Picture this: Sir Vivian Richards relaxing in blue waters on a bed float in a pool. In the background, a reggae number can be heard with the lyrics “when you are looking for the best.” He then showcases his machoism by boxing at a punching bag and then enters the scene wearing suits in white and black. And then utters the magical words, “Only Vimal”.
That was the talk of the town at the time. The Only Vimal ad that took India by storm and helped Vimal Suitings taste success.
“During the filming of the advertisement, Richards could just not stop tapping his feet,” reminisced Adrian Mendonza, former junior copywriter at Mudra Communications (now DDB Mudra Group) in conversation with Storyboard18.
Mendonza, who was still in college when he had joined Mudra Communications (in Ahmedabad) in 1984, used to play for a band. A virtuoso, as Mendonza studied about the retired adept West Indies batsmen, he discovered his fondness for reggae music, a genre that first emerged in Jamaica in the 1960s, introduced by the late legendary singer cum musician Bob Marley.
Next step: A reggae jingle was produced for the commercial and the rest is history.
Richards epitomised elegance as he emerged in the striking suits, Richards declared his allegiance to “Only Vimal,” capturing hearts and minds across the nation. This visual spectacle, part of Vimal Suitings’ campaign, resonated deeply when it debuted on television screens in 1987.
History: Vimal and ‘Only Vimal’
The genesis of this iconic campaign can be traced back to the visionary leadership of Dhirubhai Ambani, who introduced Vimal in 1975. Under the stewardship of Anil Ambani, Vimal swiftly ascended to the forefront of India’s textile industry. The brand was named Vimal, after Dhirubhai’s nephew, and son of his elder brother Ramnikbhai, co-founder of Reliance Industries.
The campaign’s concept centred around the ethos of “Only Vimal,” signifying a commitment to innovation and excellence. Vijay Kumar Nagrare, a former account director at Mudra Communications, attested to Vimal’s unrivalled reputation as an industry pioneer.
Before Mudra Communications—that was established in March 1980 by Atchyutani Gopala Krishnamurthy (AG Krishnamurthy) and became the in-house agency of Reliance Industries—took over, the mantle of advertising Vimal was held by Frank Simoes and his agency starting 1976, setting the stage for Vimal’s meteoric rise.
Once Dhirubhai was briefing the agency of Simoes. Incidentally, Simoes was also the agency for Raymond’s. During the briefing, Simoes kept hearing the words ‘Only Vimal’ repeatedly.
The briefing went like this, “Only Vimal has the most modern textile plant in India, Only Vimal has the biggest textile design studio in India, Only Vimal has the most modern processing plant in India” etc etc.
Deriving inspiration from that, Simoes decided to create the campaign with ‘Only Vimal’ theme. “Vimal was truly the most modern textile plant in India, miles ahead of the competition which had very old technology,” highlighted Vijay Kumar Nagrare, former account director at Mudra Communications, who had joined in 1986 (and lasted until 2003).
Nagrare, who worked on the 1987 campaign, revealed to Storyboard18 that Vimal as a brand, which was a major advertiser, was far more famous than Reliance Industries. And, within a short span of its establishment, it stood out as an undisputed leader in the world of fabrics.
Looks of a winner: Conceptualisation of the campaign
India had lifted the big trophy in 1983. Fast forwarding four years later, the World Cup, which was always hosted in England, saw Reliance hosting the ICC World Cup in 1987. Thus, it was called the Reliance World Cup.
Reliance, which was the principal sponsor, wanted to execute a campaign associated with cricket. In order to stand out and gain noticeability on a larger scale, Mudra Communications came up with two ideas, as stated by Nagrare. One was to either feature the entire cricket team, or all the eight captains of the eight teams.
Once the conceptualisation process began and they got on to the costing bit, the agency realised that four captains were more than enough.
Names began to be selected based on their popularity and finally from four, the agency zeroed down to onboarding three cricketers for the campaign. They were Richards, Ravi Shastri and Allan Robert Border, from the West Indies, Indian and Australian cricket team. The fourth person that was being considered was Martin David Crowe, New Zealand cricketer, who was also the captain of the cricket team.
However, things did not fall through and it was also realised that he was not very well-known. Though Kapil Dev was the captain of the Indian cricket team, it was Shastri, who had a more flamboyant and fashionable air. Hence, he was considered over Dev.
Now came the task of roping the well-known personalities for the campaign.
Former captain of the national cricket team, Sunil Manohar Gavaskar used to run a sports management company called Professional Management Group. An agreement was signed and suitable arrangements were made for things to fall in place.
Making of the campaign
The brief given by Krishnamurthy, as Mendonza recalled, was to come up with a campaign that linked cricket and Vimal Suitings. Mendonza conceptualised the tagline ‘Looks of a Winner’, which became a theme line for the campaign.
Subrata Bhowmick, who had joined the agency from Calico Mills in 1984, primarily looked into Vimal sarees and dress materials. On the Vimal Suitings campaign, his role was that of a creative director.
As highlighted by Nagrare, Vimal had a reputation of creating the best advertising where they always went with the best, be it the models, celebrities or production houses.’
Shantanu Sheorey, who was an upcoming advertising film producer during that period, was also adept at still photography. Though he did not have many campaigns to his credit, he had a high reputation for fashion advertising, and thus, he was roped in for the project. There were multiple camera setups where shots were taken from different angles.
