Maruti Suzuki Corporate commercial ad… India comes home in a Maruti Suzuki… Makes an impact!

Maruti has caught the fancy of people across India with their new corporate commercial. There is a very warm feel about it, theme, the execution has all been brilliant. This doesn’t mean that the ad is without any defects, however, those can be forgiven!

The theme of the ad- India comes home in a Maruti Suzuki… What more could you expect? As per last month’s sales figures, Maruti holds more than 45% of the total market share. More than 45% of the cars sold in India are Maruti Suzuki’s. True then that India does come home in a Maruti Suzuki.

The official release from Maruti on the ad-

Maruti Silver Hue-

A black Grand Vitara pulls up in front of the airport arrival area. A young girl excitedly gets out of the car to greet her father. She hugs him tightly and opens the back door to put his luggage in. Meanwhile, her father runs to get behind the wheel and asks his daughter to sit in the passenger seat. The girl exasperatedly gives in, placing the key in his hand and they drive back home.

The scene shifts to a young couple in a red Wagon R driving along the Kerala backwaters to meet their parents. The parents come out of a temple procession and receive the couple and their newborn. Elsewhere, an angry father waits for his daughter to come home from a late night out. The girl is dropped home by her boyfriend in a red Swift. Infuriated, the parents wrangle with their daughter. Before she can respond, her companion comes out of the car and introduces himself to the girl’s parents and is welcomed into their home.

Next, an army officer gets ready to leave his base to go home. He bids his peers goodbye and sets off in a Gypsy.

From the mountainous terrain, the scene shifts to a rainy afternoon. A Maruti Omni pulls up before a house and two school kids jump from the van and into their mother’s arms.

Following that, a young lad waits for a lift on the highway. Just as he kicks the ground in frustration, he spots a red Maruti Swift cruising on the highway. He smiles to himself and pulls out a placard that reads “Need to be home for Diwali”. The driver of the car stops and the youngster hops in. The film closes with a shot of the car driving away and the voice over says: India comes home in a Maruti Suzuki.

All this while, Maruti’s catchy new signature tune plays in the background. This signature tune will now be a part of all Maruti Suzuki commercials. The new Maruti brand film is a celebration of the carmaker’s 25th year – it was in 1983 that the company launched its first car, Maruti 800, revolutionising the Indian car market. It took nearly a month to shoot the 60-second commercial, which was shot at multiple locations across Bangalore, Mysore, Kerala and Rajasthan.

Shot by ace cinematographer Rajiv Menon of Bombay and Guru fame, the ad is a product of Capital Advertising. Incidentally, Capital Advertising has been associated with Maruti Suzuki for nearly a decade now and handles the company’s popular Swift brand as well as the corporate brand. The brief given to the agency was to highlight the company’s leadership position and to bring out the brand’s ubiquitousness. “When we got the brief, we had several options before us, but this was the most overpowering and all-pervasive,” recalls Capital Advertising’s founder director H V Subramaniam.

Shooting the ad across the length and breadth of the nation with different settings was a no-brainer. “The relationship Maruti has with its 6.5 million customers in every nook and corner of the nation goes beyond the physical, it has a place in each of their hearts. And this ad is a tribute to that bond,” adds Subramaniam. In that sense, the new ad is reminiscent of Maruti’s recent commercial that aimed to emphasise that Maruti Service Centres are present in every region of the country. But, of course, the contexts are poles apart. “Usually campaigns focus on offerings, but we now had to talk about the experience. The car in this context is not just about transporting people from place A to B. It had to stress an emotional connect. And it’s this emotional connect that is totally unique to Maruti,” says Maruti Suzuki’s executive officer (marketing and sales) Mayank Pareek.

Equally important is the new signature tune, the first ever for Maruti. “The idea behind the signature tune is to have a common linkage across Maruti offerings, such that one should hear it and immediately associate Maruti with it,” adds Pareek. Noted lyricist Gulzar has penned the corporate signature tune, which has been composed by musician Ram Sampath. Another noteworthy aspect of the commercial is the new slogan, “India comes home in a Maruti”, which highlights the company’s leadership position.

“Maruti has a number of achievements, including a market share of over 50 per cent, not to mention the fact that over the last 8 years we have consistently been rated first in J D Power’s customer satisfaction survey. This despite our large customer base,” says Pareek. Naturally, given such a healthy market share the slogan fits like a glove.

The finished television commercial broke in the first week of June in Hindi and other regional languages across all major television channels. Apart from this, there will also be point-of-sale, radio and mobile promotions.