Keep Calm and Visit Diu

The mysterious campaign'Ilha de Calma', that left people guessing the location of the place, was actually an ad to promote lesser-known Diu as a tourist destination.

The teaser campaign for 'Ilha de Calma' (Island of Calm in English) created quite a buzz and left people wondering the location of the place. People guessed it to be in Spain, Brazil, Goa and Portugal, among other places, presenting their thoughts on their own Island of Calm.

After a week of teasers across print and digital, Ogilvy & Mather, the agency behind the campaign, released the name of the place it was located in - Diu.

Now, the interesting part is that people know that Daman and Diu are Union Territories of India, but they do not know where it is. Most believe that the two are in one place. In reality, Daman lies on the Gujarat coast, while Diu is an islet in the southern fringe of Kathiawar peninsula. So, the campaign was aimed at creating awareness about the place people knew nothing about.

The distance between Daman and Diu is over 660 km.

The campaign began with four print ads in leading newspapers. There were mesmerising images of the beaches in Diu, but none of them mentioned the name of the place and instead featured a URL www.ilhadecalma.com. The link included a game/contest, wherein visitors had to find out hidden items, and guess which place in the world it was in, in four different steps. The winners of the contest were to be awarded a trip to the island with their partners. To create more buzz and excitement, a short film, which was primarily a montage of the mesmerising images of the island, was released on the online platform, leaving people guessing even more.

A week later, the location of the place was revealed through a TVC, print campaigns and ads across online platforms. The interesting part was that the URL mentioned in the ads was then changed to www.visitdiu.in.

The final TVC showcases a young girl bearing the brunt of hectic work schedules and the stressed city life, who finally finds her calm and peace in Diu. The TVC does not have any dialogues. The music in the first half of the ad represents the hustle and bustle of the city, while the sounds of the ocean in the second half represent the calmness of Diu.

Speaking about the campaign, Sumanto Chattopadhyay, executive creative director, South Asia Ogilvy, says, "The brief was that Diu was quiet and not Goa, and also, it had the Portugeste culture. The idea was to make the place known to people who are looking to take a break. So, we decided to create curiosity among people rather than just informing them about the place."

"We wanted to tell people that Diu is a great holiday spot. It has the essence of Portugese culture in it, which helped us use Ilha de Calma (Portugese translation of Island of Calm). We thought about creating a campaign with the catchline in Portugese and let people guess it. Our primary idea was to create nationwide awareness, " he adds.

It is very unusual for any campaign to drive traffic to its website using print medium and then, once the teaser is done, to change the URL. In this campaign, both happened. "We thought of coming up with mesmerising pictures of the place and release the print campaign because, in India, print and television still rule. Most people related to this idea and visited the website which strengthened our belief. But, finally, our mandate was to spread awareness on Diu. So, when the final campaign was released, the URL of Diu tourism had to be revealed, as people were already asking for it."

The online campaign was designed by OgilvyOne.

The media mix of the campaign included radio, television, OOH, print and digital. On radio, Diu Tourism partnered with Radio Mirchi, Fever FM and Big FM, on television with popular news channels (during election results week), GECs, Star Sports and a roadblock on Star Network's English channels for two days. The campaign ran on digital across social media and travel portals such as Yatra and Makemytrip.

The target audience for the campaign was everyone who wanted to take a break to a calm and serene place. But, the initial target was people in Mumbai, since Diu, which is on the coast of Gujarat, is nearer to Maharashtra.

Diu has immense natural beauty, rich Portuguese heritage, some of the most stunning architecture and attractions that no other state in India has. All these, combined with the fact that it is a small and peaceful island destination, make it unique.

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