MUMBAI: Using video for marketing has been a very effective tool for brands are marketers. One can find numerous stats online indicating how video ads are the best in creating conversation around a brand, how they give an exceptional ROI, and how it can make the brand relatable to the consumer.

With the advent of new age platforms, the brands are getting even more creative and versatile with their video ads, playing around with concepts, durations, and the messaging they want to share. One fine example is Diamond Producers Association, which entered the Indian market around two years back and has already experimented with several formats of story-telling, including the small TVCs, 15-20-second-long digital ads, and a recent web series ‘Pyaar Actually’, streaming on Hotstar, to market the one real love—diamonds.

Diamond Producers Association managing director- India Richa Singh, in an exclusive conversation told Indiantelevision.com that as an alliance of the world’s leading diamond mining companies, DPA’s aim is to not sell a product but establish this ‘billion year old unique piece’ as an integral part of all the happy moments of a person’s life. And that is what gives them a larger play field to try out newer concepts, newer stories, and unique style of marketing.

Their marquee campaign, ‘Real Is Rare’, uses this idea of integrating diamond in little happy moments of life to create subtle yet emotional TVCs, which showed diamonds being a partner in celebration of events like a baby being born, or a simple romantic getaway of a married couple in the night.

Speaking about the campaign, Singh said, “When we entered the Indian market, we spoke to a lot of consumers to understand what diamond meant to them. And we realised that most of them see it as a symbol of love. And love to them meant something that is real and rare. And that became the whole genesis of this campaign.”

The campaign was also utilised online in form of 22 short ads ranging between 15 and 20 seconds. There were no dialogues but just emotions playing out on screen with diamonds playing an important part in the story without being on the face.

“We wanted to capture those unsaid and rare moments between people that are real. We created the TVCs and the smaller digital ads keeping in mind the distinct age groups and different mind sets,” Singh further elaborated.

With the same frame of mind to include newer and younger consumers for diamonds, DPA recently launched a web series on Hotstar, ‘Pyaar Actually’. The series comprises four videos with stories that aim to showcase love across generations and among different relationships. It emphasises on sharing joyous and blissful moments celebrated with diamonds, which play a pivotal role in expressing love and affection. The series stars renowned television personalities such as Bhumi Pednekar, Mandira Bedi, Ritesh Deshmukh, Saurabh Shukla, Supriya Pilgaonkar, and Dino Morea.

Talking about the series, Singh once again emphasised that the core idea behind the series is to promote diamond as a part of every happy moment of one’s life, no matter the age group, no matter the story.

Commenting on the initiative, Wavemaker India chief content officer Karthik Nagarajan said, “Real is Rare is one of the finest campaigns released in the recent times and we thought the short film route to take the thread ahead was the most impactful way ahead The journey of bringing this to life with handpicked creators and partners, who helped create this wonderful piece of content was exciting. We are lucky to have a client like DPA who is willing to push the boundaries on digital-first content, which addresses business challenges.”

When any association is experimenting with varied forms of storytelling, another question that arises is how they are balancing between the numerous agencies they are dealing with.

Singh is quite delighted to share that all her three agencies, BDH (thematic), Digitas (digital films), and Wavemaker (Pyaar Actually), are working in great synchronisation to deliver the best of the creatives.

“It’s (managing different agencies) a lot to do with what we do as a brand. We treat our agency teams as extended brand teams. We sit together in a room to brainstorm, and the larger idea behind any campaign is picked together. Then the duties of individual campaigns are handed over to the team that knows the audience best. Regional nuances make a big difference, so does the different medium,” Singh revealed.

She wrapped by saying, “For example, we recently tied up with the Star Group to deliver regional language shorts on their various channels. It is just to get to the right audience.”