What's your take on: Vodafone UK 'Spotify Premium-Power to music lovers'

_(‘What’s Your Take On’ is a weekly feature, where we ask adland for their take on campaigns from across the globe. We trust you’ll enjoy the read; should you wish to give us your opinion on a commercial, mail us on_**mukta.lad@web18.in**and we’ll holler the moment we have an ad for you!)

It’s Thursday, the day adland’s writers watch a TVC for us and tell us what they thought of it. This week, Vodafone UK’s ad ‘Power to music lovers’ for Spotify Premium services is under the scanner.

Watch the ad here.

We asked Austin D’Souza, creative partner (copy), Rediffusion Y&R; Manaswi Mohata, young creative partner (copy), Creativeland Asia and Alan Rego, associate creative director, Interface Communications what their take on the ad was. Read what they thought, below:

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What is your first impression of the ad? Yay or nay?

Austin: More like, granny for the yay. Kids and old people are always fun when they bust a move and this one hits the spot, with song!

Manaswi: The first time you watch it, the ad brings an immediate smile to your face because this is something all of us have done at some point - sing in public with our earphones on. The smile is a little wider, given that it’s an old lady grooving to ‘Bad Girls’.

Alan: Yay. I have a soft corner for ads that make a point without taking themselves too seriously. Because today’s audience doesn’t take advertising too seriously either.

[caption id=“attachment_84263” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Austin, left; Manaswi, top right; Alan, bottom right[/caption]

What did you like most about the ad?

Austin: We all are singers, deep within. Even if we know our voice doesn’t move mountains but cracks glass instead, it don’t matter, yo! This ad makes you instantly connect with the ancient party animals.

Manaswi: The execution is as simple as the idea. Watching the ad almost feels as if you’ve crossed some elderly person on the street, in a bus stop or sitting on a bench and from a distance, caught a glimpse of them lost in a song sitting odd with their age. And chuckled to yourself.

The use of old people, apart from making the ad endearing, also works to show the simplicity of the app, since its generally old people who struggle with technology.

Alan: I like that the script played on the funny-yet-squirmyfeeling you get when witnessing someone else’scandidmoments. I love that the ad made me feel happy about the human race.

Is there anything you didn’t quite like?

Austin: I think these would have been a lot funnier if they were shorter ads with risqu-er lyrics.

Manaswi: The ad begins well, but it doesn’t take off from there. The idea is established in the first 15-20 seconds. The rest of the seconds could’ve been better used, maybe explored more angles apart from the innuendo ridden songs. On a second watch, the ad becomes slightly repetitive. It would’ve been much more memorable if they had pushed the ending.

Also, the use of old people behaving in young ways is not unprecedented. It’s been used in a Nike football commercial, for McDonald’s, for Gems, for life insurance ads, among others.

Alan: Just the length of the spot. The high points of each character could have been captured in far less time, leading to a crisper film, that begs repeat viewing.

What do you think was the client’s brief on this ad?

Austin: This premium service lets you know the songs better so you can explore new artists, and it’s for free. So go have this bottle of vodka and come back with something that will not only excite you and me, but my mother’s mother as well. And her prehistoric boyfriend too.

Manaswi: To show that Spotify on Vodafone 4G is the simplest way for anyone to discover new music.

Alan: Our 4gisthebest. We have low-frequency 1 gigabit per second peak transfer through theHSPA+protocol. Oh, and Spotify premium comes free.

If you had to create an ad starring your grandparents (or old, happy people), what product would it be for and what would the ad be like?

Austin: A tight close up of granny

Granny: “Kya mast hava hain na?”

As the camera zooms out we see her and grandpa are flying in the sky.

Grandpa: “Correct! Look at the Taj Mahal men. Super beta, nice view haan!”

The camera zooms out further to reveal granny is riding atop superman who is cruising with a smile. Next to them we see grandpa who is on batman with his wings spread wide.

MVO: Skype-enabled flights by Virgin Airlines. Coming soon.

Manaswi: Off the top of my head, it could be an ad set in a classroom full of old people. An old guy is trying to pass a love note in the classroom to an old lady sitting in another corner. He’s trying to direct who the note is getting passed to, without being caught by the teacher.

Finally, the note makes it to the intended lady; she opens it and reads it. Then she smiles and looks up towards him. He smiles back in relief and they share the moment. Then we see, in the shelf under his desk, there are multiple such notes lying, addressed to multiple women. The man underhandedly pushes the notes to make them fall in a trash can.

The ad would end with a message along the lines of ‘Rediscover young love’.

The ad is for a matchmaking website for old people.

Alan: Off the top of my head, I can see my grandparents in a telecom ad about call quality. It would center around their poor hearing and the comic outcomes their of miscommunication. Years of Christmas lunches with them have left me with countless anecdotes to borrow from. And I can imagine a lot of viewers nodding in amused agreement.