Game for efficient delivery
A new ad campaign by DHL India conveys the message that it respects detail and precision the way sportsmen would
Sporting excellence is a tempting analogy for any advertiser to convince audiences of its efficiency. And team sports are particularly apt, as respect for details and team work are key to the success of any organisation. DHL Express is doing the same with its new advertising campaign that comprises three television commercials (TVCs) that seek to emphasise the logistics company’s belief — “great is in the detail”. The campaign is part of the ongoing season of the Indian Super League where DHL India is the official logistics partner.
In one ad, while watching a game of football a youth lying on a couch philosophically asks a friend perched on the arm of the furniture, “Football nahi hoti toh hamara kya hota?” (What would have happened to us without football?) She responds, “We’d be super bored.” A third friend has the last word, “Agar football nahi hota toh basketball kya hota?” (If there were no football, what would have happened to basketball?) The ad closes with a trivia on screen — the very first game of basketball was played with a football.
In the second ad, one of the friends argues that popcorn should be the official football food because it originated in Mexico which has hosted two editions of the FIFA World Cup. A girl asks, why not pizza, as Italy too has hosted two world cups. The third friend emphatically says it should be chow mein instead. The nugget here is the little-known fact that football originated in China around 476 BC.
The third in the series is a longish theme ad — close to two minutes as compared to just over 20 seconds each for the other two — with a montage of images showing people and places from around the world and across terrain as a voice-over in the first person representing the company proclaims DHL as the “champion of progress”.
R S Subramanian, senior vice-president and country manager of DHL Express India, says, “Be it the complex global business logistics which DHL Express runs, or be it a sports tournament like ISL or just a match, success is based on attention to detail. So, if you want to be great in anything the kind of detail orientation you have and the planning which goes into it is what brings everything together.”
The central idea behind this ad campaign is the belief in greatness being found in detail. Subramanian points out the company found a parallel between a well-oiled football team and DHL, a company that spans 220 countries and has 60,000 customers who transact daily business with it churning out a million shipments a month. For a company associated with soccer events including partnerships with top-ranked clubs like Manchester United and Bayern Munich, a game with universal appeal like football makes sense. Subramanian says that with its growing viewership of 450-500 million in this edition, an event like ISL is an ideal platform to reach out to a mass audience.
The TVCs were conceptualised by Williams Lea Tag. The brief to the agency — was to make them clutter-breaking with subtle humour and ferret out trivia which even the most die-hard fans may not know about football to create a “wow” effect. Connecting people and improving lives is a common theme in all DHL ads including this campaign, Subramanian says.
The logistics market in India is estimated to be worth ~20,346 crore as of 2015, and is projected to reach ~20,702.55 billion by 2020. Although DHL is a leading player, when asked about its perception among customers Subramanian says it isn’t a “premium player” but one that provides high-quality service. The company’s user base cuts across geographies in India, with 70 per cent from the small and medium enterprises segment. The challenge for the company is to tap into potential customers, who could be the average person on the street. Adds Subramanian, “The universality in terms of services which we can offer to a wide range of people means we need to address all. And a platform like ISL offers that opportunity.”