, advertising and marketing), which is what we will expand our coverage on. Read on and mail any bouquets and brickbats that you may have to: bleditor@thehindu.co.in

(Reporter Associate: Vinay Kamath)

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