upGrad’s ‘celeb’ Donkey makes a comeback; In a new avatar Donkey predicts future of working professionals
- Conceptualised by The Womb, directed by Prakash Varma, featuring National Award winner Riddhi Sen, the second leg of upGrad’s blockbuster #KaamkiDegree campaign reminds how the ‘right specialisation’ can usher in a ‘bright future’
Conceptualised by The Womb, brought to life by Prakash Varma (Director, Nirvana Films), enacted by the National Award winner Riddhi Sen, and released during the appraisal season, the film reminds the working professionals how the right specialisation can lead to one getting salary increments, as high as 50% - which is the average hike received by learners who got a career transition on upGrad course completion.
Talking about the new release, Arjun Mohan, CEO India, upGrad, said, “The campaign is a wake-up call for the youth and working professionals to invest in real value-adding, outcome-oriented education that can result in employability and career progression.”
On being asked about the comeback of the Donkey, Mohan quips, “We received an overwhelming response in our first leg, as the Donkey, quite literally became a talk of the town. Our clarion call had reached over 270 million last time. While other players are banking on celebrity endorsements, we are shaping our charmer Donkey into the most-clutter breaking celebrity.”
The donkey’s character was built entirely through CGI by Cirqus Studios. It took dedicated efforts of 2 months to work on the textures, nuances, and facial contortions in order to achieve the level of finesse.
“With the success of #KaamKidegree we had to find a message that would showcase value of upGrad specialisations to the fence sitters. Given the success of the donkey as a device we just felt what could be better than getting our donkey deliver this wisdomJ, albeit in its own feisty manner. Embarking on this journey with Varma was reassuring as he is awesome with performances (human or computer-generated donkey’sJ). A charmingly intricate set up, brilliant animation, and the perfect soundtrack have all come together to bring this spectacularly to life,” concluded Navin Talreja, Founding Partner, The Womb.
You can watch upGrad’s latest #KaamKiDegree ad film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHyNGqwNchQ
Agency Credits: The Womb Communications
Founding Partners: Kawal Shoor & Navin Talreja
Creative Team: Suyash Khabya, Arnab Manna & Shreyas Manjrekar
Planning Team: Mittu Torka & Ipshita Khan
Account Management: Richa Shah
Production House Credits: Nirvana Films
Director: Prakash Varma
Executive Producer: Sneha Iype
Producer: Nandini Gowda
Director of Photography: Kartik Vijay
Production Designer: Manisha Khandelwal
DA: Swaroop Kumar
Animation: Cirqus Studios
Music: Nu Alkemi$t