“What are the pain points, micro-moments, and tiniest of frustrations Indians have with cars?” Identifying the first 10-15 was easy, but it became uphill and against the wind to find deeper truths. It was in the deep dive research and the journey from 15 to 100 micro moments where incredible insights were hidden. That’s what I loved about brainstorming and jam sessions—we weren’t just figuring out ideas; we were getting to the tiny truths. Ideas just happened when there were enough dots to connect.
Had a lot of fun talking about one particular pain point, and when we enjoyed the process, the audience would too. We just needed to keep the authenticity from concept to execution. Everything in this video was non-fiction, driven by a meticulous process. Ideation through the IUCTC framework (Inspirational, Useful, Celebrate their life, Topical, Change the world) made the content relatable and useful for learning pronunciations, and execution was driven by detailed bullet point lists. From selecting the final list of car names to choreographing actions for each name and ensuring the flow of shots kept viewers engaged—every six seconds.
The content the team enjoyed creating the most worked the best since it didn’t feel like work but play. With the incredible skills and talent at Cars24, the team was driven, and everything was executed 100% in-house, even the acting, which was amazing. The results were heartwarming.. over 7000 comments, about the love for cars and one shared pain point :)
Author: Aashish
My purpose is to make the World a happier place, share stories & be the change. Content Marketing is what I do. Creating compelling, shareworthy videos :)
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Behind the scenes – Celebrating Mother’s Day & food ❤️
“Tomorrow’s Mother’s Day!!” panicked the marketing team at 7 PM! Working remotely, faces huddled on the Zoom screen—the team and production agency at 24 Mantra Organic, specialists in organic foods. This was during the lockdown years; I was helping a friend and their team. Everyone looked a bit lost, the pressures of marketing teams on a deadline, only this time without a direction. All eyes turned to me as if I had a magic pill. But I had none—my mind was blank, zero ideas.
Then I pushed forward with the only method I knew. “Alright, everyone, next 5 minutes, just jam about all micro-moments and memories about food and moms, fast jam, talking like an auctioneer… just bringing all minds into one whole mind, rapid fire one after another. It was chaotic, voices overlapping, ideas clashing until… Food food food… mothers moms maa… wait, what all foods have ‘maa/माँ’ in their name?” Rajमाँ, upमाँ, माँcaroni… and suddenly, it clicked. Once you have three, you know it can be a long list. Over the next 15 minutes, we shaped a whole list, then shortened and curated to pick the best. With no time to spare, decided to keep it minimal using wordplay, ensuring ‘maa/माँ’ was highlighted in a different color.
We organized the list in the order they would appear on screen, as described in the book, and the screenplay started coming to life. We hunted on stock music websites for that perfect tune, one that matched the feeling and cut every shot on a beat or audio spike, so it all flowed like poetry. Reviews on screen sharing are tiresome, and maintaining creativity on Zoom calls was the weirdest, most disjointed experience, yet somehow it worked.
After reviewing it multiple times until it felt just right, hit the brakes… ‘Okay, done!’ the team then made multiple versions and finalized the release plan. By 9 PM, the video was ready. Phew! Released on Mother’s Day, it received heartwarming responses, including many comments where the audience started sharing more words with ‘maa’ in them, sparking conversations apt for a food brand on Mother’s Day.
The team works their best when work doesn’t feel like work, but play… like jamming together, like playing music together. Those two hours were not just about hard work; they were full of teamwork, spontaneous creativity, heart, and a sense of accomplishing something special together. The whole game is about obsession and a deep dive until we get to that tiny truth we all share… making it an honest, authentic experience :)
Behind the scenes – My favourite mothers day video :)
“Where did you shoot it, who’s the art director?” exclaimed my friend over the phone, who works in an agency, upon seeing the video. “It’s a photo, mate! Look closely.” There was a silence for 5 seconds. The entire video was nothing but Photoshop magic, zero production budget.
But before we got there, the journey started with no ideas in sight and mother’s day inching closer by the day. As the process went on, ideas, in our experience, were always outcomes, and not forced through. The more we jammed, researched and deep-dived into the micro-moments around moms and travel (ixigo being a travel app), the more dots we had on the table, more chances of something connecting. We also worked on a parallel track to go through as many mother-related videos, memes, movie scenes and ads.. to get inspiration about how to execute. The more obsessed we got about diving deep into these parallel tracks, the more chances of dots connecting…
Huddled at a screen for videos from around the world, the team exchanged that look when a spark hits you..”What if we do this to that micro moment from the brainstorm!” Boom. Now that the path was clear, we ran with it, hours into the night. The team did an amazing job, little subtleties, made a list of steps and how window lights play, and reviewed that many times and then, as what we did earlier, went home to sleep over it.
The next day, the most natural flow, the closest to the truth, just emerged. The whole video must flow like poetry, just simple, minimal, and one little micro-moment, and end with a line that captured the whole thing. We created it in English and Hindi (even toyed with regional languages, since videos and motion pictures need no language; they must make sense visually first, the storytelling) and when the prototype was ready, we sent it out to our selected people across the teams and family members for feedback. The feedback is not directly implemented, even if it’s from the boss; it must make sense with the flow, from an audience’s perspective, watching on phones.
The whole purpose is to create for our audience, not anyone else, because when they approve, comment, tag, and share, there’s no high like that and it’s a win-win. And Boy, it took off with a heart. Still one of my fondest memories working with the team, the brainstorm, the jam, the look in our eyes when we knew what and how to make it, and the results, which were heartwarming.
The whole game is about obsession and deep dive, into the lives of our audience, their pain points, micro moments.. till we get to that tiny truth.. we all share.. making it an honest authentic experience :)