Great insight but lacks nuances: Ad watchers on Rapido’s #EkdumAaramSe campaign

Despite having rich insight and dependable ambassadors, Rapido’s latest campaign #EkdumAaramSe doesn’t quite hit the mark when it comes to creativity, experts from the ad world opine. The bike-taxi platform had recently launched the second phase of the campaign, featuring actors Rajkummar Rao (for Hindi & Bengali ads) and Jiiva (for Tamil & Telugu ads) to ‘improve daily commuting and enhance Rapido’s brand awareness in India,’ as per the brand’s press statement.

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Speaking about the campaign, Infectious Advertising Head of Copy Chirag Raheja said, “In my opinion, the insight is extremely rich, and arriving at work on time does make one feel like they’ve just washed their sins off. But that’s where the ball stops rolling for me. I feel the film leaves a lot to be desired - in terms of both, writing and nuances.”

Digital Dogs CEO & Co-founder Ambarish Ray shared a similar thought, “Not with the aim to critique the campaign; but as a viewer, the story did not move me much.  I feel that the ad could not really put across the brand proposition of saving time well. Given the amazing brand ambassadors that Rapido has, the brand could really have gone a step further to make the ad more creative and use their acting prowess to its benefit.”

Grapes Executive Creative Director Priyank Narain adds, “The campaign captures a nice insight, which is people tend to get a sense of superiority when they regularly reach on time or even before others. The benefit of the ‘bike taxis’ which is the ability to zip through traffic and reach your destination faster is coming out quite clearly. However, the exaggeration, which is nice could have been a little funnier.”

The multilingual approach needs polishing

The ad has been released in four different languages – Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, and Telugu. While the attempt to say the same story in different languages is impressive, the industry has contrasting views on how effectively it has been done.

Raheja says, “Rajkumar and Jiva are great faces to have, and they effectively bring the ‘average joe’ personality to life. I like the fact that the film has been recreated in different languages - simply because it’ll create a sense of ‘oneness’ with the different audiences - which is the ultimate ambition of any campaign.”

Narain agrees, “The beauty about capturing a good insight is, that it’s generally universal. Everyone can relate to it. In such cases, it makes sense to have one film, which is adapted across different languages. Also, it always makes more sense for a brand to give one message and have one tonality across markets.”

Here's the TVC:

However, Ray feels that the regional nuances could have been captured better, “It is great that the brand has created different ads for different languages but where they lose out is at catching the regional nuances. For example, I understand the Bengali language and can tell you that no Bengali-speaking person actually talks like how Rajkummar Rao is doing in that film. Yes, the idea is universal but it could have been executed better. Right now, it seems like the lines have been directly translated from Hindi.”