Mumbai: CEAT Ltd, India’s tyre manufacturer, has launched its new TVC for its four-wheeler SUV tyre range. The TVC features Indian Men’s Cricket team captain Rohit Sharma and two players, Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill - with all three of them featuring in somewhat different roles in the new advert. With the forthcoming cricket season, the three cricketers are all set to spread the message and highlight the importance of having good SUV tyres that can handle speed as well as offer a superior grip.
The new TVC conceptualised by Ogilvy, features an SUV with Rohit Sharma as a busy politician riding in the back seat and sharing nuggets of political wisdom. A bespectacled Shubman Gill, as a typically harried-looking politician’s secretary busy on his cell phone, is quickly alerted to his master’s latest pontification by the chauffeur, played by Shreyas Iyer in the video. As the secretary frantically searches for a pen to record the advice, just at that instant, around a sharp bend, a group of protestors suddenly appear in the middle of the road. The driver has to brake hard and swerve fast to prevent an accident. Once done, he is quick to repeat their master’s advice - the importance of ‘speed and grip’ in the context of both driving as also in politics. This analogy echoes the same attributes as exemplified by CEAT Tyres - and is demonstrated by Shreyas Iyer in adroitly avoiding an accident because of the superior grip of CEAT’s new SUV tyres at high speed. “You should definitely write it down”, reiterates Rohit Sharma to Shubman Gill to reinforce the message. The gospel for success in politics and that of safety on the roads is the same, as the TVC playfully tries to show.
The campaign once again leads back to CEAT’s purpose of ‘Making Mobility Safer & Smarter. Everyday’.
Speaking on the campaign, CEAT Ltd. chief marketing officer Lakshmi Narayanan B said, "It’s the cricket season and CEAT is thrilled to get three of India’s top cricketers - Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill in ‘never seen before’ avatars. CEAT’s wide range of SUV tyres have a unique capability to provide both speed and control while delivering on its promise of safety and comfort. Our range of offerings, which include SportDrive SUV, CrossDrive SUV and SecuraDrive SUV address a wide range of on-road and off-road requirements.”
Ogilvy executive creative director Rohit Dubey added, “In general, creatives are a little varied of sportsmen, when it comes to performing in front of the camera. Scripts are watered down, roles are pruned, lines shortened or a ‘propah’ actor is built in for heavy lifting. But this time around, with CEAT’s conviction, the team got the confidence to go beyond the norm. We had three star players, acting out of their skin (and such a commendable job), in a duration straight-jacket of 20 seconds, segueing into a tyre story, effortlessly. We are quite thrilled with the result, and awaiting all the brand love this one will garner in coming days.”
