Mumbai: Edtech major upGrad has summoned its original brand mascot- the ‘Donkey’ in its latest campaign. The ad film reinvents the 'Donkey' in a fresh avatar, showcasing the anecdotal behind-the-scenes from the corporate world’s appraisal affair. The campaign is now live across the digital platforms of the brand.
Marking the third leg of the brand’s ‘Fast Forward Your Career’ campaign, the film brings together a scenario wherein professionals are seen using a variety of techniques to climb up the corporate ladder, right before the appraisal season- albeit with a humourous twist- concluding with the cheeky assertion “Ass Nahi, Asset Bano!”
“We wanted to bring a fresh flavour of creativity while maintaining the essence of the brand campaign from 2020. Thus, we strategically continued with the donkey route however, giving it a witty spin and creating something laugh-worthy yet extremely relatable,” said The Yellow Shutter founder Gaurav Arora, about the campaign. “upGrad as a brand believes in staying creatively bold while figuring out realistic nuances of TG's life and connecting with them. Being a creative production house ourselves, this resonated with us at The Yellow Shutter. Together, we aimed at keeping the creative edge alive while adding unique angles in the visual space to showcase an everyday story with a twist," he further added.
Conceptualised in partnership with The Yellow Shutter and co-produced with Boathouse Media, the ad film is directed by the filmmaker Shashwat Gandhi and is voiced by the award-winning actor Vijay Raaz in his trademark dry humorous tone. upGrad takes a quirky route to establish the urgency amid working professionals who tend to park upskilling for the future and never get around to pursuing it.
“We wanted to create visuals that are unique, which nobody had seen but everyone could relate to! To mock the 'gadhas' who engage in boot-licking and sycophancy during the appraisal season, we replaced their heads with a quirky 'gadha' filter and made them 'hee-haw' in various moods. The process of making this was equally fun and hilarious as the film itself," stated filmmaker Shashwat Gandhi.
The higher-edtech platform said it recorded another milestone with the Q-o-Q career transitions peaking at 1233 per cent during Q1 FY2021 and 1149 per cent in Q2 FY2021 as compared to the same period the previous year, according to its recently released upGrad Career Report.
“Our latest campaign brings out the hard-hitting reality of the corporate world where professionals often rely on their existing skill-sets to retain a competitive edge,” said upGrad CEO - India Arjun Mohan.
“Now more than ever, we are witnessing the redundancy of dated skills in the face of ever-evolving job requirements, which is making it tough for our workforce to move beyond the average hike bracket of four per cent - six per cent. As we approach the annual appraisal season, this tongue-in-cheek workplace humor will further encourage professionals to pursue new-age, outcome-driven education, and hands-on industry skills with upGrad, for charting out a progressive career path, decisively,” he added.
