“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 :)