Mumbai: redBus has launched its first digital-first brand campaign, with its brand ambassador Allu Arjun, ahead of the festive season. The brand aims to present itself at the heart of intercity bus travel, amid the upcoming festive occasions and holidays.
As part of the campaign, the world’s largest online bus ticketing platform has rolled out two ad-films with Allu in the lead and delivering the message of bringing your loved ones and dreams closer with redBus.
redBus undertook extensive research across 15 cities by reaching out to hundreds of people from different walks of life to identify the emotional and cultural anchors that it needed to create the theme for the campaign.
Directed by Trivikram Srinivas, the brand has unveiled two 45-second and 30-second ad films. The films depict slice-of-life situations like a logistics manager at a storage facility or a mother-daughter duo running a small eatery.
The first film depicts a helpless father who misses out on the joys of being a part of his infant child’s formative months. As he dreads the prospect of chasing a bus to get home, even to see his child take the first steps, a red bus arrives on the scene and pulls up to drop off a very special passenger. The father is awestruck as Allu Arjun alights from the bus and treads a red carpet towards him with a swagger befitting the actor. Allu comforts the anguished father in a breeze with his cinematic charisma, as he speaks of the benefits of booking a bus ticket on redBus, which could help improve the time the man spends with his family.
In a similar construct, the second film comprises a mother-daughter duo managing a small eatery. The hardworking daughter is also very talented, making her mother proud, who now wishes to see her enrol at a college in the city for higher studies. The daughter is apprehensive as her mother would have to manage the weekend rush at the eatery all alone while she spends valuable time in queues to obtain a bus ticket for the trip. The same red bus arrives here too, with the swashbuckling Allu Arjun strolling up to the two to defuse their tension by asserting a list of benefits that come along with booking a bus ticket on redBus. Allu finishes both the films with a powerful tone, exclaiming—"redBus: Apno ko, sapno ko, kareeb laye."
The narrative of the films thus implies redBus’ strong bond with its customers by being culturally relevant to 'Bharat' as well as having a strong connection with individual emotions and aspirations through extremely relatable storytelling.
