When a chain of hair salons in India set about to reach the young people of Mumbai, it figured a good way was in malls, which are now sprawling throughout the country. But how?
That was the question Juice Salon put to its agency, Rediffusion DY&R. The problem was clutter. How does one cut through all the events and promotions that are so common in malls these days?
Here’s what Rediffusion came up with: a set of images of a man’s face on the up steps of an escalator, each image with a different hair treatment. Seen from a distance, the sequence of the images and the movement of the escalator make it appear that his hair is in motion.
“The escalator provided the perfect medium to advertise their hairstyle portfolio,” says Siddhesh Khatavkar, art director at Rediffusion DY&R, who created the ad along with senior copywriter Mayuresh Wagle. “It was almost like a book in which the pages keep turning automatically demonstrating the various hairstyles at one glance.”
The display helped the salon reach its goal of promoting the different hairstyles it offers, and it did so in a buzz-worthy manner.
The ad ran for a week back in December, and in the week that followed the chain saw a 400 percent increase in walk-in business, according to Khatavkar.
But it’s not something that would work in the U.S., clever as it is, because of this country’s tough regulations that make advertising on escalators all but impossible.
