MarketingFeaturedSouth Asia

Smartphone brand POCO gets ‘quirky and fun’ in latest brand revamp campaign

Teddy Cambosa - March 17, 2021

New Delhi, India – One of the largest smartphone brands in India, POCO, has unveiled its new brand identity through a series of ‘quirky and fun’ campaigns, created in partnership with advertising agency DDB Mudra.

The campaign revolves around its new brand identity ‘Made of Mad’ wherein the brand story is told with unconventional and edgy visuals. The campaign goes beyond just being a showcase of the specifications of the phone but rather highlights the brand ideology.

The ‘Made of Mad’ campaign sees five advertising spots rolled out, with the primary campaign titled as ‘Legend of Mad’. The main campaign narrates the story of POCO’s mascot ‘Mad’ who aids famous people like Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein solve in a fictional setting the problems they are known to solve, like the theory of gravity or theory of relativity.

Other campaigns are an allude to internet culture, like using ‘when life gives you Madness’ which is derived from the Internet meme ‘when life gives you lemons’, and ‘Unboxing Madness’ which is an allude to the internet phenomenon of unboxing videos online.

As part of its greater appeal to the Gen Z’s and millennials, POCO used unconventional visuals and storytelling devices that could leave a lasting impact, which is a direct opposite of conventional brand storytelling through celebrity endorsements and a focus on product features.

For Raghav Chitra, marketing lead at POCO India, the ‘Made of Mad’ brand identity is a creative rendition of what POCO fans and consumers can expect from a brand that exudes a unique, compelling philosophy behind its products.

POCO-India-DDB-Mudra-Representatives
(Left) Raghav Chitra, Marketing Lead, POCO India; (Right) Vishnu Srivastav, Creative Director, DDB Mudra Group

“It is also a representation of our consumers who are driven by the spirit of ‘mad’: independent, ambitious, eccentric, and irreverent in their pursuit of perfection. Through this initiative, we want to build a belief system that enhances the overall POCO experience that our users find relevant,” Chitra stated.

Meanwhile, Vishnu Srivastav, creative director at DDB Mudra Group said, “The effort was to differentiate POCO clearly in the minds of the youth. Somewhere along the way we heard from consumers that POCO must be ‘mad’ to give such features at such a price. So, we wanted to celebrate this mad spirit in our own way with work that’s both eccentric and entertaining.”

The ‘Made of Mad’ campaign has been rolled out across POCO’s social media channels.