Timepass from Vikatan: the regional connect

The Vikatan Group, a renowned Tamil publication group has launched an entertainment magazine called Timepass. The ad tells the story of a son whose hitherto ‘timepass’ activities are no match to what is to be expected from the magazine.

Agency: Paradox69

The background to the magazine launch is interesting: Pravin Menon, national head – ad sales, Vikatan Group, said, “At Vikatan, we have an initiative called Hello Vikatan wherein people can call in on a particular number (tolled) and listen to three minutes capsule on a particular topic. The topic is normally announced in the magazine. From that database, we have taken the feedback from around 6000 people from across the State and tailor-made a product, which is Timepass”.

The commercial reminded me of earlier blog posts on ‘pan India advertising‘ and ‘connecting with the South‘ in advertising. Far too many ads aired for the regional markets, especially South suffer from poor dubbing, poor writing or translation. Worse, some of the idioms and culture codes are so totally irrelevant and alienating for the South markets. On the other hand, we have regional ads which are shoddily produced and lack the slickness and production qualities of national (big budget) ads. Some regional ads, produced locally have all three: relevance, connect and good production values. Timepass one of them?

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