FCB Ulka conceptualises the new campaign for HeroISL

Hero as a brand stands for the youthful fervour and frenzy associated with youth today. With this new campaign, conceptualised by FCBUlka, Hero aims to strike a chord with football fans and it harp on the unbiased unity which the sport brings to the table. Football is a game which charms everyone all over the world. Regardless of class, creed and gender, the love for the game unites all. Colloquially the game is considered to be “a boy thing” but an avid follower of the world’s favourite sport would agree that even girls pretty much love the game.

The idea was to break the notion that football is a boy’s game and to get girls to live the spirit of football. In order to set the idea in motion and establish connect with the youth, Hero Maestro and Hero Pleasure have been specifically highlighted. The quintessential boyish charm associated with Maestro and the norm-breaking, free-bird attitude of Pleasure have been brought to life to convey the message that football belongs to all. We have Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt depicting the two opposite attitudes. 

Set to a fast paced, peppy track, the commercial opens with Ranbir Kapoor and his gang of boys playing around with a football along with their Maestro scooters. The momentum of the game leads them to a place where they are confronted by Alia and her gang of girls with their Pleasure scooters. Here, the commercial breaks the notion that football is not just a boy’s game through a challenge – “let’s play”, thrown by Alia to Ranbir’s gang and they complement the challenge with some freestyle football tricks of their own. The boys state that football is “a boy thing” while Alia’s challenge delves into the saying “Why should boys have all the fun?” – thus resulting in making football bigger as a game than it’s actually perceived to be. The unblemished rivalry between the two sexes blends seamlessly with the football fever in this commercial.      

As the title sponsor of ISL, Hero aims to use the commercial to voice its involvement with the game and use this occasion to bring youth together to cheer for the game and break the notions of a stronger and weaker sex. Sanjay Sharma, Group Creative Director, FCB-Ulka Delhi, said, “We wanted to use football as an enabler of youth unification with a very lighthearted and playful approach, using brand Hero as a driver for this unification.”

Sharad Mathur, Vice President, FCB-Ulka, Delhi, said, “The aim was to get the most out of Maestro’s & Pleasure’s perceptions and use it effectively to drive the youth towards this mega football event. This fast-paced, action packed commercial speaks the youth’s language and successfully brings the opposite poles together”.