Big Bazaar India promotes the habit of saving with their latest film by DDB Mudra West

Big Bazaar- India’s leading hypermarket chain became the first brand to initiate the concept of a sale around Indian Independence Day (August 15) – the ‘Maha Bachat’ (great saving) sale. Over the years, this sale has become a calendar event for Big Bazaar loyalists.

Witnessing the growing interest of consumers for sales, several other retailers, malls, e-commerce players and unorganized markets have come up with various such stints to grab audience attention and score a market share. This has obviously caused a lot of brand noise and this year, Big Bazaar intended to not only rise above this clutter with its breakthrough offers but also create valuable messaging for its consumers, reminding them of the original thought behind the initiation of the ‘sales’ trend- savings. Marking Maha Bachat Sale’s eleventh year, the brand intended to celebrate its heritage and enormity and own this month of sales again, in its own Maha (great) way.

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After sieving through the usual tropes around sale and discounts, it was realized that the hook of all this rests on the Indian virtue of ‘bachat’ or savings. For the majority of Indians, the deeply ingrained ‘bachat ki aadat’ (habit of saving) reflects in their everyday habits – from keeping money aside in rice containers to covering far distances to buy something for a better price; Indians yearn to save in every aspect of life. Big Bazaar wanted to celebrate this bachat ki aadat’ – a habit that has been trickling down from generation to generation and has been instilled in Indians since childhood.

Keeping this idea in mind, DDB Mudra West crafted a multimedia campaign which spoke to the audience on all levels. The leading partner brands came together for a pre-cursor print campaign. This series of print ads under ‘Hum Taiyaar Hain’ (We are ready) tagline announced the brand’s preparation for the Maha Bachat sale creating a platform for further communication.

Further, the ground was opened for a 40 sec ad film which was set on a rainy day in a typical household with a spacious courtyard in the centre. The film opens with a young boy in the courtyard, excited to see rainwater dripping from all across the sloping roof. The background music reflects the innocence and the lyrics personifies raindrops as a treasure falling from the sky. The kid rushes to the kitchen and comes out with all forms of vessels such as bowls, pans and jars and places those around the courtyard. Each vessels fill up with fresh rainwater and eventually, there are almost no empty vessels to spare. The kid’s attention then goes to a trickle which was still going waste. So, the kid rushes to the kitchen, empties the recent grocery shopping from a Big Bazaar bag and brings it back to the courtyard. He stands there, smiling under the last of the trickle with the open Big Bazaar bag in his hand. Just then his mother comes in, calling for him. Delighted with his work, the kid tells his mother to come and see how much he’s saved. The closing shot shows the mother and her son saving water together and draws a beautiful analogy with savings that happen during the Maha Bachat Sale at Big Bazaar.

This film has also been supported by 10- second announcement films, product films, outdoor and radio activations. The campaign has gone live since August 05, 2016.

Sadashiv Nayak, CEO, Big Bazaar said, “As Indians the concept of saving is inherent in our culture. Infact the inception of Big Bazaar seeded from the idea of savings, we as a brand believe in providing maximum value of hard earned money of our customers. This time, Big Bazaar is coming together with over 300 leading food & home products brands to offer Maha savings on this Maha Bachat.”

Sonal Dabral, Chairman and CCO, DDB Mudra Group added, “Maha Bachat is a sale that needs no introduction. It is the biggest festival of savings in retail. So instead of mindlessly making a noise about the sale as many brands do during these months, we decided to make a larger point about savings itself. That’s where the idea of showing the kid innocently collecting rainwater, to underline the message of good habit of saving, came about. It’s a powerful idea that’s not only topical to the season but one that beautifully presents Maha Bachat as well.”

Credits –

Director: Piplu Khan