For the second edition of Flipkart’s highly successful double sale event, SASA LELE, the brand turned to Kodinhi, a village in India with an unusually high number of twin births, to help amplify its message.
‘Kodinhi Code’ uses humour to lean into the world of ‘double’, turning it into a metaphor for double joy and double offers. The quirky campaign film captures everyday moments where everything comes in pairs, starring real-life Kodinhi twins. To take things further, everything that Kodinhi residents buy during the sale period becomes available at a double offer for everyone across India.
In this interview, LBB’s Sunna Coleman speaks with Vishnu Srivatsav, 22feet’s chief creative experience officer, who shares how the idea developed into a humorous campaign championing both the twin cast and the return of Flipkart’s double sale.
Vishnu> Flipkart SASA LELE is a sale born of a meme and has been created to give India a sale the country has never seen before – a double sale, literally. So, for the second instalment of SASA LELE, it was imperative for us to create an idea just as stark, one that brought alive the heart of the sale and embodied the unmissable quirk Flipkart is known for.
Vishnu> We toyed with all things that had a sense of duality, echoes with deals hidden in them, double billboards, and so many more. Then almost as if the stars aligned, a young writer chanced upon an interesting factoid. There is a town in India with a disproportionately high number of twin births, well above the global average. A place called Kodinhi – a village with double in its DNA.
Vishnu> We had already introduced a sale that claimed to be double, but for its second instalment, we wanted to prove that double was built into the very being of SASA LELE, and for that, it was essential for the sale to be controlled by people who have double built into their DNA. So Kodinhi, a small village in Kerala, became a place that had the power to control double deals for all of India. The village itself became an offer code, so we named the campaign, ‘Kodinhi Code’.
Vishnu> It really took a village to tell the story of this village. Our starting point was the interesting truth about the village and then our team of writers took it to another level with their jokes and visual gags. But magic happened when our talented directors came on board and with authentic casting, quirky locations, rich frames and great storytelling took this from a great concept to enjoyable content. While we are counting blessings, we were blessed to have a client who backed us unequivocally from the moment we said the words, “Boy one, get one”.
Vishnu> The village of Kodinhi was at the very heart of the activation, since it was the town’s purchases that would help control the deals. The brand tracked all purchases coming out of the Kodinhi pincodes and curated deals that kept changing through the day. This happened throughout the sale’s entire duration, and deals were offered on a wide array of categories ranging from jewellery, fashion, kitchen appliances, sneakers, and a whole lot more. In terms of the film specifically, it was shot in multiple locations around Kodinhi and other towns, with the support of the Twins and Kins Association of Kodinhi.
Vishnu> To ensure that our film could be as authentic as possible, we took a very conscious call to cast real twins and not typical actors. So, by the time the shoot came about, 90% of the cast comprised of non-actors. The twins were everyday citizens who had no experience being in front of a camera, so the approach we took while shooting was also very documentary-like, not overproduced, but organic.
Vishnu> A lean crew moved from location to location, guiding the twins to deliver lines in a way that seemed true to their personality. Our priority was to make sure our jokes and the emotions landed, and for that to happen we went with the real-time actions and reactions of the actors instead of getting them to learn lines and deliver them by rote.
Vishnu> The sale is ongoing, but initial numbers coming in from the brand suggest that the opening days have been a massive success. Audience response has been extremely positive. The film stands at over 57 million views on Instagram and 67 million views on YouTube, but the most promising bit for us was seeing the number of shares the video got – nearly 50,000 in total. That to us has been the most validating part because of how conservative people are when it comes to shares, especially when it’s an ad.
Vishnu> Additionally, comments coming in from LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube indicate that the film has been extremely well received, and its organic spread through countless WhatsApp groups of friends and colleagues in no way associated with the work only strengthens our faith in putting out work that is committed to telling the story in the most authentic way possible.
Vishnu> Laughter has no language. A laugh is a laugh is a laugh. So, no matter the language, if your joke embodies that feeling, it will surely get chuckles and smiles. And if that is paired with a fact that’s not widely known, it will land even harder, and that ‘a-ha’ moment becomes even more exaggerated.
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