A total of four commercials were made. Individual commercials featuring each cricketer, and then a commercial that featured all the three of them together.
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Vimal, which was a lead sponsor of telecasts as well, had a very high budget, and was easily ranked among the top ten advertisers in the country.
Through the campaign, the main aim was to enhance the visibility of the brand and reinforce its position as a leader in the world of Suitings. The sole competitor of Vimal Suitings then was the textile industry company Raymond, which casted a rich appeal. And, Vimal Suitings wanted to cast an impression of being seen as international. Hence, Western music was chosen for the campaign.
What were the challenges?
The era of the 1980s was not heavy on social media. And, contacting the cricketers was no easy feat since communication was a challenge. Now, the question was, ‘How would clothes be stitched with apt measurements?’
As explained by Mendonza, there was a dark room at Mudra Communications which was used for enlarging pictures. Life-size prints of Richards and Border were taken and measurements were deduced from those prints. And, that is how suits were stitched.
Since Richards and Border were arriving in India for the World Cup series, the agency hoped to wrap up the commercials before the commencement of the match. With time being a major constraint, one commercial was shot before the World Cup, and the others were shot while the matches were going on.
Nagrare stated, “Whenever there was a break after four matches, somebody would be free. That is when we would rope him in and shoot.” The commercial featuring Border was shot in Chennai.
After two weeks, Richards had spare time in hand. Hence, he was brought on board where the ad was shot in Jaipur. The ad featuring Shastri was shot in Delhi. Then, the commercial featuring all of them together was also shot in Delhi.
“Since they had limited time in hand, coordination was difficult and the commercials had to be executed in the shortest time span. The ad featuring all of them together was shot in two hours. But, the output turned out to be great,” stated Nagrare.
Vimal Suitings: Media Mix and its reception
Vimal, which was a major advertiser for print during that period, the print ads were stills from the campaign that appeared in leading newspapers and magazines such as Times of India, Hindustan Times etc. There used to be double-spread ads, recalled Nagrare.
Posters, which were a huge thing during that period were also a part of the media mix. They became a part of all the Vimal Suitings showrooms across India.
Since Reliance was the principal sponsor of the World Cup, instadia branding (advertising form used during special sporting events) was used for outdoor activities.
The campaign, which was released on Doordarshan, witnessed terrific success, opened to critical acclaim, and reinforced Vimal’s leadership in the arena of Suitings.
Vimal Suitings: ‘Hot Tracks’ and its ‘sex appeal’
In addition to the iconic campaign, previously, Vimal ventured into innovative programming with “Hot Tracks,” a music show curated by Anil Ambani.
Anil (chairman and managing director, Reliance Group) was doing his masters in business administration at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. As he completed his studies in 1983 and arrived back to India, he shared an idea with Krishnamurthy, revealed Mendonza.
Anil, who was fond of Western music, suggested coming up with a half an hour programme of all the top music videos that would be televised as ‘Hot Tracks’.
Vimal Suitings, which began sponsoring Grammy Awards, the mandate of ‘Hot Tracks’ was assigned to Mendonza by Krishnamurthy.
The former copywriter was given the musical video tapes of the top rock singers. Out of them, he was tasked with selecting about seven to eight songs for every program and writing a script for them.
Very often, Anil would arrive at the agency late in the night and along with Mendonza, they would focus on selecting the music for the next programme.
After the script was written, the recording would take place in Bombay (now Mumbai). Before the song would be played, Mendonza would narrate a short history about the song.
The programme featured musical videos of singers like Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, and Cindy Lauper etc, singers, who made heads turn in the 1980s.
The programme became a smash hit and saw an overpour of fan letters which Mendonza personally used to reply to. Here, he also narrates an anecdote. Doordarshan, which was the only available channel in the television landscape then, had stated that some of the songs aired on Hot Tracks were high on ‘sex appeal’.
“During that period, even a girl seen dancing in a mini skirt was viewed as ‘sexy’ by the Government of India and Doordarshan. We wanted the programme to air at 9pm since it was prime time. But Doordarshan refused. Hence, it used to air at 10:30 pm in the night,” revealed Mendonza.
Hot Tracks, which aired every alternate week, featured only Vimal Suitings commercials during ad breaks, and had a run for more than a year.
As time passed by, Mudra Communications went on to not only handle the affairs of Vimal Suitings, but also of Rasna, Narmada Finance and Cinthol.
On December 9, 2014, Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, set a deal with China’s Ruyi Science and Technology Group, that agreed to transfer their textile business and Vimal brand, where Reliance would still hold 51 percent stake, stated a media report.
With close to a decade having passed since 2014, the 1987 campaign still holds a higher echelon in the arena of Indian advertising. As Mendonza puts it, it is an example of ‘good advertising’, where people still have fond memories associated with it despite the passage of more than three decades.
Since it is the advent of digital, ‘moment marketing’ stands of paramount importance for every ad agency and brand today. However, Mendonza is of the opinion that realisation needs to dawn upon to craft ideas which need not just highlight the ‘moment’, but have the capability of lasting more than the moment.
“Today, the ads that have some sort of memorability, are the ones that actually do well for the brand, and that will sell the brand. And, that is the challenge youngsters should set themselves up for,” signed off Mendonza.
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