“OPPO has led the ‘Made in India’ smartphone shipments with 24% share in Q2 2022”

OPPO is known for its catchy ads that have strong brand narratives. For its Reno8 Series smartphone, OPPO released an ‘unboxing’ film with Ranbir Kapoor, the brand ambassador of the Reno series.

To unveil the details and features of the Oppo Reno8 Series, the brand created a unique and captivating digital film that engages the audience with its gripping visual scenes. The quirky campaign was conceptualised by Only Much Louder with the objective to drive high awareness among the audience about their latest launch on both the digital and traditional mediums as well as highlight its major features in an innovative and relatable manner for the Indian audience which feeds on Pop Culture and Cinema.

The five-minute film is crafted like a full-blown sci-fi thriller that captures the essence of the ultra-fast OPPO Reno8 5G. Ranbir Kapoor is seen as the main protagonist travelling back in time with his all-new Reno8 and meets his younger self. As the film progresses, Ranbir reveals the standout features of the Reno8 in an intriguing manner as he races against the clock to get back in time.

In conversation with Adgully, Damyant Singh Khanoria, CMO, OPPO India, speaks at length about the advertising strategy for the Reno8 Series, creating differentiation in a highly competitive market, festive season performance, and more.

How did you arrive at the core strategy behind the digital film for the OPPO Reno8 Series?

The OPPO Reno8 packs a cutting-edge punch. With our unboxing, we communicated what makes the OPPO Reno8 an amazing product in an entertaining short film. This is the fourth unboxing film we have done with Ranbir and the format has consistently delivered in terms of engagement and view through rates.

The story line for this film has Ranbir travel back in time with his trusted OPPO Reno8 to stop a supervillain. As the film progresses, Ranbir reveals the sterling features of the Reno8 as he races against the clock. The film garnered over 67 million views and has an average viewing time of 2 minutes and 15 seconds, which is a testament to how much the audiences have loved our creative unboxing of the Reno8.

It’s a long film as far as ad films are concerned. Could you take us through the making of the film? Which agency was involved and what was the brief given?

This isn’t really an ad film in the traditional sense; it’s a long form content piece. We’ve partnered with Only Much Louder (OML), who not only understand the brand, but also understand the nuances of what would make content click with digital audiences.

Our brief was open and simple – write an entertaining film with Ranbir that seamlessly and organically integrates the key features of the OPPO Reno8.

Smartphone is one of the categories where product churn happens at a faster rate than most categories. What steps does OPPO take to create distinct positioning for its various phones and avoid cannibalisation in the market?

Our products represent our attitude of “Inspiration Ahead” by empowering consumers with products that enable and enrich lives. OPPO has invested over $7 billion over the last few years in R&D and this allows us to create industry-leading products that are built to last. Our positioning in the segment is underlined by the engineering of our products.

I’ll share a few examples of how this comes to life. We have, for instance, addressed a pet peeve of consumers: fast-draining charge and overall battery health. Because of OPPO’s research into batteries, our Reno8 Series devices come with 80W SUPERVOOCTM fast-charge. This allows users to charge their Reno8 smartphones up to 50% in just 11 minutes. Additionally, charge safety is baked into our tech with a proprietary 5-layer charge protection system that includes the charging brick and the cable.

To prolong battery life, our Battery Health Engine (BHE) intelligently controls the charging current and voltage while also repairing the electrodes during the charging process to extend battery life to 1600 charging cycles, which is double the industry standard of 800 charge cycles. In real-world use, this means Reno8 Series devices pack in batteries that work in good condition for over four years.

Design is yet another important element in OPPO’s DNA. The unibody design of the Reno8 series – along with our material engineering – easily differentiates it from other devices.

When it comes to our hardware, OPPO has collaborated with partners to develop new camera sensors and our teams have also built a dedicated imaging NPU, the MariSilicon X, from the ground up for better low-light videography.

All of this and more differentiates and enhances the experience consumers get from OPPO products and makes them an absolute joy to own.

How has OPPO ’s performance been during the festive season this year so far? What kind of sales and revenues have you seen so far? What are your expectations in terms of overall revenues and growth in FY2023?

Despite the headwinds on account of macro-economic environment, OPPO has had a solid year. OPPO has led the ‘Made in India’ smartphone shipments with a 22% share in Q1 and a 24% share in Q2 2022. We have also made a strong start to the festive season and expect record sales driven by pent-up demand, particularly in the mid and premium segments. OPPO will continue to invest and expand the mid to high-end market to meet consumer demand. 

FY2023 is going to be challenging, but with our exciting product pipeline, we’re confident of continuing our leadership in smartphone shipments.

How do you, as the Marketing Head, view storytelling in creating a connect between the brand and the consumer?

There are two big changes that have impacted how we think about this.

First, the shift to social platforms as our primary communications platform has had us explore and question how we tell stories. The very nature of social media empowers us to influence our consumers’ decision-making process in a dynamic way. However, social media platforms have also become the avenue for consumers to find fun and entertainment. And so it’s critical for branded content to not feel like advertising.

Second, we realise consumers have evolved dramatically. They have watched a ton of video content during the pandemic, which allows us to push beyond the usual boundaries of content formats, duration, story setting etc. These factors shaped us treating the Reno8 Unboxing as a short film that was used as a mid-funnel booster to build consideration post the product launch.

In the post-pandemic times, how have the brand narratives changed? What is most important for OPPO while communicating with its TG?

We at OPPO continuously seek innovative ways to connect people with our brand, bringing in advanced technologies meaningfully through our products and services. The pandemic has accelerated the pace at which we chose e-commerce as a channel for OPPO. Looking at the future, we are looking at e-commerce in a significantly different way. We’ve launched products exclusive to the online channels and received good feedback for them. As far as the offline channel is concerned, we have a smart and tenacious sector, and OPPO continues to work with them to achieve our common goals.