SHALINI SAKSENA tells you how & why Madhya Pradesh Tourism ads have been winning awards at international platforms
Many of us have seen the Madhya Pradesh Tourism ads. Not just the latest — with the staccato pictures of tourists in must-see places in the State but the earlier one as well — with bobble-heads and kids’ toys and the not to forget ad back in 2010 that revived the art shadowgraphy.
The idea behind the ads, according to the officials at the tourism department, is not to attract tourists by showing them picture perfect, spectacular images which the eyes will never see in real, but to show tourist destinations that look exactly how it would look in reality and “to create the world’s most honest tourism film.”
Talking about the latest ad, Azazul Haque, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy, South, tells you that in the earlier ads, they had never shown the destinations in their real form ever in any of our previous ads. “We have either shown shadows or silhouettes through colours, faces and or toys. But then the client wanted to showcase what the places really looked like. An idea was born — to shoot real people at these locations and put them all together. A tall order and the execution was tough as well. The team shot 40,000 pictures in one month. Selecting and stitching together the final 500-600 pictures took close to three months and creating that catchy audio which matched beautifully with the frames took another month,” Haque says.
Every frame in the film gives the viewer an experience of a tourist visiting these destinations. “Be it the architectural marvels of Gwalior and Mandu, the picturesque beauty of Pachmarhi and Orchha, the sight of the majestic tiger in the National Parks, the breathtaking views of the Dhuadhar falls or the bustling, delectable tastes and sights of the Sarafa Bazar in Indore; this film is an honest expression of what one will truly experience in the State,” Haque tells you.
This campaign bagged a Silver Lion for its editing and a Bronze Lion for its addictive music at Cannes International Festival of Creativity this year in the highly competitive Film Craft category. Not only, this before the Cannes 2018, but the tourism’s toy film has also been internationally awarded a Graphite Pencil at D&AD Awards 2018 in Shoreditch, England.
Deepika Roy Choudhury, Deputy Director (Publicity, Creatives & Digital) tells you that tourism is overwhelmed by the response that audio-visual advertisement (TVC) has generated. “I congratulate the State tourism officials associated with the ad for their wonderful effort and the overall help in producing such a marvel,” Choudhury says.
