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Sravanthi Challapalli

The campaign for a miniature AC that claims to pack a punch uses humour and exaggeration.

IT'S freezing, they're shivering, it needs to be switched off, but the AC can't be detected. The guests' plaintive and frustrated cries of "But where is the AC?" are often met with blank looks - even the hotel staff doesn't know, because it's so small. And despite its size, very powerful.

That's the message Hitachi wants to convey in the TV campaign for its latest launch, the Atom. According to Amit Doshi, Vice-President (Marketing & Service Operations), Hitachi Home & Life Solutions India, the Lambda technology in the Atom allows for a special coil design, which increases the surface area of the heat exchanger resulting in `super-efficient cooling' and helps shrink the size of the air-conditioner by over 30 per cent. While it was launched simultaneously all over the world and touted as the smallest split AC in the domestic market, the company realised it would have to grapple with the impression that a small AC might come across as one that has compromised on power.

Says Rameet Singh Arora, Account Director, Leo Burnett India, "The Atom's size had to be communicated, so also the fact that this AC is by no means less powerful. The heroes of the communication, the small AC and the Lambda technology, both had to be communicated effectively. To demonstrate this, we decided on exaggerating a situation where people feel its power but can't see it."

The need for an innovative clutter-breaking story saw the TVC feature two foreigners almost tearing out their hair in desperation as they, nor the locals, could ever locate where the too-cold AC was, wherever they were - their room in the hotel, the restaurant, the saloon and the boardroom.

The TVCs end with a magnifying glass zooming in on the Atom tucked away discreetly, to go with the `exaggeration' tone of the ad. "The decision to do many short films instead of one full-length film has to do with frequency. Given the relatively small budgets we have, building in frequency and salience is important," says K. V. Sridhar, National Creative Director, Leo Burnett India. "We have five films to sustain interest in the campaign. You know what they are searching for in one ad, and wait to see whether they find it in the next, but each film is complete in its own right. This ensures that the message finds its target even if only one ad is seen," he elaborates.

Other measures the company is taking to popularise the Atom include `Where's the AC?' contests at dealer showrooms wherein the customer is given a big magnifying glass and asked to look for the smallest 1.5 tonne split AC in the showroom. Customers who are able to `find' it are given an instant prize. Also, contests are being held at multiplexes where lucky winners can actually take home the new Hitachi Atom.

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