The new spate of ads for printers, found mostly in offices, is trying to position the product as a household object too. A year after HP’s ad featuring a schoolboy who prints his homework at home, Epson released its TVC for its Ink Tank printers starring a young schoolgirl (in her school uniform) named Keya.
Keya is seen having a conversation with an unseen man, but instead of speaking, she holds out printouts. When asked if dad knows she is using his printer, she says it’s hers.
Tushad Talati, senior general manager, Brand & Communication, Epson India, explains the reason for focusing on children: “The ad targets value-conscious working professionals and executives with children who have their own printing needs. This includes parents who want their children to be ‘ahead’ and to ‘have the best’. It also connects at a ratio-emotional level, with business owners, entrepreneurs, mid-level executives, consultants, scholars and everyone in the SOHO segment.”
The film was conceived by Bangalore-based OpusCDM, Epson’s brand and Marcom agency for several years, and produced by Mumbai-based Equinox.
The TVC’s trope of using a child also highlight the cost effectiveness of the product as Keya says a printed page costs less than her toffee. Talati explains, “Our research in emerging markets like India showed that Indian consumers are generally worried about high ink costs, and the inconvenience of replacing cartridges frequently. There was also concerns about power consumption and the environmental impact of lasers. Unfortunately, all the printers available earlier in India had these issues. Indian consumers had therefore been limiting their printing requirements to cut costs. We knew we had to address these issues to be truly accepted in the market.”
He adds, “The creative idea came from the fact that people don’t really know how much a printout costs. But people know what a toffee is. The TVC echoes the shift in print costs with the girl and her toffee. The direct takeaway is simply low-cost prints.”
The campaign is an integrated one with print, online and retail renditions. Nagesh Manay, strategy planning, OpusCDM says, “Printers is a challenging category — consumer involvement is low, consumable buying is an issue, and it historically ran on price points. The key in this film is, of course, the toffee that Keya holds. The toffee is the trigger for low cost, and it’s something everyone can relate to.
BW Reporters
The author is special correspondent at Digital Market Asia, is fascinated by the evolving digital media industry, and has focussed on tracking developments in the field in Asia Pacific.
