The Times of India - "Phirey Esho Kolkata 2"

Wunderman Thompson South Asia

Wunderman Thompson South Asia Mumbai, India

3311

Brand: The Times of India
Country: India

Advertiser: The Times of India

Title	Phirey Esho Kolkata 2
Agency	Wunderman Thompson South Asia
Campaign	Durga Puja
Advertiser	The Times of India
Brand	The Times of India
Date of First Broadcast/Publication	2019 / 10
Business Sector	Newspapers, Magazines, Books
Philosophy	Durga Puja brings not just a Devi or Ma, but a daughter, back to her home and so did the campaign conceptualised by Wunderman Thompson for The Times of India (TOI). The second round of Phire Esho, TOI’s award winning campaign, celebrated the intense Bengali urge to be back home for Pujo, by raising the heart-warming call, “Ma Aaschen. Tumi Kothae?” (Durga Ma is coming home. Where are you?) Especially calling out to every daughter of Kolkata, the real Devis, without whom, Durga Puja remained incomplete. The campaign created by Wunderman Thompson is an evocative image of daughters getting off planes, trains and buses – every regular mode of transport, seemingly regular girls, but with Ma Durga’s ten arms forming behind her (with the arms of co-passengers behind her). Hitting the point home that in every daughter, resides the spitting image of Ma Durga, without whom there can be no Puja. This image and the rally cry of “Ma Aaschen. Tumi Kothae?” ran central to the campaign, activated across print, radio, digital and outdoor. Print advertising rolled out in Kolkata and Outside Kolkata ignited the need to go back home to Kolkata among Bengalis across the country. For those not from Kolkata, it created intrigue as to what the whole deal was about. The ads had influencers and regular folks (Bongs and Non-Bongs alike) sharing on twitter, on blogs on Whatsapp. TOI invited readers to write letters to their daughters on phireyeshokolkata.com. Select letters were featured in TOI and were awarded tickets to come home. This enabled the homecoming of 15-year-old Sammohana, who flew home from Chennai to Kolkata for Durga Puja after 11 long years, her first time ever on an aircraft (image attached). The emotional Phirey Esho film, about the anticipation of a daughter’s homecoming for Pujo, featuring notable dancer Tanusree Shankar,and actors Ritabhari Charaborty and Paoli Dam, drew many a tear and many a repost. The film, directed and edited by Pritha Chakraborty and with a background score by Prabuddha Banerjee, crossed 4.5 million views in less than a week from its launch, reaching more than 15 million people, recorded engagements of over 600000 from women from more than 20 different countries. Notable people from the city, RJ MiR, Anupam Roy, Riddhi Sen, Srijit Mukerji shared the film from their handles. Every Bengali can smell Pujo coming in the air. A print innovation in The Times of India Kolkata on the morning of 24th September brought this Pujo feeling to every home and doorstep, with a newspaper, scented with Sandalwood with a Kashphool (a wild flower from the soil of Bengal whose blossoming signifies the arrival of Maa Durga) inserted within the sheets. The heartstrings got no rest, the newspaper of the day further carried a letter from notable writer Shankar, to his daughter, to come home for the Puja.
Media Type	Digital
Length	148 seconds
Director	Pritha Chakraborty
Editor	Pritha Chakraborty
Dancer	Tanusree Shankar
Actor / Celebrity	Ritabhari Charaborty
Actor / Celebrity	Paoli Dam
Music	Prabuddha Banerjee
VP & Sr Creative Director	Sumonto Ghosh
Creative Director	Anujit Roy
Senior Creative	Binoy Sarkar
SVP Planning	Pinaki Bhattacharya
VP & Executive Planning Director	Shweta Khosla
Account Planning Director	Sulagna Chanda
VP & Exec Business Director	Neetika Aggarwal
VP of Client Services	Bhavana Dogra
Account Manager	Riya Mitra