Blog/Vlog

Behind the scenes – Celebrating Mother’s Day & food ❤️

https://youtube.com/shorts/_ZhKsxL1DT0?feature=share

“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 :)