IE Digital taps into Instagram for engaging storytelling for Wonderchef

Wonderchef, the brand of premium cookware, appliances and kitchen tools founded by celeb chef Sanjeev Kapoor and ex-CEO of Sodexo India Ravi Saxena, has taken an unusual storytelling format for its digital campaign on Instagram. 

Conceptualised by IE Digital, a part of The Indian Express Group, the campaign comprises three short animated films that humourously present Wonderchef’s cookware as lifesaver – be it coming to the aid of a boyfriend out to impress his date with his culinary skills, or a young woman fending off a bullet fired by a road rage bully using her non-stick pan, or a cricketer faced with the daunting task of the winning the match while facing a fearsome bowler. 

The ad films make use of roughly animated sketches and make Wonderchef’s products the hero, saving the day for the users. 

Elaborating on creating the animated films for Wonderchef, Hitesh Bhagia, who heads the creative studio at IE Digital, said, “As a team, we are always on the lookout for new formats of content that can help effectively communicate a story. Animation is something that hasn’t been explored by brands in India much; but if done right, it can really stand out in the content clutter and can also be very potent, because such content has inherent virality in it.” 

Speaking on the brief received from the client, Bhagia said, “We have a strong team of young creative thinkers here at the Indian Express Studio, who helped ideate some animated funny hyperboles that we proactively pitched to a few brands. You also need someone on the brand side who shares a sense of humour and also a willingness to try something new, which we were fortunate to find with Wonderchef. They loved the idea and we got going.” 

Kitchenware, as a category, is extremely competitive and is driven by similar communication highlighting the functional needs. There’s hardly any differentiation in ad formats and customers tend to purchase based on inertia. Addressing this, Arpan Biswas, CMO, Wonderchef Home Appliances, said that the brand wanted to change that and hence, it was decided to invest in a format that made people take notice and get engaged with. 

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Continuing further Biswas, said, “As times are changing for good, cooking is no longer a woman’s job. With these animations, we target men and women alike, whosoever is looking to cook healthy, tasty and with convenience. Our products are innovative, smart and ergonomically designed to help them do so. We intend to make this as a unique property for brand Wonderchef. This will act as a channel of engagement and improve the ‘love quotient’ for the brand among our current and potential users.” 

Encouraged by the response received for the animated ad films, Indian Express Studio will be doing more such innovations for other brands in their portfolio. “Whatever may be the format of storytelling, we are constantly innovating to find ways to create messaging that engages people and seeds positive conversations. After this animated series, we have received some encouraging inbound response from brands, so you will definitely see more work in this space, but that being there, there is also some very exciting work happening in the live-action space that shall see the light of the day very soon,” Bhagia promised. 

Indian Express Studio operates editorially as well as in partnership with brands, producing content that has the ability to emotionally resonate with the audiences over shared values and goals.