OYO is now targeting families through its communications to ring in its next phase of growth

• Following the successful response to its recent brand films #AisiReachGaye and ‘Kalki Kal Dekhenge,’ OYO recently launched a new advertisement with Chitrangada Singh and Kunal Kapoor.
• In the ad, Kapoor loses a bet to Chitrangada and plays golf while wearing a ghagra.
• This unique set of ads from OYO has generated a lot of chatter on social media and has sparked a meme fest.
• We speak to Mayur Hola - Head of Global Brand, OYO and Kavikrut, Chief Growth Officer, OYO about the latest campaign, its target audience and timing.

At a time when hospitality brands are observing a silent period, OYO rolled out a multi-film 360-degree campaign with Gul Panag, Kalki Koechlin, Chitrangada Singh and Kunal Kapoor. It was during the peak of COVID that OYO aired its first advertisement during the India VS South Africa ODI match. While it was a risky bet for the brand, especially before its upcoming IPO, to talk about travel without really propagating travelling, OYO’s new campaign has still won many hearts and has also organically trended on Twitter thrice for all of its ads.

Last year in December, OYO saw its busiest month as over a million people booked rooms with the brand for the New Year’s long weekend. We asked OYO whether this campaign was planned for December and delayed due to the sudden surge in cases, Kavikrut, Chief Growth Officer, OYO said no, it felt like the right time now. Explaining why OYO chose January to roll their campaign out, he said, “December was one of the highest travel peaks for India and yet, that's not when you saw this campaign. You're seeing this campaign at a time when you're stuck at home, and you're thinking about being out there either for travel, leisure or for business. You're thinking about where else I could be? And it's at that point of time, we want there to be a recall and memory of OYO in their minds and for what could it be? That's when you zoom back into the features and say, it could be anywhere which is nearby, Assi Reach Gaye ad is about that; you don't need to reach anywhere, you could just stay here. We felt like this is a good time to just put them out there. People will love the films irrespective of the time we are in.”

As the whole country relives 2020 and people are stuck at home yet again, they have the space and time to watch new content and absorb it.

Mayur Hola - Head of Global Brand, OYO added that any consideration campaign needs to start a little bit ahead of when you want the customer to act, particularly when you decide that the consideration you seek is from a newer audience. “So our intent to do it now is to be a little ahead of the game and not just advertise when things open up and people have already made plans. And a lot of audiences today react spontaneously. Consideration takes a little more time, hence, the need for the campaign that we planned. I don't think anything else plays a role at all in our choice of timing. This is simply consideration and perception that we would focus on and are giving it the time it needs to bed in,” explained Hola.

OYO’s first advertisement of 2022, ‘Assi reach gaye’ featured Gul Panag and an adorable kid who stole all the attention. The film showcases how a kid, who hasn’t had a chance to travel due to the pandemic, would react on a long road trip. It takes you through many stages of his journey, starting with the child enjoying the views of the scenic hills, turning to boredom and finally to restlessness after spending hours in the car. Hereon, the film captures the many quirks of a now impatient 4-year-old child, who incessantly nudges his mom from the backseat and asks, “Assi reach gaye?” With over 4000 tweets, this ad trended on number 2 on Twitter.

It is for the first time that the relatively young hospitality brand OYO is targeting Indian families with a huge media splash. Hola mentioned that OYO has seen some very unique use cases, which inspired its latest campaign to some extent, and realised that while the brand has a young perception in the market, it is used by audiences across age groups.

Sharing a few examples, he said, “We live in small homes across the country and people sometimes just don't have the space to fight. So on the surface, you have a couple checking into a room but really they're going in there to squabble because they can’t scream at each other at home. I know that feeling. We have unique use cases of people taking a pitstop, studying, spending the night after a party, which is a big one for us; people just found it safer to check into a room nearby wherever they've been partying and not take a long ride by cab back home. So, we're trying to talk about the various audiences who own us already, and reach out to even further audiences, in terms of families and so on. In one way, it is reflective of usage already and in another way, we want to add more to that pool.”

Following the successful response to its brand films ‘Assi Reach Gaye’ and ‘Kalki Kal Dekhenge,’ OYO released a third ad film last week featuring Chitrangada Singh and Kunal Kapoor. With this film, OYO highlights its app’s ‘search the view’ feature which enables people to discover stays with a view they would like. In the ad, Kunal loses a bet to Chitrangada and plays golf while wearing a ghagra. Within a few hours, this film also trended on Twitter on number three with more than 5,500 tweets.

The idea behind these ads, Hola said, is to put OYO’s app at the heart of everything. It promotes different features that the app offers. It will be seen in multiple channels across GEC, News, Infotainment and the Kids genre. It will also promote the first film across its owned PR channels.